Lots of folks love to drink coffee or tea, but which of the two is better for your health? Out of these popular drinks, both have good and bad qualities, but let’s compare them to see if either is a clear winner in which one is healthier.
Amount of Caffeine – Both coffee and tea (depending on the type) have some amount of caffeine in them. A typical cup of coffee has between 90 and 100 milligrams of caffeine, though there are stronger roasts with much higher caffeine content.
Real teas (not herbal) like black or green tea also have caffeine. The levels in the strongest kind of tea are usually between 70 and 90 milligrams of caffeine.
Caffeine blocks adenosine, which is a neurotransmitter that causes someone to relax, therefore it makes the person drinking it more alert and focused. While coffee only has caffeine, tea has an amino acid called l-theanine which also helps someone stay alert, as well as slows the absorption of caffeine. But it does this in a more balanced manner so there are no spikes in blood sugar like coffee may bring due to it containing GABA, a neurotransmitter that also decreases anxiety.
So, tea appears to win over coffee if you want a more balanced way to stay alert.
Preventing Diabetes Type 2
Both tea and coffee are said to help prevent diabetes type 2. Many studies have proven that caffeine in coffee helps prevent resistance to insulin, and drinkers have a seven percent less chance of getting diabetes type 2.
Additionally, both green and black tea also is good for preventing diabetes due to the theaflavins and thearubigins in black tea which both have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and blood-sugar-lowering properties, and the epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in green tea which was shown to stimulate glucose uptake, which helps reduce blood sugar amounts.
Once again, tea appears to win over coffee since even though both have qualities that help, tea has more of them.
Helps with Weight Loss
Green tea has been shown to rev up the metabolism and thereby make fat loss easier. An 8-week study showed drinking 4 or more cups daily helped participants lose weight due to EGCG, an antioxidant that speeds up the oxidation of fats so the liver can get rid of it more effectively. The caffeine in this and other teas also speeds up metabolism and supports weight loss.
Coffee too, due to the caffeine levels, may help people to lose weight due to revving up the metabolism. It also helps you not to retain water since it makes you urinate more. It also contains
Chlorogenic Acid, stimulates the body to break down body fat more effectively.
In this case, it could be a tie as both works to help you lose weight.
All in all, it would seem both coffee and tea have healthy qualities and the above is a small fraction of these characteristics. In these examples, tea would appear to win over coffee, but in reality, both are just about equal.
