Thursday, April 17, 2008

green tea extract can increase fat oxidation and improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance

Many studies have shown that green tea has beneficial health effects.

Two new studies have now confirmed that green tea extract can increase fat oxidation and improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, even in healthy young adults.

In the first study, 12 healthy men performed a 30 minute cycling exercise before and after taking green tea extract. In the second, 11 healthy men took an oral-glucose-tolerance test before and after taking green tea extract. In both cases, their results improved after consuming the tea.

Why Fermented Soy is Better

Two new studies have show that fermenting soy dramatically reduces its potential allergenicity, and also increases the number of essential amino acids in soy products.

When soy products were fermented, immunoreactivity was reduced by as much as 99 percent, according to tests that compared the blood plasma reactions for both fermented and unfermented soy products.

Fermentation had also improved the essential amino acid composition in the soy products and produced new peptides that may be beneficial. This was attributed to partial digestion of large soybean peptides by enzymes secreted by the microorganisms used in fermentation.