Chinese Diet Tea For Slimming
Why It Fail

7 reasons why herbal Chinese diet tea should be avoided if you are want to slim down and lose weight.

The current best-selling Chinese Diet Tea in Amazon.com is the "3 Ballerina Tea Extra Strength Dieters Drink". It contains a herb called Senna, which is a stimulant laxative. Here is how Drug Digest describes its effects:

"They work by irritating the lining of the lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The resulting contractions act to push material out of the lower intestines."

"They may also keep more water in intestinal contents, thereby producing a softer stool that is usually easier to pass. Take 8 hours to 12 hours to produce results."

So, this is the secret weapon of Chinese diet tea - stimulative laxative. But what can go wrong with this approach?

An Overview

Broadly speaking, there are two types of Chinese diet tea.

One is made from the tea plant Camellia sinensis - in the form of green tea, black tea or even white tea.

The other is the herbal variety incorporating some kind of stimulative laxative.

Camellia Sinensis Tea

This tea is classified as "generally safe" by the FDA, so there is no safety concerns.

Both green tea and black tea contain caffeine that helps raise metabolism that in turn helps to burn more calories even when a body is at rest.

Green tea also contains the highest level of EGCG that helps increase energy levels and burn fat. This powerful compound helps to lose weight slowly but safely over the long term. This is the approach that I recommend wholeheartedly.

Herbal Tea

However, there are also the other kind of Chinese diet tea that is made of laxative herbs such as Senna or Rhubarb. While they may be useful if you are prone to suffering from constipation, they can be counter-productive if you are trying to lose weight.

No Calories Loss

Some products claim that a laxative blocks the absorption of food and reduces your calories count. This is a myth.

A 1995 FDA study concluded that laxative-induced diarrhea does not significantly reduce absorption of calories. This is because laxatives do not work on the small intestine, where calories are absorbed, but rather on the colon, the lower end of the bowel.

No Fat Loss

Herbal laxative can cause diarrhoea, cramping, nausea and possible vomiting if enough is ingested. Diarrhoea and vomiting cause dehydration, lowering your body’s water content which does show on the scale.

Laxative causes weight loss, not fat loss.

Muscle Loss

Severe diarrhoea blocks the body’s ability to absorb nutrients as food moves too quickly through the digestive tract for absorption. Due to a lowered intake of calories and nutrients, the body begins to feed on itself and although some fat may be used as energy, the most readily available source is protein a.k.a. muscle.

So, yes, the scale may say you have lost weight but in reality you have not lost fat and in fact have done yourself more harm then good.

Lower Metabolism

Our metabolism is largely determined by the amount of muscle the body carries – the more muscle, the higher the metabolism and the more calories the body burns even at rest.

Bodybuilders or anyone who has a high ratio of muscle to fat need to ingest upwards of 5,000 calories a day just to maintain their weight because their metabolism is many times higher then the average person.

By burning muscle for energy, your metabolism decreases. So to maintain your weight, you must restrict your calorie intake even further or you begin to gain more fat.

More Fat

This is the concept behind ‘yo yo’ dieting. Each time you lose weight through diet alone, muscle is burned for energy. Once the diet is over, your metabolism goes so low that you simply put on weight too easily.

As the result, the fat returns.

Higher Osteoporosis Risk

Once again, only the fat returns, not the muscle or the other lean tissue. This loss of bone density is only regained through calcium and magnesium supplementation and performing regular weight bearing exercise.

Loss of bone density is directly related to osteoporosis – a degenerative condition that leads to brittle bones susceptible to fracture. Obviously, that is an extreme example of drinking Chinese diet tea and I am not saying that consuming a cup a day will automatically lead to osteoporosis.

Any herbal drug must be used with caution, however, as they are surprisingly powerful and easily abused.

Finally!

Pure green tea or a tea blend that does not contain an herbal laxative is a safer path to augment weight loss.

Green tea gently raises your metabolism so the body burns more calories and many tea blends incorporate natural appetite suppressants to help make dieting more comfortable. It also increases energy levels making exercise easier and more enjoyable so, again, more calories are burned.

By combining diet and exercise, the body turns to fat as its main energy source so when you step on the scale, the weight you have lost actually represents the amount of fat you burned off.

The herbal Chinese dieter teas are best avoided - they will only defeat you in the end. To lose weight permanently while becoming healthier and more active, enjoy green tea and watch the fat melt away!

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