Obesity has become one of the largest problems in todays society. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes obesity as “Weight that is higher than what is considered as a healthy weight for a given height”. The problems that obesity can lead to are diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, depression, reduced fertility rates, respiratory disea
se, memory loss, thinking skills and musculoskeletal disorders. In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did a study and found 30% of Pennsylvanians was considered obese. They also found in America that 28.3% of citizens were obese. The map to the right shows the states and the percentage of people who are considered obese within their population. A conclusion we can draw from this map is that there are a lot of obese people living in America.
Losing the weight by exercising is not enough, it is hard to lose that much weight. However studies have shown that green tea, theanine and caffeine all have the power to help people lose weight. In 2004, a double-blind placebo experiment was done with mice that showed those who were given a green tea powder and caffeine decreased the amount of weight gain in the mice. “Body weight and food intake were determined monthly during this period, kidneys, adrenals, liver, spleen, brain, pituitary and intraperitoneal adipose tissues (IPAT) were weighed and lipid levels in the serum and liver were measured at the end of this period.” The IPAT levels at the end of the experiment decreased by 76.8% in comparison to the control group. The green tea 
and caffeine also helped reduce the triglyceride levels in the mice’s kidneys. All these results indicated that “caffeine and theanine were responsible for the suppressive effect of green tea powder (GTP) on body weight increase and fat accumulation.”
In 1992, a double-blind clinical trial was done in Denmark that took 180 obese patients and tested the affects of caffeine, ephedrine, caffeine and ephedrine (appetite suppressant), and a placebo on a patient. The study was over a course of 24 weeks, and mean weight losses were found to be greater in the group treated with the caffeine and ephedrine. The weight loss of those treated with the placebo, caffeine or ephedrine (alone) were found to be around the same. The conclusion from this study was that caffeine acted as a stimulant of the ephedrine and can help treat human obesity.
Obesity can be helped, with exercise and eating the right things (always have some caffeine!) you can stop gaining weight. There is hope for our overweight country.
With the study done in 1982, I would be very skeptical to make any hard conclusions. If the study only included those from Denmark, there are some geological barriers that would have me weary of extended the results of this study to all humans. In my opinion, the sample would have to be much more representative of the entire population to be able to address questions regarding all humans.
Every time I hear the word caffeine it seems as though it is being used in a negative way. People are always complaining about the hazards it has to your health. And while there are health concerns related to caffeine consumption it was nice to see that it can have some positives. I’m not a huge fan of tea or coffee so I feel as though I don’t consume a lot of caffeine. But if I ever start to gain weight its nice to know a little bit of caffeine could help cut some weight!
Starting in college, I have started to drink more coffee than I ever have in the past. I have drank so much coffee that I have began to wonder if all of this consumption is actually hurting my health. When I saw the title of this blog I stopped right way and made sure I took the time to read this because who wouldn’t want to lose weight while drinking their favorite drink???
You usually only here about all the negative effects caffeine can have on you, like “stunting your growth” and becoming almost addicted to how it wakes you up in the morning. It’s nice to see a study that looks at the positive effects of caffeine, since all the rumors about how bad it is for hasn’t stopped many people from drinking 3 cups of coffee or tea everyday.
A double-blind placebo trial was the most effective trial method because it rules out the variability of bias. In this case, a researcher who knew which was the caffeine and which was the placebo might give the caffeine to a test subject who the researcher thought would have the best chance to see weight loss which would skew the results. I think in an experimental trial, the double-blind placebo appears to be the most effective trial because, if done well, can rule out many variables and more often than not show causation.