Coalesced Impact of Green Tea and Cinnamon on Metabolic Parameters of Overweight Subjects

Abstract

Obesity is pandemic worldwide and even in developing countries significantly shares the proportion of its prevalence. Beyond pharmaco-therapy, overweight individuals have been seeking functional food supplements to manage their weight. Several functional foods have been suggested for the management of obesity. Particularly, certain functional foods that contain bio active compounds are believed to interfere in cell metabolism that brings changes in the metabolic parameters. The two functional foods green tea and cinnamon have been intensively studied individually on insulin sensitivity, blood glucose, body weight and lipid fractions using animal and human models. However, there has been seldom study available experimenting with both the functional ingredients (Green Tea and Cinnamon) together in over weight individuals. The inmates of St. Joseph Prasanth Nivas Ashramam, Jeppu Mangalore, India were selected as participants. A total of forty volunteers were recruited according to predetermined inclusion criteria were grouped into experimental and control groups equally. Supplementation of green tea with cinnamon twice a day for 30 days yielded a significant reduction in BMI (P<0.05) waist circumferences (P<0.05) and lipid parameters like TGL (P=0.000), HDL (P=0.000) and that of LDL (P<0.05). Thus, it is imperative that regular consumption of Green Tea with Cinnamon can modulate lipids favourably and moderately reduce body weight which on a long run may help one to prevent or decrease the risk of CVD.