Coffee vs Tea: Which is better for you?
By Anne Saita, Vistage Corporate Communications Staff
(with contributions by Web Editor Paul Diamond)
Someone once said, “A morning without coffee is like sleep.” Millions of people start the business day—or frequently, every day—enjoying the nation’s most consumed drug, one cup at a time.
Caffeine, a diuretic and powerful stimulant that often causes the jitters, can be found almost everywhere, from the explosion of energy drinks to the contents of ice cream. Its increasing presence in our foods has led health officials to warn that we’re becoming “overcaffeinated” and relying increasingly on the drug to counter sleep deprivation and loss of energy. Both coffee and tea have enough caffeine to wake us up, but are either of them truly bad for our health?
Coffee has more caffeine per cup compared to black, green and white tea (in that order). And perhaps that extra jolt is why Americans drink an estimated 115,000 cups of coffee every 15 seconds of every minute of every day, according to Mark Ukra, who owns a Los Angeles tea shop and refers to himself as “Dr. Tea.”
“Sadly, we have a caffeine epidemic in our country,” Ukra said. He predicts that caffeinated drinks and foods will someday carry health warnings similar to those now present on tobacco products.
Ukra was a heavy coffee drinker 15 years ago when he decided to switch to tea to improve his health. He stresses tea’s antioxidants, which keep cells from getting damaged and have a range of other protective health values. The highest concentration appears in white tea, followed by green and black tea. Coffee also contains antioxidants, though less than tea.
Tea’s health benefits and risks
Despite containing caffeine, says Ukra, tea is a hydrator and relaxing agent. Tea blocks the negative effects of caffeine, with a non-protein-based amino acid called L-theanine. The amino acid produces a calming effect that blocks the stimulatory properties of tea’s caffeine. Most people begin to feel more relaxed within 40 minutes of drinking tea. Coffee does not contain the same amino acid.
Here are other benefits:
- Tea contains polyphenols and the antioxidant compound epigallocatechin gallate; both have been shown to prevent the growth of certain cancers.
- Drinking just two or three cups of green tea daily can increase fat metabolism and overall metabolic rates.
- L-theanine boosts our immune response when fighting infection.
- Tea lowers the amounts of the stress hormone cortisol in our system.
What’s the downside of tea? It contains oxalate which can cause kidney damage and calcium depletion in exceptionally high doses. And like coffee, too much causes restlessness, nausea and insomnia.
Coffee’s health benefits and risks
The health benefits and risks of coffee seem to see-saw under the constant scrutiny and often contradictory results of more than 19,000 studies in the past 20 years. Here’s the latest news: People who drink six cups or more of coffee per day have a 30-50 percent lower chance of getting type 2 diabetes. And coffee’s not actually a diuretic, reports the New York Times. Apparently water and coffee make you urinate just as much.
"Overall, research shows that coffee is far more healthful than it is harmful," says Tomas DePaulis, PhD, research scientist at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Coffee Studies.
Here are some specific benefits:
- The most encouraging discovery comes from six independent studies that concluded that people who drink coffee are 80 percent less likely to develop Parkinson's disease.
- As a stimulant, caffeine elevates high blood pressure. However, in a 15-year Iowa Women’s Health Study, researchers found that among the 27,000 participants who drank one to three cups of coffee daily, there was a 24 percent decrease in the risk of cardiovascular disease. Another Johns Hopkins study of 1,000 men done over 33 years showed no strong link between coffee and high blood pressure.
- Coffee drinkers are 41 percent less likely to get liver cancer than people who don't drink coffee.
And the drawbacks:
- Too much coffee can cause anxiety, nausea and trouble sleeping.
- One 12-year study of 58,000 men and women showed weight gain was common when they increased caffeine consumption. Interesting to note, caffeine is often a prime ingredient in appetite suppressant pills.
- Some studies show coffee containing the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide, the same chemical found in deep fry oil.
- Coffee has been found to reduce calcium absorption, which can lead to weaker bones that fracture more easily. The impact depends on consumption levels. Some health experts say the best way to offset that potential loss is to add one or two tablespoons of milk or cream or take recommended daily doses of calcium through some other means.
Brewing Tips
The caffeine in tea is released within the first 30-60 seconds of steeping. To reduce the caffeine in your tea, steep your tea for up to a minute in hot water, toss out the water and brew your tea again. “All tea is meant to be re-steeped one to four times,” Ukra maintains, “with the second time having the best taste.”
Let tea steep for 3-5 minutes to get the most health effects from it, he adds.
Coffee’s caffeine concentration is influenced by several factors. The longer a bean is roasted, the less caffeine it contains. That means the darker, more flavorful coffee beans have less caffeine than lighter, more mild beans. This is one reason that espresso has less caffeine than drip coffee. Also, espresso is made by forcing steam through the grinds and that carries with it less caffeine into the cup.
Taken in moderation – and what’s moderate depends largely on an individual’s tolerance level – the caffeine in coffee and tea can improve your mood, concentration and reaction times. So drink up, in moderation.
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