The Monty Python sketch called "Hell's Grannies" featured a gang of gray-haired, leather-wearing troublemakers with the slogan "Make tea, not war" on the back of their jackets.
Not bad, but we'd like to suggest a different slogan that touts another remarkable power of this much-loved, leafy beverage: "Hello, oolong; so long, belly fat."
Oolong is a tea that's not as dark as black tea or as light as green tea — but it's just right when it comes to delivering the polyphenols that your body needs to burn inflammatory visceral fat that gets deposited around your internal organs.
Japanese researchers recently published a study in the journal Nutrients that showed drinking 11 ounces of oolong tea, which contains around 48 mg of a flavanol called catechin, at breakfast and lunch for two weeks increased fat oxidation by 20%. And it kept burning fat while participants slept.
More study needs to be done to determine the long-term benefits of the fat attack that oolong launches, but along with previous animal and human research that indicates drinking tea may increase weight loss and reduce belly fat accumulation, it seems pretty smart to add oolong to your efforts to achieve a healthy weight.
If you're caffeine-sensitive, the good news is that the Japanese study indicates decaffeinated oolong can help battle the bulge too.
So pour yourself a cup or two to go along with your high-fiber, plant-centered, lean-protein meals.
And remember the words of the English playwright Arthur Wing Pinero: "Where there's tea, there's hope."