Tangerines & Weight-loss
Tangerine is one of the 9 herbal ingredients in our herbal remedy for weight loss. Tangerine peel has long been used in Chinese herbal medicine for weight loss. New research from The University of Western Ontario has discovered a substance in tangerines not only helps to prevent obesity, but also offers protection against type 2 diabetes, and even atherosclerosis, the underlying disease responsible for most heart attacks and strokes.
One of the astounding findings was that nobiletin, a pigment only found in the peel of the tangerine, was 10 times more effective at preventing weight gain and metabolic syndrome than the pigment found in grapefruit called naringenin.
In spite of being fed a typical Western diet high in fat and sugar a group of mice given concentrated nobiletin did not gain excess weight, get a fatty liver, or have elevated blood fat or blood sugar.
The group which were not fed the nobiletin became obese and showed all the signs of metabolic syndrome – high cholesterol and triglycerides, high blood levels of insulin and glucose, and a fatty liver.
The scientists noticed that when nobiletin was directly applied to human liver cells, the cells secreted less ‘bad’ fats.
The flavanoid has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions to lower cholesterol levels and some studies indicate that it may improve impaired memory loss and treat acne.
