Chinese scientists "prove" tea can help fight obesity

A shop vendor waits for customers at her tea counter in Shanghai October 12, 2006. Researchers in China found that the polyphenol compound in tea can help fight obesity, the China Daily reported.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have proved it -- tea can help make you thin.

Researchers spent five years studying obesity, with the focus on children, the China Daily said.

"They found that the polyphenol compound in tea -- especially Oolong tea -- can help obese people battle the bulge," the newspaper said. "Scientists have proved that drinking tea can help people lose weight."

Guo Xirong, director of the Nanjing Institute for Paediatrics, particularly recommends Oolong tea, the newspaper said.

Chinese have long believed in the link between tea and weight loss, something an Oolong tea Internet home page (www.oolongtea.org) espouses.

"It has been confirmed that the continuous intake of Oolong tea contributes to enhancing the function of fat metabolism and to controlling obesity," it says of a tea produced and consumed primarily in the southeast of the country.