Eight months after giving birth to my second son, I still am struggling to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I've successfully finished the first phase of the South Beach Diet, and successfully lost a couple of pounds.

Unfortunately my weight-loss momentum reached its plateau. My weighing scale refuses to budge to the last 5 lbs. So I've been trying my luck to get rid these unwanted pounds through a bit of exercise and opting for tea instead of coffee, green tea to be exact. With the idea that if I drink double the amount, then I might just lose twice the pounds. Only to find out that trying to lose weight by drinking ounces of green tea might not be a good idea.

"Green tea is good for you, but only if drunk in moderation. While the polyphenols in green tea are credited with preventing heart disease and cancer, it seems they can cause liver and kidney damage if consumed in very large quantities, a review of studies into the toxicity of polyphenols has shown."The study also says that we should not be alarmed by this, and we could still drink as many as 10 cups of green tea per day, AS LONG AS we are not taking any supplements, because "supplements may contain upto 50 times polyphenol as a single cup of tea".

After reading this article, it made me re-assess my weight goal and my dieting strategy. Perhaps it would be better if I just take it easy and do more exercises, rather than going for a quick fix. I would like to lose the 5 lbs but I don't think I'd want to lose my kidneys and liver in the process.

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