Drinking tea may prevent weight gain caused by junk foods

Want to shed those extra pounds but still eat your favourite junk foods? Well, drinking tea could be the solution.

Researchers at Kobe University, Japan found that regular consumption of tea also suppressed damaging changes in the blood linked to fatty foods that can lead to type 2 diabetes, reports the Daily Mail.

In the study some mice were given a high fat diet and others a normal diet. Each of these two groups were then split into smaller groups and given water, black tea or green tea for 14 weeks.

Both types of tea suppressed body weight gain and the build-up of belly fat linked to a fatty diet.

But black tea, which is used in most ordinary cuppas, also counteracted the harmful effects on the blood normally associated with a high-fat diet.

These included increases in cholesterol, high blood glucose and insulin resistance - a precursor to type 2 diabetes where the body does not efficiently use the insulin it produces.

The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.