"Recently a lot of talk has taken place about the ineffectiveness of Canadian versions of popular Thermogenic fat burners
like Hydroxycut and Xenadrine. The general consensus is that they don't contain Ma Huang or Guarana, so they're weak
versions and pretty much useless. Well, one of the Ironmag founders and its two most prolific writers live in Ontario and
Quebec, Canada, so we sent two of them out to research the newest releases in the Canadian thermogenic supplement
scene. What they brought back may have you Canadians second-guessing your purchase of American versions and
instead have you running down to your local GNC to pick up the "tamer" Canadian versions instead.

Firstly Canadian laws prohibit the sales of ephedra/caffeine-based supplements containing Ma Huang and some dosages
of Guarana. So previously supplement manufacturers have chosen to either not put out a Canadian fat burner at all, or
simply release a glorified caffeine pill.

However recently we've seen a few new thermogenic supplements arrive on Canadian supplement store shelves that
contain two "new" ingredients. Sida Cordefolia and Green Tea.

Until recently you may have heard about Sida Cordefolia only through herbal stores as being simply another herbal drug
alternative. Sida Cordefolia has been used by herbalists for over 2000 years to treat bronchial asthma, colds and flu, chills,
lack of perspiration, headache, nasal congestion, aching joints and bones, cough and wheezing, and edema. What
supplement manufacturers have discovered though is that the stem of this plant contains a number of active compounds,
including small amounts of an essential oil, and most important, 1-2% alkaloids composed mainly of ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine, with the amounts of ephedrine ranging from 30-90%, depending on the source. Sida Cordefolia plants
contain less ephedrine alkaloids than an Ephedra plant, and more plants are needed to get the same amount of alkaloids,
however it is still an effective herbal form of ephedra.

Green Tea has been shown in recent studies to actually out perform caffeine in its fat oxidation effects!

One study from the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva; Geneva University Hospital; and
Laboratories Arkopharma, Nice, France; revealed that "has thermogenic properties and promotes fat oxidation beyond that
explained by its caffeine content per se. The green tea extract may play a role in the control of body composition via
sympathetic activation of thermogenesis, fat oxidation, or both". 10 subjects were given either caffeine, a placebo, or a
special green tea extract, standardized to 25 percent catechins. Catechins are the ingredients in green tea believed to
speed up metabolism, but they do not appear to speed up the heart rate. After a 24-hour period, researchers found that the
caffeine and placebo groups experienced no change, while thermogenesis in the green tea group shot up by 40 percent.
That amount of increase is roughly equivalent to the energy a person expends jogging for one-half hour.

Dulloo AG, Seydoux J, Girardier L, Chantre P, Vandermander J from the Institute of Physiology, University of Fribourg,
Fribourg, Switzerland report that its thermogenic properties could reside primarily in an interaction between its high content
in catechin-polyphenols and caffeine with sympathetically released noradrenaline (NA). Green Tea is a polyphenol and its
polyphenols are known as catechins. They are potent antioxidants. Six catechin polyphenols have been isolated from green
tea; (-)-epigallocatechin, (-)-epicatechin, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG), gallocatechin-3-O-gallate (GCG),
methyl-epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate, and (-)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate (ECG). These substances were tested for their
antioxidant activity, and the gallic acid esters EGCG and EGC were found to be the strongest antioxidants, with EGCG
being over 200 times more active than Vitamin E in an in vitro model. In another test, EGCG was more active against fat
rancidity (lipid peroxidation) than Vitamin C or Vitamin E, and also exhibited synergistic action with those vitamins. Dulloo et
al, theorize that the interaction between these antioxidants and NA increase the rate of thermogenesis. It's also been
theorized that the catechin polyphenols of green tea have been shown to inhibit starch degradation with amylase and
reduce glucose and insulin when present in the diet.

In fact so many studies are pouring in proclaiming the superiority of Green Tea compared to caffeine and guarana extract
for fat oxidization, that possibly in the near future, all thermogenic supplements will contain green tea.

Canadian bodybuilders should no doubt rethink their position on the usefulness of Canadian versions of thermogenic
supplements. Though no studies have or probably ever will be done on Canadian vs. American thermogenics, chances are
the results would be similar or perhaps, even in the Canadian versions favor as far as fat oxidization as a result of the Sida
Cordefolia and especially Green Tea extract."