The ancient Chinese habit of drinking green tea is becoming more popular all over with world. In fact, green tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water.
Past research has shown that green tea is beneficial for your health and wellbeing, with benefits ranging from reducing the risk of breast cancer to enhancing our memory.
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Green tea contains ECGC, a major polyphenol which possesses antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cardio-protective activities, but few studies have focused on its potential effect on cognitive disorders.
Obesity is a major health concern globally. It causes an energy imbalance between calorie intake and consumption and increases the risk of insulin resistance and age-related cognitive decline.
Researchers from the College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University, in Yangling, China investigated the protective effects of EGCG on insulin resistance and memory impairment cause by high fat and high fructose diet (HFFD).
The scientists randomly divided 3-month-old mice into three groups based on diet: control group, HFFD group, and HFFD plus EGCG group.
The control group got a standard diet. Mice on the HFFD diet plus EGCG got 2 grams of EGCG per litre of drinking water.
The researchers monitored the mice for 16 weeks and found that mice fed with HFFD had a higher final body weight than control mice and a significantly higher final body weight than the mice in the HFFD + ECGC group.
Memory loss was assessed by using the Morris water maze test, and the scientists found that the mice on HFFD diet took longer to find the platform compared to the mice in the control group, showing that a HFFD diet induced memory impairment. The HFFD+EGCG group had a significantly lower escape latency and escape distance than the HFFD group on each test day.
When the hidden platform was removed to perform a probe trial, the mice on HFFD diet spent less time in the target quadrant than the control mice, with fewer platform crossings.
The HFFD + ECGC group spent a significant amount of time in the target quadrant and with more crossing platforms showing that EGCG could improve HFFD- elicited memory impairment and neuronal loss.
This study provides compelling evidence that the protective effect of ECGC found in green tea has the potential to improve memory loss and neuronal impairment caused by a high fat high fructose diet.
A cuppa, anyone?
Source: The FASEB Journal
