Compare coffee and chicory

In dis­putes about the dan­ger, harm­ful­ness or harm­less­ness of cof­fee, many copies have been bro­ken. They say that it acts on the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem, and irri­tates the gas­tric mucosa, and caus­es addic­tion. But at the same time, cof­fee, like no oth­er drink, helps to cheer up, wake up and improve vital­i­ty. And he’s deli­cious too.

An alter­na­tive to cof­fee is chico­ry. Drinks based on it are used by hyper­ten­sive patients, and peo­ple with angi­na pec­toris, and those suf­fer­ing from stom­ach ulcers. And the taste of chico­ry “from afar and in the dark” resem­bles cof­fee. Maybe, since it’s so safe, they should com­plete­ly replace espres­so and oth­er cap­puc­ci­nos?

In this mate­r­i­al, we will try to put an end to the dis­putes and fig­ure out which is bet­ter and health­i­er — cof­fee or chico­ry.

Coffee

The main advan­tage of cof­fee is that it con­tains caf­feine. Caf­feine, in turn, is an alka­loid that has an invig­o­rat­ing, ton­ic and psy­chos­tim­u­lat­ing effect. That is why cof­fee helps to wake up and increas­es effi­cien­cy.

In addi­tion, cof­fee boasts speed. The ton­ic effect occurs with­in 10–20 min­utes after inges­tion and lasts, depend­ing on the type of drink and the char­ac­ter­is­tics of human metab­o­lism, up to 1–2 hours. After that, the psy­chos­tim­u­lat­ing effect dis­ap­pears. At the same time, drink­ing one cup of cof­fee after anoth­er is not worth it — theo­bromine begins to accu­mu­late in the body, which leads to a decrease in men­tal and phys­i­cal tone.

In gen­er­al, cof­fee is char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. 
   Source of caf­feine - the fastest act­ing ton­ic sub­stance that helps to wake up, cheer up and has a psy­chos­tim­u­lat­ing effect;

2. 
   Has a bright and rich taste. Of course, the spe­cif­ic palette of shades depends on the type of cof­fee, brew­ing method, prepa­ra­tion, addi­tives (includ­ing sug­ar) and many oth­er exter­nal fac­tors. How­ev­er, in almost all cas­es, the taste is full-bod­ied, rich and intense;

3. 
   Reduces the feel­ing of hungerhas a not too notice­able, but still exist­ing “fat-burn­ing” effect, there­fore it can be used in com­plex weight loss pro­grams as an aid;

4. 
   Has a pre­ven­tive effect in rela­tion to a vari­ety of dis­eases, includ­ing can­cer, dia­betes, asth­ma and cir­rho­sis of the liv­er;

5. 
   Among the neg­a­tive fac­tors — is addic­tive and has an irri­tat­ing effect on the mucous mem­branes of the stom­ach. There­fore, it is bet­ter not to drink on an emp­ty stom­ach and to refrain from drink­ing at all with a pre­dis­po­si­tion to pep­tic ulcers.

Thus, cof­fee has both pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive qual­i­ties. And the most neg­a­tive of them is addic­tion. Reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of cof­fee leads to both tol­er­ance to caf­feine — in order to cheer up, you have to drink it more and more often — and addic­tion. She, of course, is not as strong as nar­cot­ic, alco­hol, tobac­co or med­ica­tion, but there is.

So, let’s sum up.

It is worth not­ing that the dan­ger of cof­fee man­i­fests itself with its pro­longed, reg­u­lar or exces­sive use. 1–2 cups a day, not drunk on an emp­ty stom­ach, are unlike­ly to harm the body in any way.

Chicory

Despite the fact that chico­ry is used as an alter­na­tive for cof­fee, the tastes of these drinks are very dif­fer­ent. Yes, and the effect too. So switch­ing from cof­fee to chico­ry may take longer than expect­ed.

In addi­tion, the invig­o­rat­ing prop­er­ties of chico­ry are high­ly con­tro­ver­sial. It does not con­tain psy­choac­tive sub­stances. Of course, its com­po­si­tion includes a huge amount of vit­a­mins, as well as pro­teins and fats, but every­thing invig­o­rates about the same as a reg­u­lar break­fast. The only “but” — chico­ry con­tains tan­nins, which have a mild ton­ic effect, but they are pre­sent­ed in extreme­ly small quan­ti­ties — even tea bags offer more tan­nins.

That is, it will not work to cheer up in the morn­ing by drink­ing a cup of a drink based on chico­ry. The ton­ic effect comes on slow­ly, and it is very mild, so there will be no sud­den surge of strength.

In gen­er­al, chico­ry is char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. 
   Soft ton­ing effect due to the con­tent of vit­a­mins, pro­teins, car­bo­hy­drates and tan­nins in the drink;

2. 
   spe­cif­ic taste, which has lit­tle to do with cof­fee drinks. But it is not very sim­i­lar to tea either, so it can be used sim­ply to diver­si­fy the diet;

3. 
   Con­tains inulin. This pro­bi­ot­ic reg­u­lates blood sug­ar and helps in nor­mal metab­o­lism. So chico­ry is suit­able for use in weight loss, and its abil­i­ty to sup­port metab­o­lism is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for those who lose weight through diets or diet con­trol;

4. 
   Inulin not only reg­u­lates metab­o­lism, but also improves the microflo­ra of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract, that is, it helps with diges­tion. Sug­ar-free chico­ry drinks are suit­able for peo­ple with dia­betes;

5. 
   Among the neg­a­tive qual­i­ties — Sig­nif­i­cant diuret­ic and choleretic action. There­fore, it is con­traindi­cat­ed in gall­stone dis­ease.

It is impor­tant to note that chico­ry is sold in two forms. The first is direct­ly chico­ry. The sec­ond is chico­ry extract. And the extract is strong­ly not rec­om­mend­ed for pur­chase, since it has nei­ther pos­i­tive nor neg­a­tive effects, and it is quite dif­fi­cult to under­stand which sub­stance is used as a “bal­last” in the fin­ished pow­der.

So, let’s sum up.

As a result, chico­ry is more of an alter­na­tive to tea than cof­fee. How­ev­er, many peo­ple like the taste of the burnt root of this plant. So the choice of drink becomes more a mat­ter of per­son­al pref­er­ence than prac­ti­cal use.

It is impor­tant to note the con­tent of inulin in the drink. This sub­stance is use­ful for reg­u­lat­ing metab­o­lism, has a sweet taste and is safe for peo­ple with dia­betes. But it is espe­cial­ly use­ful when los­ing weight with a diet or diet con­trol, since dur­ing such peri­ods it is more impor­tant than ever for the body to main­tain a nor­mal metab­o­lism.

Comparison

In gen­er­al, the con­clu­sions are obvi­ous — cof­fee invig­o­rates and tones, and chico­ry is just a drink with some ben­e­fi­cial effects due to the con­tent of vit­a­mins and inulin.

In mat­ters of taste, you can break even more spears than talk­ing about the ben­e­fits. The rich aro­ma of cof­fee, its com­plex fla­vor palette, includ­ing sour, bit­ter, flo­ral and fruity shades, but at the same time char­ac­ter­ized by rich­ness and strength, may not seem pleas­ant to every­one. As well as chico­ry. There­fore, you need to choose based on your feel­ings and impres­sions.