Michelle Schoffro Cook

Forget Red Bull, Monster, Rock Star, and the other so-called “Energy Drinks” that line the refrigerators at every convenience store these days.  Not only are they loaded with stimulants, most are usually packed with artificial ingredients and high fructose corn syrup or other sweeteners.  If you’re looking to be the rock star with the enormous gut and bad teeth, high fructose corn syrup is sure to help. 

One of my Facebook fans, Kate M., asked me to provide a healthier energy drink option.  (Connect with me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/drmichellecook).  So here’s my solution.  Green Tea Lemonade.  Not just any green tea lemonade will do though.  I’ll share my recipe for my Super Fat-Busting Green Tea Lemonade—a sneak preview from my upcoming weight loss book.

Not only does green tea give you an energy boost, research shows that it protects your body against colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers, slows wrinkling and skin damage linked to aging.  But, there’s another great reason to drink green tea.   Green tea contains a potent plant nutrient known as epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, for short.  Multiple studies that EGCG seriously targets belly fat. 

Research at Tufts University indicates that EGCG in green tea, like other catechins, activate fat-burning genes in the abdomen to speed weight loss by 77 percent.  New research published in the Journal of Nutrition found that overweight adults who drank four to six cups of green tea daily lost at least seven percent more abdominal fat than those who didn’t drink green tea.