Tea Newbie: Is Wulong and Oolong the same thing?

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Mar 23rd, '06, 02:40
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Tea Newbie: Is Wulong and Oolong the same thing?

by tvanslooten » Mar 23rd, '06, 02:40

A friend of mine suggested "Wulong" tea as a possible weight loss aid. I don't see this tea listed on the Adagio site. Is oolong possibly the same thing? And if so, will any of the oolong teas sold at Adagio give me the weight loss benefits I'm looking for?

***I realize that weight loss can only be achieved through proper eating and regular exercise. I'm just looking for foods and beverages as a part of a healthy diet, hence my interest in Wulong tea.***

Tara

Mar 23rd, '06, 02:45
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by Lhet » Mar 23rd, '06, 02:45

Wulong is the chinese pinyin translation. Oolong is what it's called in English. I have no idea why. But yes, same thing.

As far as fat loss...
http://www.oolongtea.org/e/health/04.html
Hope it's useful
Wo xihuan he cha.

Mar 23rd, '06, 09:11
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by tvanslooten » Mar 23rd, '06, 09:11

Thanks Lhet for confirming that. I appreciate it.

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Mar 23rd, '06, 17:13
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by yresim » Mar 23rd, '06, 17:13

As for the potential weight loss benefits of oolong tea, please see the "Suggest some oolongs please" thread in Oolong Teas. The conversation shifts to weight loss properties about half-way through the thread.

~Yresim~
"I know! We could go to the Bronze, sneak in our own tea bags, and ask for hot water."
- Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Reptile Boy, Season 2)

Favorite teas: earl grey, assam, white

Mar 24th, '06, 20:17
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by kodama » Mar 24th, '06, 20:17

Yeah - just about any real tea will be as good as any other for this. Maybe not black tea since it is usually taken with milk or sugar, but just find a kind of Green/White/Oolong that you like and stick with it.

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Mar 24th, '06, 20:37
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by Kestrel » Mar 24th, '06, 20:37

If you drink black tea without milk or sugar, it works just as well. In fact, black tea has the most caffeine out of the four varities of tea.

Mar 24th, '06, 22:10
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by tvanslooten » Mar 24th, '06, 22:10

Thanks for all the information...but just out of curiousity, if all the teas have weight loss benefits, why all the hype about Wulong/Oolong specifically? I thought I read an article that said Oolong specifically had the most "weight loss benefits" - at least compared to green tea it did anyway.

I'll have to do some more digging on this because if all teas are created equal when it comes to potential weight loss, then I'll stick to my green and black teas!

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Mar 24th, '06, 22:24
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by yresim » Mar 24th, '06, 22:24

tvanslooten wrote:Thanks for all the information...but just out of curiousity, if all the teas have weight loss benefits, why all the hype about Wulong/Oolong specifically?
Probably for the same reason that there is a lot of hype about green tea's health benefits, and less about the benefits of black tea: there is folklore indicating that this is the case, and a scientific study was done to prove (or, in more cases, disprove) the belief. Once the study came back with results indicating that the folklore was true, crafty entrepreneurs started disseminating information about the tea in question, using the results from that study as proof. Then, word of mouth took it even farther, and pretty soon, everyone is accepting it as "fact."

The results a scientific study gets depend on the question asked.

If the question is "does oolong have weight loss benefits" you are going to get different results than you would if the question were "how do the weight loss benefits of oolong compare to that of black tea" or "how do the weight loss benefits of different oolongs compare to each other". To understand any study, you need to know the question (or, more accurately, the hypothesis), and how that question was answered (how the hypothesis was proven/disproven).

I'm sure that you have heard that companies can find a study to say anything they want. And this is true. They just have to find the right hypothesis to start with, and the right testing procedures, and then publish the results out-of-context.

The real problem with the health benefits of tea is that very few studies compared the health properties of the different types of tea. So, when a study says "x tea does y" you are left wondering whether this is a property of all teas, or only of x tea.

There certainly is some give-and-take. The few comparative studies between the teas have shown us that. The problem is figuring out the best type of tea for a particular condition/desired outcome.

I would say, until definitive proof comes along, drink whatever tea you like best without sugar/milk. Because if you genuinely don't like oolong tea, drinking it is just going to make you want to eat something to wash out the taste, regardless.

~Yresim~
"I know! We could go to the Bronze, sneak in our own tea bags, and ask for hot water."
- Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Reptile Boy, Season 2)

Favorite teas: earl grey, assam, white

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Mar 25th, '06, 19:24
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by Kestrel » Mar 25th, '06, 19:24

I have a pretty good guess as to why they say oolong tea is better for weight loss than green tea. More caffeine. Caffeine is a major part of a lot of diet pills.

Stacker, a common and actually rather effective diet pill (note: I do NOT advocate the use of diet pills! There's often a lot of unhealthy stuff in them that can build up in your system and make you feel sick until you stop taking the pills and it leaves your system) uses Kola Nut (which has caffeine), Yerba Mate, Green tea leaves (which have caffeine) and the main ingredient is a whopping 200mg of anhydrous caffeine.

Caffeine speeds up your metabolism and, in some cases (not mine) decreases your appetite. However, there are good caffeines and bad caffeines. For example, the caffeine in NoDoz would be a BAD caffeine. It's hard on your system. The caffeine in tea is a GOOD caffeine. It's gentle on your system and it's very easily water soluble. That's why a cup of tea at night won't keep you up like coffee does. It may keep you up, but it won't be nearly as bad as coffee. Coffee isn't a bad caffeine, but it's not as good as tea. It sticks in your system longer and, in some people, causes paranoia and shakiness. Most people who can't handle the caffeine in coffee usually have no problems with tea.

Anywho, for weight loss, black tea may be even better than oolong.

If you're looking for some good black teas, I'd recommend Yunnan Gold, Assam Harmony, Keemun Concerto if you like smokiness, or Ceylon Sonata for something less assertive than the other three teas. Ceylon Sonata and Yunnan Gold might be a good place to start if you haven't had much black tea before.

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