Can Black Tea Help With Weight Loss, Too?

We’ve all heard of the health benefits associated with green tea. It’s been proven to improve brain function, help fat burning, lower your risk of cancer and that’s just the beginning. In 2011, a study found that drinking green tea can even help lower cholesterol, a main cause of heart disease and stroke. Okay, but who else is sick of drinking the green stuff all in the name of healthy living?

Luckily, it seems there might finally be an alternative on the market. And no, it’s not one of those fancy drinks you can only get from an overpriced health shop – it’s black tea. Yes, black tea is finally fighting back as another way of keeping your insides warm and fuzzy and your outsides slim and trim.

Research published in the European Journal of Nutrition has discovered that both black and green tea can promote weight loss along with other health benefits by changing bacteria in the gut.

Is green tea’s reign nearly over?

In a study on mice, scientists from UCLA showed that black tea changes gut metabolites in the liver which positively alters energy metabolism. During the experiment, researchers found that the percentage of bacteria associated with obesity decreased while bacteria linked with lean body mass increased in the animals.

Previous studies have implied that the chemicals called polyphenols, contained in green tea, are absorbed to alter the energy metabolism in the liver. Black tea polyphenols, however, are too large to be absorbed in the same way.

These new findings suggest that they stimulate the growth of gut bacterium and the formation of short-chain fatty acids and therefore black tea is also able to alter the energy metabolism in the liver.

– READ MORE: 3 Cups Of Tea That Will Help Your Workout –

Susanne Henning, the study’s lead said: “It was known that green tea polyphenols are more effective and offer more health benefits than black tea polyphenols since green tea chemicals are absorbed into the blood and tissue,”

“Our new findings suggest that black tea, through a specific mechanism through the gut microbiome, may also contribute to good health and weight loss in humans,” she continues.

So, for all the black tea drinkers out there – keep on drinking.