Many people feel that after eating a meal and drinking a few cups of strong tea, the feeling of fullness is reduced or even disappears. They believe that the tea has “digested” the greasy food just consumed, and that they will not gain weight because of the oily food just eaten.
In fact, the hunger after drinking tea is just hunger, and it does not offset the food eaten earlier, nor does the idea of “burning off body fat” exist.
Why does drinking tea make you hungry?
1. Caffeine
The caffeine in tea is a substance that promotes metabolism, increasing the excitement of the central nervous system, which then stimulates the digestive system, excretory system, respiratory system, and so on.
Some people have a more efficient digestive system, leading to faster stomach emptying and therefore feel hungry more easily.
Therefore, strong tea, or tea varieties with high caffeine content like black tea (with Pu’er being a well-known representative) and lightly fermented oolong tea, all make one more susceptible to feeling hungry.
Of course, unsweetened, non-milk black coffee has a similar effect.
2. Tea Polyphenols
Tea polyphenols have a certain regulatory effect on blood sugar. When blood sugar levels drop, people feel hungry and want to eat something.
In addition, tea polyphenols also affect certain hormones related to the feeling of fullness and hunger, so some people are particularly prone to feeling hungry after drinking tea.
Can drinking tea help with weight loss?
If you use tea to replace sugary drinks in your daily routine, it can indeed help with weight loss.
However, you need to be able to tolerate the hunger caused by drinking tea, otherwise, if you end up eating a bunch of random things, you may end up gaining weight instead.
