EGCG NUMBER 1

If a research centre troubled itself with creating a ranking of most valuable micronutrients, epicatechin EGCG would without doubt rank first.

VITAMINS, MINERALS, QUASI-VITAMINS

Several thousand publications have been devoted to this extraordinary nutrient over the past decade. Their review indicates that if, for example, vitamins and minerals are absolutely necessary for us to survive, epicatechins are essential to preserve health, improve stamina and live until cheerful old age. Therefore, epicatechins are classified as quasi vitamins: micronutrients not needed for survival as such, but for high existential comfort.

Someone might say: if so, then all the vitamins and minerals are more important. The problem is that vitamins and minerals are common in the everyday diet, and if someone did not grow up in abject poverty or is not guilty of gross dietary errors, then they generally have no problems with their supplementation. Well, unless they are a sportsperson... Here indeed, the volume and intensity of workout make special care for supplementing these micronutrients a mandatory practice.

In the case of epicatechins, it is different... These are generally lacking in the daily diet. As they are characterized by a tart, mouth-tightening taste, humans have over decades effectively eliminated them from everyday food. Previously, a sufficient quantity of them was provided by fruit and grains. Later, we have grown the varieties of plants almost completely devoid of epicatechins. We switched to consumption of food products made with white flour, and we throw away epicatechins with the chaff. We have improved food processing technologies, aimed at the elimination of epicatechins, an excellent example of which is the fermentation of black tea.

PLACE IN NATURE

Plants “invented” epicatechins as a defensive mechanism. These compounds belong to a wider group of plant defence substances – flavonoids. A distinguishing feature of this chemical group is that their basic skeleton is characterized by adaptability. This makes it relatively easy, depending on the circumstances, to mimic other biologically active substances – sugars, amino acids and steroids. With such adaptive similarity, flavonoids are included in the metabolic pathways of the above-listed compounds, but since they have different chemical structure, they alter the activity of these pathways. In this way, depending on the ecological niche occupied by a given crop plant, they alter the metabolism of bacteria, viruses, fungi, insects and even larger animals. This gimmick, as it is not difficult to guess, protects the plant from eradication.

When the defence plant substances penetrate the human body, this does not go without affect on its metabolism either. As we have consumed them over the millennia of the development of our species, we have adapted to coexist with them. Today, after we have limited the flavonoids content, especially that of epicatechins, in our diet, our metabolism without an appropriate adjustment fails and the body becomes more susceptible to various diseases.

PLACE IN SUPPLEMENTATION

Epicatechins protect us mainly against cancer, atherosclerosis and infections. However, this is not what young athletes are usually interested in. They prefer to know how a certain nutrient can help them to develop exercise capacity. Here, EGCG also prove to be extremely helpful...

They affect the activity of at least two anabolic hormones – adrenaline and testosterone.

In the mechanisms involved in the production of testosterone, epicatechins use the abovementioned similarity to steroids – and testosterone is a steroid hormone. They most likely do not impact testosterone directly but oestrogens – female sex hormones. Epicatechins bind to oestrogen receptors inside cells and inactivate them. Such an activity is referred to as anti-oestrogenic. Since oestrogens inhibit testosterone production, limiting their activity results in increased levels of this hormone.

Inhibition of oestrogen activity has yet another aspect – aesthetic one. Oestrogens contribute to the accumulation of subcutaneous water and fat around the nipples (the latter is called lipomastia). Limiting their activity is conducive to obtaining the appropriate body shape, therefore epicatechins are readily being included in the competition preparation programmes by athletes practicing bodybuilding sports.

Epicatechins also inhibit the activity of the enzyme that breaks down adrenaline in the muscle tissue. Adrenaline itself generally does not penetrate into the muscle cells. It binds with the appropriate proteins on the surface of their membrane, the so-called beta adrenergic receptors. As a result of this binding, the level of a specific compound, cAMP, increases inside the cell.

Then, cAMP binds to the receptor inside the cell, affects the genetic material and stimulates anabolism, i.e. protein synthesis. It acts very similarly to testosterone in this respect.

Finally, in studies, it has been shown that epicatechins improved by about 10% the nitrogen balance – the measure of the rate of protein anabolism.

The cAMP mentioned above is not only active in muscle but also in fat cells. Once its level increases in the latter, the molecules of fat reserves undergo rapid destruction, a process called lipolysis, and violent burning with the generation of thermal energy, which in turn is called thermogenesis. It is not surprising that this leads to inevitable loss of fat reserves, which simply means the reduction of body fat.

Although the cAMP levels in fat cells increase most significantly under the influence of noradrenaline, still epicatechins inhibit the inactivation of noradrenaline as efficiently as adrenaline. And for this reason, they have recently become perhaps the most popular aid for working out, for weight reduction in disciplines with weight limits, and for shaping the body in bodybuilding sports.
 

Sławomir Ambroziak, MSc Pharm