Chinese Diet Tea
Does Chinese Diet Tea Actually Help You Lose Weight?
In our eternal quest for the magic elixir that will help us shed those pounds, yet another stop is the Chinese diet tea.
The Secret Wisdom of the Orient
We love the idea of any exotic concoction, because it let’s us rest comfortably in the notion that it is a tried and true method. In addition, we all can all think of the old clichés about “ancient Chinese wisdom” that advertisers have so overused they now become nothing more than punch lines in comedy sketches.
And, of course, it must be exotic in order for us to believe it works because that is the only way to explain why not everyone uses it to get thin. But when it is an ancient Chinese secret—yet another cliché—we are more likely to buy it despite what reason might tell us.
The Secret Ingredient: Caffeine
Chinese diet tea often claims to have special properties that will make the pounds disappear the way Mao made Confucius disappear. But, of course, just like Confucius, they never really go away. They just pop up again later.
Well, what is the secret ingredient of Chinese diet tea, grasshopper? Caffeine. Yes, that’s right. The same stuff you get in your cup of java every morning is the secret ingredient. In other words, Chinese diet tea offers you the dietary equivalent of a couple of cups of coffee.
Caffeine, of course, like cigarettes for that matter, does have some slimming effects. If you drink enough caffeine, you will raise your body’s metabolism and get yourself all wound up even when you’re sitting around doing nothing. This does have some fat burning potential for people who don’t usually drink a lot of cola or coffee usually. However, given the amount of caffeine most of us drink just at breakfast, it is unclear whether more caffeine is likely to give us much more benefit.
All of this is not to mention that caffeine has several harmful side effects that may worsen our overall health like insomnia, nervousness, increased anxiety, increased heart rate etc. These conditions over time can lead to worse health and in many cases to weight gain along with depressed spirits.
The Golden Throne
Another variety of Chinese diet tea turns out to just be a diuretic. These teas are even less effective than the first kind of Chinese diet tea to get you to lose weight. These teas claim that they will purge your system so that you will be healthier and indeed they will cause you to purge, but the claim that this makes you healthier is not only dubious but goes against the evidence from scientific analysis.
In fact, taking such teas has been shown to increase your chances of intestinal discomfort and pain and to create other problems with digestion. This is especially true if you take such teas for prolonged periods.
The Ancient Wisdom of Exercise
Many of these teas further claim they work best when combined with exercise. They will make a claim like taking “brand x tea” combined with exercise and a balanced diet will help you lose weight.
The truth is, however, that anything combined with exercise and a balanced diet will help you to lose weight. I could claim that watching TV, combined with exercise and three squares will help you to lose weight—and it will. Why? Because exercise, by itself, helps you to lose weight. In fact, not only does it help you to lose weight, it is likely to be the main cause of weight loss in many diets.
In fact, having bad diarrhea and insomnia may actually hinder your ability to exercise properly; so, in some ways it could be said the exercise has to fight off the Chinese diet tea to achieve its effect.
Put simply, Chinese diet tea is yet another dead end in the maze of hoped for dietary solutions to obesity.