Is it reliable to drink tea to relieve the greasiness after eating too much oily food?

Author: Wang Lu, registered dietitian

Reviewer: Ruan Guangfeng, Deputy Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center

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The weather is getting colder day by day. Hot pot with red oil, stewed pork elbow, shabu-shabu mutton, lamb ribs, and goose stewed in iron pot have become regulars on the menu. But after eating these, I always feel a little greasy and worried about gaining weight. So many friends have embarked on the "drinking tea to remove fat" road that is popular on the Internet, and even many girls use the method of drinking tea + fasting to lose weight.

So, is drinking tea to remove fat really effective, or is it pseudoscience? If drinking tea doesn't work, what can you drink/eat to effectively remove fat?

analyze

What does oil scraping mean?

What we expect from drinking tea to "shave fat" is that drinking tea can decompose fat, inhibit/delay fat absorption, or promote fat excretion from the body. In short, we want to use tea to reduce the amount of fat that the human body absorbs. Can tea really achieve this goal?

Unfortunately, it’s really not possible.

First of all, the main component of tea is water. Since it is water, it can neither break down fat, nor inhibit/delay absorption, nor promote fat excretion. If you drink some tea before eating greasy food, it can also control the subsequent food intake by occupying stomach capacity. However, drinking tea to remove fat is generally done after a meal, so it will naturally not affect food intake.

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Some friends say that tea is different from water and contains other nutrients. Indeed, tea also contains tea polyphenols such as catechins, alkaloids such as caffeine, and very small amounts of vitamins (for example, green tea contains only 19 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams), minerals, and amino acids.

Tea polyphenols such as catechins have health benefits such as anti-oxidation, free radical scavenging, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer; alkaloids such as caffeine can refresh the mind and keep people excited. For some people, caffeine also has a more obvious effect of promoting gastric acid secretion, making us feel "hungry faster."

However, the above substances hardly affect the body's digestion, absorption and utilization of fat. Some studies have found that caffeine and green tea extract (such as catechins) can promote the oxidation and utilization of fat [1]. However, it should be noted that the subjects of this study were athletes, and they were not supplemented with tea, but green tea extract. For ordinary people like us who want to promote fat oxidation and utilization by drinking tea, I am afraid that drinking several liters of tea every day is not realistic for most people.

Since it doesn't remove fat, why do you feel hungry easily after drinking tea?

Some friends asked me, since drinking tea doesn’t remove fat, why do I feel particularly hungry after drinking tea? Doesn’t this mean that my fat is being taken away?

You may feel hungry after drinking tea, mainly because when caffeine reaches a certain concentration, it can make the central nervous system more excited. For some people, the digestive system is also excited, and more gastric acid is secreted, thus speeding up the digestion process. In other words, it just speeds up the digestion of fat, but does not change the result of fat being absorbed and stored in the body.

Since it speeds up digestion, will we eat more and consume more calories because we get hungry faster after drinking tea?

In fact, there is no need to worry too much. On the one hand, only when the caffeine reaches a certain level (strong tea) will it promote gastric acid secretion, and drinking weak tea will basically not affect digestion. On the other hand, even if you really feel hungry after drinking tea, you have already drunk tea before eating, and the tea occupies a certain amount of stomach capacity. As long as you choose low-calorie foods such as fruits, sugar-free yogurt, etc., it will not pose a big threat to your weight.

I know that there will definitely be people who will come forward to say that they really achieved weight loss by drinking tea. If it doesn't remove fat, how can it help lose weight?

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In the past, some studies have found that green tea extract can help subjects control their weight, and the subjects also experienced a decrease in waist circumference[2]. However, other studies have reached different conclusions. Overall, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that drinking tea can help lose weight[3]. This is why there are many friends around us who are addicted to tea but still have big bellies. Overall, whether or not you can lose weight depends mainly on the difference between energy intake and energy expenditure. When you eat a high-fat, high-sugar diet and do not exercise, your energy intake is far greater than your energy expenditure, and it is difficult to "lose weight" no matter how much tea you drink. However, once you eat a light diet, limit your intake, and combine it with a certain intensity of exercise, you can still achieve a slim figure even if you do not drink tea at all.

