Caffeine may offset some health problems of diets of fat or sugar

Rats that consumed the caffeine extracted from mate tea gained 16% less weight and accumulated 22% less excess fat than rats that consumed decaffeinated mate tea, scientists at the University of Illinois present in a brand new study.

The effects were similar with synthetic caffeine and that extracted from coffee.

Mate tea can be an herbal beverage full of phytochemicals, flavonoids and proteins that’s consumed as a stimulant by people in southeastern Latin American countries. The total amount of caffeine per portion in mate tea ranges from 65-130 milligrams, in contrast to 30-300 milligrams of caffeine in a cup of brewed coffee, based on the scholarly study.

For one month, the rats in the analysis ate an eating plan that contained 40% fat, 45% carbohydrate and 15% protein. Additionally they ingested among the forms of caffeine within an amount comparable to that of a human who drinks four glasses of coffee daily.

At the ultimate end of the four-week period, the percentage of lean muscle in the various categories of rats differed significantly. The rats that ingested caffeine from mate tea, synthetic or coffee sources accumulated less surplus fat than rats in one other groups.

The scholarly study, published recently in the Journal of Functional Foods, contributes to an increasing body of research that suggests mate tea might help fight obesity as well as providing other beneficial health effects linked to the phenolic compounds, flavonoids and vitamins it has.

“Thinking about the findings, mate caffeine and tea can be viewed anti-obesity agents,” said Elvira Gonzalez de Mejia, a co-author of the scholarly study and director of the division of nutritional sciences at the U. of I. “The outcome of this research might be scaled to humans to know the roles of mate tea and caffeine as potential ways of prevent overweight and obesity, plus the subsequent metabolic disorders related to these conditions.”

In the rats, the accumulation of lipids in the adipocytes was connected with greater weight gain and increased excess fat significantly, based on the study.

To, the scientists performed cell culture studies by which they exposed adipose cells from mice to synthetic caffeine or the coffee or mate caffeine extracts. They unearthed that of its source regardless, caffeine decreased the accumulation of lipids in adipose cells by 20%-41%.

The scientists also tracked the expression of several genes related to obesity and lipid metabolism. These included the fatty acid synthase gene (Fasn), an enzyme compound active in the synthesis of efas from glucose; and the lipoprotein lipase gene (Lpl), which codes for an enzyme that breaks triglycerides down.

All of the caffeine treatments, of origin regardless, downregulated the expression of both Fasn and Lpl significantly. In the cell cultures, Fasn expression diminished by 31%-39%, while Lpl expression decreased by 51%-69% among cells treated with synthetic caffeine or the caffeine from mate coffee or tea, they found.

In the rats that consumed the mate tea caffeine, expression of Fasn decreased by 39% within their fat tissue and by 37% inside their livers, the researchers found.

The decreased expression of Fasn and two other genes in the liver evoked lower production of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides in the liver aswell, in line with the study.

“The intake of caffeine from mate or from other sources alleviated the negative impact of a high-fat, high-sucrose diet on body composition as a result of modulation of certain lipogenic enzymes in both adipose tissue and the liver,” de Mejia said. “The decreased expression of Fasn and Lpl created lower synthesis and accumulation of triglycerides in the adipose tissue.”