Green Tea Extract Promotes Gut Health, Lowers Blood Sugar
Researchers said this is the first study assessing whether the health risks linked to the condition known as metabolic syndrome, which affects about one-third of Americans, may be diminished by green tea’s anti-inflammatory benefits in the gut. "There is much evidence that greater consumption of green tea is associated with good levels of cholesterol, glucose and triglycerides, but no studies have linked its benefits at the gut to those health factors," said Richard Bruno, senior study author and professor of human nutrition at The Ohio State University. The team conducted the clinical trial in 40 individuals as a follow-up to a 2019 study that associated lower obesity and fewer health risks in mice that consumed green tea supplements with improvements to gut health. In the new study, green tea extract also lowered blood sugar, or glucose, and decreased gut inflammation and permeability in healthy people - an unexpected finding. "What this tells us is that within one month we’re able to lower blood glucose in both people with metabolic syndrome and healthy people, and the lowering of blood glucose appears to be related to decreasing leaky gut and decreasing gut inflammation - regardless of health status," Bruno said.
Articles on the glucose results and lowered gut permeability and inflammation were published recently in Current Developments in Nutrition. People with metabolic syndrome are diagnosed with at least three of five factors that increase the risk for heart disease, diabetes and other health problems - excess belly fat, high blood pressure, low HDL (good) cholesterol, and high levels of fasting Glyco Care blood sugar supplement glucose and triglycerides, Glyco Careschromium support a type of fat in the blood. The tricky thing about these risk factors that constitute metabolic syndrome is that they are often only slightly altered and do not yet require drug management, but still impose great risk to health, Bruno said. "Most physicians will initially recommend weight loss and exercise. Unfortunately, we know most persons can’t comply with lifestyle modifications for various reasons," he said. Forty participants - 21 with metabolic syndrome and 19 healthy adults - consumed gummy confections containing green tea extract rich in anti-inflammatory compounds called catechins for 28 days. The daily dose equaled five cups of green tea.
In the randomized double-blind crossover trial, all participants spent another 28 days taking a placebo, with a month off of any Glyco Care supplement between the treatments. Researchers confirmed that participants, as advised, Glyco Care blood sugar formula followed a diet low in polyphenols - naturally occurring antioxidants in fruits, vegetables, teas and spices - during the placebo and green tea extract confection phases of the study so any results could be attributed to the effects of green tea alone. Results showed that fasting blood glucose levels for all participants were significantly lower after taking green tea extract compared to levels after taking the placebo. Decreased gut inflammation due to the green tea treatment in all participants was established through an analysis that showed a reduction in pro-inflammatory proteins in fecal samples. Using a technique to assess sugar ratios in urine samples, researchers also found that with green tea, participants’ small intestine permeability favorably decreased. Gut permeability, or leaky gut, enables intestinal bacteria and related toxic compounds to enter the bloodstream, stimulating low-grade chronic inflammation.
"That absorption of gut-derived products is thought to be an initiating factor for obesity and insulin resistance, which are central to all cardiometabolic disorders," Bruno said. "If we can improve gut integrity and reduce leaky gut, the thought is we’ll be able to not only alleviate low-grade inflammation that initiates cardiometabolic disorders, but potentially reverse them. "We did not attempt to cure metabolic syndrome with a one-month study," he said. Bruno’s lab is completing further analyses of microbial communities in the guts of study participants and levels of bacteria-related toxins in their blood. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center at Ohio State. Ohio State co-authors of both papers include Min Zeng, Geoffrey Sasaki, Sisi Cao, Yael Vodovotz and Joanna Hodges. Avinash Pokala and Shahabeddin Rezaei also co-authored the paper on glucose reduction. High school students from around Ohio participated in hands-on learning activities in cancer research this summer at Ohio State. Researchers have developed a process for converting carbon dioxide and industrial waste into green hydrogen, reports a new study. For many inventors, researchers and entrepreneurs, an idea is just the beginning; what comes next and knowing how to properly protect that idea can often be one of the most challenging journeys. That is where The Ohio State University Libraries’ Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) comes in.
What is this post about? The list of negative effects of meat consumption is long. They range from animal suffering over global food distribution considerations to climate change and more. In this post, I want to elaborate on the problematic aspects of eating meat and show how it is possible and easy to switch diets without any loss in quality of life. TLDR; please don’t eat meat - it’s really bad for everyone. I think most people have heard that animals are held in bad conditions, that meat is less effective than other kinds of food on an energy per gram measure, that meat uses a lot of water during production, etc. However, during most of the discussions I personally had, heard or read about the topic there were astonishingly little numbers and weighings involved. To exaggerate - "you are either a Nazi for eating meat" or "you are a Nazi for taking away someone’s freedom to eat meat" is a discourse that I have witnessed way too often.