It can only be said that drinking tea has much lower sugar and calories than drinking sugary drinks or alcoholic drinks. Drinking tea as a daily drink is a very healthy and more conducive to weight control. For those who do not have stomach diseases such as excessive gastric acid secretion and gastric ulcers, drinking some light tea before meals can control the total amount of food intake in this meal to a certain extent, and can also help lose weight.

What can I drink/eat to remove oil?

As mentioned before, since drinking tea cannot "remove fat", and drinking too strong tea can even make us feel hungry and "increase" our appetite. So, are there any foods that can "remove fat"? After eating a greasy meal, how should we match the subsequent diet to slightly offset the "guilt"?

In fact, we can consider it from the root cause. From the perspective of the process of human body digestion and absorption of fat, if we really want to affect the accumulation of fat in the body, we can start from absorption, digestion and utilization.

In terms of absorption, we can reduce and delay the intestinal absorption of fat by consuming more foods rich in dietary fiber while eating greasy food;

In terms of digestion, fat digestion can be inhibited by reducing the activity of lipase or affecting the secretion of bile, but it is difficult to achieve this goal by drinking tea (the intake of substances that inhibit lipase activity, such as tea saponin, from tea leaves requires a large intake that is difficult for normal people to achieve);

In terms of utilization, we can increase the probability of fat burning for energy by reducing the proportion of carbohydrates in the three meals and increasing the proportion of fat. This is somewhat similar to the principle of the "ketogenic diet", but it is not easy to operate without the guidance of professionals, and blindly consuming a large amount of fat may also harm health. Therefore, we do not recommend this method.

According to the above principles, we can eat more of the following types of food:

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1. When consuming a large amount of greasy food (fats), be sure to also consume more fresh vegetables and fruits.

Fresh vegetables and fruits contain a lot of dietary fiber, which can slow down the intestinal absorption of fat in food and reduce the absorption efficiency.

2. Replace refined rice and white flour staple foods with coarse grains as the staple food when paired with greasy foods.

Coarse grains not only contain a lot of dietary fiber, but also rich in B vitamins. Therefore, coarse grains can not only hinder the absorption of fat, but also supplement B vitamins that help material metabolism.

3. Eat lighter, less processed foods.

Before talking about losing fat, you should consider reducing fat intake fundamentally. Eat lighter, low-fat and low-salt foods, and try to choose natural foods with a lower degree of processing. Generally, the more processed the food, the more fat, sugar and salt it contains.

If you can get used to eating light, minimally processed foods first, they will occupy a large portion of your stomach capacity, and you will naturally consume less high-fat, high-sugar, and processed foods.

For example:

1. When eating mutton spine hot pot, you can pair it with a large mixed vegetable, or add several servings of green leafy vegetables to the hot pot to supplement dietary fiber and affect fat absorption;

2. When eating greasy dishes such as twice-cooked pork and braised pork, replace white rice and white steamed buns with coarse grains such as red bean oatmeal rice, boiled corn, and bean flour steamed buns;

3. Before eating any desserts or other greasy foods, eat some low-sugar fruits, such as apples, peaches, strawberries, pears, etc., which can not only provide a sense of fullness, but also use the dietary fiber in the fruits to hinder the absorption of fat;

4. When you are craving for meat, replace the stewed pork elbow with (part of) homemade lean braised beef to reduce your fat intake.

in conclusion

"Shaving off fat" cannot be done by drinking tea alone, but must start from the source: eat less "fat" so that the fat is absorbed less and slower. Of course, you also need to strengthen exercise to consume more and faster fat. This is the only way to achieve the goal of "less in, more out" and not to store fat.

References:

1.KimJ,ParkJ,LimK.NutritionSupplementstoStimulateLipolysis:AReviewinRelationtoEnduranceExerciseCapacity[J].JournalofNutritionalScience&Vitaminology,2016,62(3):141.

2.ChantreP,LaironD.RecentfindingsofgreenteaextractAR25(Exolise)anditsactivityforthetreatmentofobesity.Phytomedicine,2002,Jan;9(1):3-8.

3.RHursel,WViechtbauerandMSWesterterp-Plantenga.Theeffectsofgreenteaonweightlossandweightmaintenance:ameta-analysis.InternationalJournalofObesity(2009)33,956-961.

The article is produced by Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project (Creation and Cultivation). Please indicate the source when reprinting.