This Is What Green Tea Extract Really Does To Your Body

Maintaining your overall health is a complicated process. From scheduling time to exercise to eating the right foods, it can feel taxing to piece together every aspect of a healthy lifestyle. One of the easiest ways to incorporate better choices into your existing routine is to invest in supplements that provide several benefits in one convenient package. This ensures that you're targeting the right areas of your wellness journey without doing mental gymnastics to figure out how to best implement new changes.

One of the best supplements for this type of health improvement goal is green tea extract. Green tea extract is available in a powder, liquid, or capsule form, and contains a helpful boost of antioxidants. These antioxidants provide numerous benefits, such as improving the condition of your skin, and promoting the health of your liver, brain, and heart (per Healthline). According to Healthline, one capsule of green tea extract has the same number of active ingredients as one cup of brewed green tea, making it the perfect option for people who don't like to drink tea but want to receive the healthy perks contained in the beverage.

Though green tea extract is generally considered to be a great supplement, there are certain claims about the effects it has on the human body that are more lofty than others. It's important to know what green tea extract really does to your body so you can make sure you're gaining the health benefits you desire most.

Similar to the antioxidant boost provided by eating dark chocolate every day, green tea extract contains a staggering source of beneficial nutrients. Green tea extract is high in catechins, a type of polyphenol antioxidant that effectively increases your body's antioxidant capacity (per Healthline). As this happens, your body learns how to protect itself against oxidative stress. This type of stress can cause tissue and cell damage over time, which can lead to the development of certain conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer (via Medical News Today).

When you incorporate added antioxidants into your existing diet, you're protecting yourself from developing these debilitating conditions. According to WebMD, taking green tea extract by mouth helps lower the levels of "bad" cholesterol in your system, commonly known as low-density lipoprotein, or LDL. This helps prevent heart disease from developing, as does green tea extract's ability to reduce blood pressure levels and inflammation (via Healthline).

If you suffer from a chronic inflammatory disease such as Crohn's, or hepatitis, this reduction in inflammation through green tea extract can help you treat your condition more effectively (per Mind Body Green). By taking one green tea extract supplement per day, you'll promote your heart health and reduce discomfort stemming from prolonged bouts of inflammation.

If you Google the benefits of green tea extract, you'll likely find an abundance of sources claiming that the supplement aids in weight loss. While there's some scientific evidence to support this claim, research is still being conducted to determine the validity of this idea. According to Healthline, since green tea extract contains both catechins and caffeine, it acts as a natural regulator for the body's production of hormones that increase thermogenesis, the body's process of burning calories to help generate more heat (per Steel Fit).

The belief shared by Healthline and several other outlets is that when you take green tea extract, you increase your body's thermogenesis process, which essentially helps you burn more calories and eventually to lose weight. Some studies have shown a correlation between weight loss and green tea for this reason, whereas others believe the effect is minimal, if it's even effective at all.

Dr. Irina Todorov believes individuals can achieve weight loss through the proper methods, such as increasing exercise and making healthier food choices, and doesn't believe these results are accessible through the consumption of green tea extract alone (per Cleveland Clinic). 

While taking green tea extract won't slim you down on its own, this supplement does help prevent heart disease and protects your body against damaging health conditions, which makes it worth the investment if these benefits align with your personal health goals.