Be-Well Information

Many claims are made for green tea as means to weight loss and body cleansing. This is probably an example of false correlation. Health benefits are more likely to have come from soy foods and lower usage of red meats in Asian cultures.

TV celebrities join advertisers in proclaiming green tea as a miracle treatment for weight loss and cleansing of toxins. Unfortunately, they lie, through ignorance or greed.

A large part of the enthusiasm for green tea is based on observations of Asiatic peoples compared to Americans and Europeans. Orientals tend to have far less incidence than Western Caucasians for obesity, cancer, diabetes, and numerous other ailments.

Just because two things are observed together does not mean either causes the other. Sometimes that is mere coincidence, such as the near perfect correlation between monthly births of one year and pig-iron production in another. Other times it is because both things are related to yet another.

A google search on ‘correlation causation’ finds article at wikipedia.org about false correlations. To quote them, ‘”Correlation does not imply causation” is a phrase used in science and statistics to emphasize that correlation between two variables does not automatically imply that one causes the other… correlation proves causation, is a logical fallacy.’

The example they use is one involving diet and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), so is related to our topic.

Numerous studies of HRT seemed to show a lower-than-average incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD). More controlled trials showed that HRT actually caused a small INCREASE in CHD. Re-analysis of the data showed that women undertaking HRT were more likely to be from higher socio-economic groups, thus with better than average diet and exercise practices.

People of Asiatic cultures are more likely than average Americans to drink lots of green tea. But they are also more likely to eat more vegetables, traditional soy foods, more fish, and less red meat.

Traditional soy foods contain hormones apparently beneficial to health. However, merely adding soy milk or tofu to a typical Caucasian diet is not a meaningful cure-all, any more than drinking green tea is. What helps the most is to REPLACE some of one’s red meat with tofu, tempeh, edamame, or other soy foods. Highly processed soy derivatives may not be especially beneficial, like textured vegetable protein used in foods such as meat extender.

Quite frankly, many “meat analogues” such as soy cutlets, meatless chops, vegetarian burgers, and so forth can taste pretty bad. If they contain Monosodium glutamate (MSG) or hydrolyzed protein, they can also cause dizziness, headaches and burning tongue, despite contrary claims by the food industry. In contrast, traditional Asiatic meals can be quite delicious. The present author relies on his own experiences to say this.

Modern chain grocery stores tend to offer at least a few of the soy based tofu, tempeh, edemame. If the reader’s does not, consult “health food” stores or ethnic groceries.

So what’s an American family to do about soy food preparations? One approach is to search for ethnic cookbooks. Time-Life Books had some good ones that might now be hard to find outside of the used book market. Another is to visit amazon-dot-com (see searches below).

By the way, another benefit of soy based food is that it can support about 20 times as many people as meats raised on the same amount of land in pasture and feed grains.

So, soy foods can help you manage weight. As for green tea, it won’t hurt, provided you leave out the sugar.

The basics still hold. You lose weight by consuming fewer calories than you use, and magic pills or potions have no benefit whatsoever. Take that, Oprah!

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Here is a book-search pre-loaded with phrase ’soy recipe’, but you can type in a new phrase. Suggestions for other search terms are tempeh, tofu, edamame, soy health, soy cook book, Chinese food, Japanese food, et cetera.
[iframe http://be-well.info/searchsoyrecipeb.htm 525 330]

Here is a specific title sample:
Oh Boy, I Can’t Believe It’s Soy: Over 100 Gourmet Recipes that Help Prevent Cancer, Heart Disease and Alleviate Menopause

and another:
The Soy Zone: 101 Delicious and Easy-to-Prepare Recipes