Coffee or Tea: Which One is the Healthier Choice?
In the morning, when you grab your favorite mug to fill with a hot refreshing beverage, what do you pour into your cup? Whether you like the deep notes of coffee or the crisp and refreshing flavor of tea, both are excellent choices. When it comes to health, is tea or coffee the better choice?
Coffee contains many antioxidant polyphenols, as well as caffeine and trigonelline. Uma Naidoo, MD, a nutritional psychiatrist told MindBodyGreen that these properties may reduce the chance of memory loss and enhance cognition. In addition to antioxidants, such as the
anti-inflammatory compound chlorogenic acid, coffee also supports brain health, and may make a positive impact on other health conditions.
A study published by Food Research International found that drinking coffee can help reduce the risk of gastrointestinal and liver cancer. The protective properties in coffee may also slow the development of cancers of the digestive tract. This includes oral, gastric, colorectal, and esophageal cancers.
Research, published in Circulation, was performed over ten years and looked at
34,670 healthy women. Participants who drank five or more cups of coffee each day, reduced the risk of stroke by 23 percent, as compared to non-coffee drinkers.
On the other hand, tea holds many valuable health benefits too. Tea contains a high number ofanti-inflammatory properties, such as antioxidants. When it comes to your overall well-being, tea can help ease nausea, soothe headaches, reduce digestive issues, and strengthen your immune system. Theaflavins, thearubigins, and catechins in tea can improve cardiovascular processes and decrease inflammation according to WebMD.
The polyphenols in black tea may contain properties that can help fight against cancer. This study published in The Febs Journal, looked at leukemia cells and found that by drinking tea, the cell-cycle development may have been slowed. This research is still being conducted so no findings are final.
As well as potentially preventing cancer, tea can reduce the risk of having a stroke. A ten-year study in the Journal of Zhejiang University looked at 74,961 healthy people. Those who drank four cups or more of black tea each day had a 21 percent lower risk of stroke. This is extremely important because strokes are the second leading cause of death worldwide.
So, what should you choose when you want something hot that can either wake you up or help you unwind after a long day? When it comes down to it, both coffee and tea provide benefits but coffee does contain a higher amount of caffeine, which some people may want to avoid.When it comes to the caffine in coffee versus the caffiene in tea, since tea contains much less, it is the healthier choice.
