Swap regular cuppa for another tea to blast visceral fat - 'aids' metabolism

 A study showed one certain tea could not only lower visceral fat but also body mass index and waist circumference.

Visceral fat can be found deep within the belly. A certain amount is required to help insulate and protect vital organs. However, too much is known to cause serious health issues including heart disease, diabetes and even cancer.

One major cause of an excess of visceral fat is diet.Cutting back on foods high in calories, sugar and saturated fats is one way to shed weight.

But what you drink can also make a difference.Personal trainer at Bio-Synergy, Nathan Honess, spoke with Express.co.uk to explain more.

“Visceral fat is the belly fat that wraps around your abdominal organs,” he said.

“It’s sometimes referred to as ‘hidden fat’ because it’s stored deep in your body and can be hard to distinguish.

“Too much visceral fat can lead to health problems such as lower back pain, heart disease and diabetes.”

He specifically recommended switching out regular tea for either matcha green tea, green tea or peppermint tea.

Mr Honess continued: “To help reduce visceral fat, there’s a few easy changes you can make to your diet and one involves boiling the kettle.

“Instead of your normal cuppa try switching to matcha green tea – a study found that the key nutrient – catechin – helped reduce the visceral fat in its participants, as well as overall body fat.

“If matcha is not for you, try a cup of green or peppermint tea to aid digestion and your metabolism.”

The study referenced by Mr Honess was published in Obesity journal in 2007.

As part of the research 240 men and women with “visceral fat-type obesity” were given green tea with different levels of catechins every day for 12 weeks.

It concluded that those who drank green tea containing 583mg of catechins (the higher amount) saw a greater reduction in fat.

“Decreases in body weight, body mass index, body fat ratio, body fat mass, waist circumference, hip circumference, visceral fat area, and subcutaneous fat area were found to be greater in the catechin group than in the control group,” it said.

“The continuous ingestion of a green tea extract high in catechins led to a reduction in body fat, systolic blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, suggesting that the ingestion of such an extract contributes to a decrease in obesity and cardiovascular disease risks.”