Green tea vs turmeric vs high flavanol cocoa for cellulite reduction and prevention

EGCG, curcumin and cocoa flavanols for cellulite

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• Green tea vs turmeric vs cocoa flavanols: which is best for detoxing, skin firmness, anti-aging and cellulite removal?

• Curcumin vs EGCG vs cocoa flavanols

• Green tea: with 7% active ingredient content, it is clearly a winner

• Turmeric: 2% curcumin and a hassle to prepare

• Cocoa: 0.5% flavanols - plus needs milk and/or sugar

• What about blueberries?

• The merits of each herb

• Quality vs concentration?

• Green tea: easy to replicate health studies with a few cuppas

• There is nothing special about matcha tea - just high caffeine and the instagram pictures

• High flavanol cocoa

• The ultimate detox drink for perfectionists

• Check our professional consultancy in cellulite, skin tightening, ultrasound and radiofrequency

Green tea vs turmeric vs cocoa flavanols: which is best for detoxing, skin firmness, anti-aging and cellulite removal?

Most people looking into popular superfood ingredients, especially turmeric, matcha tea and cocoa, to help them detox their body, either from the festive excesses in the winter or to get ready for summer in the spring.

Being big proponents of natural health, and specifically polyphenol-rich herbs, we have looked into the benefits and nutrient content of each of these popular superfoods and have come to some interesting findings.

Curcumin vs EGCG vs cocoa flavanols

Each of these food ingredients (turmeric, green tea and cocoa) has a key super-nutrient, i.e. an active molecule, responsible for the vast majority of its health and detoxifying - and aesthetic - benefits:

• Turmeric has curcumin

• Green tea boasts a molecule called EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate)

• Cocoa contains flavanols

These actives are found at different concentrations in each herb.

So which super-ingredient is more "super" than the rest?

Green tea: with 7% active ingredient content, it is clearly a winner

Personally I am a big fun of all three nutrients, but in terms of simplicity, concentration and cost, it’s a no brainer: if I had to choose one of those famous “super actives”, that would be the humble green tea - no need for expensive and cumbersome to drink matcha.

A cup is easy to prepare, costs next to nothing and provides you with a whooping 7% active molecules (EGCG), the most of any other drink or food.

Turmeric: 2% curcumin and a hassle to prepare

This is in contrast to turmeric, which is a hassle to prepare (due to all the yellowness everywhere around the kitchen) and only contains 2% active (curcumin).

Cocoa: 0.5% flavanols - plus needs milk and/or sugar

Plain cocoa fares even worse, as it usually needs milk and sugar to be palatable and only contains 0.5% actives (flavanols).

Blueberries: 0.2% proanthocyanidins

For comparison between these herbs and blueberries (the purported “king of antioxidants”), the latter contain only 0.2% proanthocyanidins.

The merits of each herb

All three superfood actives have quite similar and diverse health benefits:

• All are powerful antioxidants

• Curcumin is more known as an anti-inflammatory

• EGCG is well known as an all round skin health booster

• Cocoa flavanols are renowned for their microcirculation enhancement

So looking at the evidence, no scientist could really decide on which ingredient is best, quality-wise.

Quality vs concentration?

However, quantity-wise, things are much simpler.

Looking at the concentration of each active, it is quite easy to pick a winner: green tea contains 14x more polyphenols than cocoa, 3.5x more than curcumin - and 35x more than blueberries.

Green tea takes five minutes to prepare, is super cheap and is widely available. On the other hand, curcumin needs another drink, such as a protein shake or a latte, to be added to, and will stain your teeth and everything it gets in contact with. And cocoa needs a protein shake too or milk and sugar/sweetener - not the best way to “detox”.

Green tea: easy to replicate health studies yourself with a few cups a day

With five cups of green tea a day you can get a whooping 350mg of EGCG, i.e. an amount compared to that used in clinical studies.

On the other hand, to have 1000mg of curcumin used in many studies, you need 20 spoonfuls of turmeric. That’s a lot of turmeric lattes and very yellow teeth…

There is nothing special about matcha tea - just high caffeine and the instagram pictures

And you don’t even need to use expensive - and more difficult to prepare and drink - matcha powder tea to get the benefits.

Matcha is indeed very hip and instagrammable but it typically contains the same amount of EGCG as a normal quality green tea (contrary to what matcha sellers claim), with a lot more caffeine, at 10x times the price. Not really worth it.

And there is no point having decaf matcha - matcha was traditionally developed in Japan centuries ago for its high caffeine content - not for more antioxidants, which were unknown then.

High flavanol cocoa

High flavanol cocoa, on the other hand, may contain as many polyphenols as green tea: a whooping 8% flavanols.

But it is more costly, almost impossible to source (most commercial high-flavanol cocoa varieties contain just 1-2% flavanols) and still needs a drink to be added to, such as a protein shake or milk, as well as sweetener.

So it does not really compare well.

The ultimate detox drink for perfectionists

So if you are looking for a drink to help you detoxify, fill your body with antioxidants, beat cellulite and help tighten your skin this year, green tea is the simplest and most effective choice.

On the other hand, if you are a perfectionist and are looking for the ultimate “detox drink”, why not add some turmeric, decaf sencha green tea powder and high flavanol cocoa in a whey or vegan protein shake?

It may not taste or look great (green, orange and brown don’t make a nice colour when mixed together), but it will provide you with the ultimate in antioxidant/polyphenol goodness.

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