Health Benefits Of
Coffee vs. Tea: Which One Is Better For You?
To some, coffee is an essential drug of sorts: a
jolting liquid that staves away fatigue, headaches, and lack of motivation. Or
perhaps you’re a recovering coffee addict who has now turned to the soothing
varieties of tea to get a decent caffeine fix, just without the jitters. Of
course, coffee sometimes sounds more like an addiction than a drink that’s good
for you, and this is perhaps why tea gets the good reputation of being
healthier. But is tea really that much better for you?
Origins
While tea is the most widely consumed beverage in
the world next to water (and right before beer), coffee is also hugely popular.
And both drinks have been around for a long time, to boot.
According to legend, tea was first discovered by
the Emperor of China in 2737 BC while he was boiling water under a tree. When
leaves accidentally fell into the boiling water, he tasted it and was surprised
by its goodness. Tea then became popular among scholars and priests in China
and Japan, who drank tea to stay awake, study, and meditate. This is perhaps
why the hot drink has always been associated with mindfulness, calm,
spirituality, and solid health.
Coffee, meanwhile, didn’t seem to
appear until much later — and is believed to have originated in the Ethiopian
highlands, where legend says a goatherd named Kaldi noticed his goats became
hyperactive after eating certain berries from a tree. Coffee then spread to
monks at monasteries, where they drank the beverage to keep them alert while
praying. From there, it began making its way across the Arabian Peninsula. Both
coffee and tea remained Eastern beverages for a long time; coffee didn’t even
arrive in Europe until the 17th century.
Benefits
Both coffee and tea have their
benefits, though it’s always hard to pinpoint exactly what those are due to the
large amount of contradictory studies. Researchers have focused on specific
potential benefits of coffee, with some studies finding that coffee might have
the ability to reduce the incidence of dementia or Alzheimer’s or even type
2 diabetes, for example. Coffee has a higher caffeine content than tea, meaning
its levels of the stimulant might help people with asthma by relaxing the
lung's airways. Caffeine also helps in constricting blood vessels in the brain
and reducing migraines, and often alleviates hangovers because of this. So if
you’ve got a bad headache, taking some Advil with coffee and food (and water)
might help you out.
Harvard School of Public Health analyzed
coffee’s overall effect on health and concluded that the beverage was pretty
neutral — it didn’t cause any serious health problems, but it also didn’t
necessarily have any specific health benefits, either. Even drinking up to 6
cups of coffee didn’t appear to raise anyone’s risk of dying — but it also
didn’t seem to make anyone live particularly longer. What this means,
essentially, is that if you’re a stalwart coffee lover, you really have nothing
to worry about.
Tea, on the other hand, is filled
with antioxidants and potential cancer-fighting properties. According to
the National Cancer Institute at the NIH, tea contains polyphenol compounds, which are
antioxidants that might aid in cancer prevention. Though not enough has been
studied to conclude whether tea does in fact reduce the risk of cancer, tea has
often been considered a therapeutic or medicinal drink that has both soothing
and rejuvenating qualities.
All types of tea are made from the
leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis, which
wilt and oxidize after harvesting; oxidation results in the breaking down of
chemicals. The amount of oxidation that occurs in the leaves is what defines
different types of teas, from black tea to white tea, and of course green tea.
Polyphenols in particular are a group of plant chemicals that are believed to
be involved in health benefits — especially in green tea. Teas with the highest
levels of polyphenols are usually brewed hot teas rather than cold (and sugary)
bottled teas. Polyphenols in green tea, and theaflavins and thearubigins in
black tea, contain free radicals that might protect cells from DNA damage.
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