Green Tea is a popular drink for many people across the world. Over the years, scientists have attributed the tea with several beneficial effects that arise from regular consumption of the same. Now, a new research gives further evidence that green tea may be improving both bodily and mental functions of the ones consuming it.

The study, published in The Faseb Journal, mainly focused on one of the many beneficial components of green tea, namely EGCG, which is an anti-oxidant. Benefits of anti-oxidants are well documented and the research shows that EGCG is no different.

However, the study was performed on lab mice and may not translate to give the same results on human beings.

How the research was done

Scientists divided the mice into three groups. The first group was the control group and was given a general lab diet. The second group was given a fat rich diet, where most of the calories were derived from fatty foods. This group was also given water laced with fructose. The third and final group was also given the same fatty foods that were assigned to the second group. However, in case of the third group, the water was spiked with the EGCG antioxidant.

After 16 weeks of this diet, the researchers finally analyzed the changes reflected by the mice in each group.

The Body Weight, insulin functionality, cognitive prowess, and genetic expression were studied extensively. The results indicated that those mice who consumed a high fat and fructose diet were much heavier than the mice than consumed a regular diet.

However, the results also revealed that these calorie consuming mice were also significantly fatter than the mice who consumed the fatty foods along with the EGCG.

This proved that EGCG helps in regulating the body’s processes better, which in turn leads to the mice not retaining as much fat as those not on the anti-oxidant. The EGCG mice also performed better in the Morris water maze test, designed to measure the cognitive functionality of the mice.

Effects of green tea consumption

Green tea consumption is likely beneficial to human beings as well, and researchers believe that the same effects shown by the mice on EGCG would also be shown by people who are regular drinkers of the tea.

Previous studies have also established a link between regular consumption of green tea and reduced chances of breast cancer and better heart functioning as well. However, most of the studies regarding green teas effect on humans have been performed in Asian countries, where the diet is drastically different from the ones in the United States.