Compare tea and coffee | Benefit and harm

The debate about which is bet­ter — tea or cof­fee — has not sub­sided, prob­a­bly since the appear­ance of these drinks. More­over, sup­port­ers and oppo­nents of each of them in the “bat­tles” use a vari­ety of argu­ments — from the dif­fer­ence in tastes to attempts to fig­ure out what is more use­ful or more harm­ful.

And this is not at all sur­pris­ing. Tea and cof­fee are very pop­u­lar drinks avail­able at any time of the year and are much eas­i­er to pre­pare than any fruit drink or kvass. And they act in the same way. Both tea and cof­fee have a ton­ic effect, for exam­ple.

Let’s try to put an end to this mate­r­i­al and fig­ure out what is bet­ter to drink — tea or cof­fee, and also what are the ben­e­fits and harms of drinks.

Tea

Tea is one of the most pop­u­lar drinks, espe­cial­ly in “our lat­i­tudes”. Accord­ing to his­tor­i­cal data, for the first time in Rus’ it was tried back in the 17th cen­tu­ry, and it was brought by the Chi­nese ambas­sador. A cen­tu­ry and a half passed — and not only the nobles, but also ordi­nary peo­ple began to pam­per them­selves with tea, brew­ing it in clas­sic samovars.

Thus, tea is prac­ti­cal­ly a “pri­mor­dial­ly Euro­pean” drink, which over the past three cen­turies has become an inte­gral ele­ment of every­day cui­sine.

How­ev­er, its ben­e­fi­cial and harm­ful prop­er­ties are not known to every­one. But tea is a rather com­plex chem­i­cal sub­stance that has a com­plex effect on the body. And the effect is not lim­it­ed to sim­ply increas­ing phys­i­cal and vital­i­ty.

Two sub­stances, caf­feine and thea­nine, are respon­si­ble for the psy­chos­tim­u­lant and stim­u­lat­ing effects of tea. They both help wake up, ener­gize and ele­vate mood, as well as increase men­tal per­for­mance and sta­mi­na. Thea­nine, in addi­tion, has a relax­ation effect — that is, it helps to get rid of stress and ten­sion, while improv­ing cog­ni­tive qual­i­ties.

It is worth not­ing that thea­nine in green tea is more than in black. That is why it has a pro­nounced and notice­able relax­ation effect.

Black tea dif­fers from green tea only in the way it is fer­ment­ed. The plant is the same, but when processed, the chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion changes. There­fore, black tea con­tains less thea­nine, green tea con­tains caf­feine and thea­nine in almost nat­ur­al pro­por­tions, and some pu-erh con­tains a huge amount of tan­nins, thea­nine and a min­i­mum of caf­feine.

How­ev­er, the effect of tea is not lim­it­ed to the invig­o­rat­ing effect. Oth­er use­ful qual­i­ties include improv­ing diges­tion, improv­ing the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem, anti­sep­tic and antivi­ral prop­er­ties. Thus, tea has a pos­i­tive effect on the body. But with prop­er use.

Tea also has harm­ful effects. First­ly, it leads to dark­en­ing and par­tial destruc­tion of the enam­el on the teeth. Sec­ond­ly, due to the con­tent of tan­nins — which are espe­cial­ly abun­dant in pu-erh and black tea — it is not rec­om­mend­ed for use after lunch and in the evening. This can lead to sleep dis­tur­bance and the devel­op­ment of rheuma­toid arthri­tis.

Tea con­tains quite a lot of flu­o­rine. This microele­ment, although use­ful in small dos­es, in large dos­es leads to dis­rup­tion of the func­tion­ing of the thy­roid gland, neg­a­tive­ly affects the con­di­tion of bone tis­sue and kid­neys.

In gen­er­al, tea is char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. It has a mild ton­ic effect due to the con­tent of caf­feine, thea­nine and tan­nins (tan­nins);

2. In green tea, all these sub­stances are in close to nat­ur­al bal­ance. There is less thea­nine in black. There are a lot of tan­nins in pu-erh;

3. Thea­nine not only tones, but also has an excel­lent psy­cho-stim­u­lat­ing and relax­ation effect. It helps to get rid of stress, ten­sion, relax­es and improves mood;

4. The ben­e­fi­cial effect of tea extends to the cir­cu­la­to­ry, car­dio­vas­cu­lar and diges­tive sys­tems. It also has an anti­sep­tic and antivi­ral effect;

5. The harm­ful effect of tea affects the con­di­tion of the enam­el on the teeth. Also, when con­sumed in excess, it impairs the func­tion­ing of the thy­roid gland, the health of bones and kid­neys;

6. Drink­ing tea after lunch or in the evening is def­i­nite­ly not rec­om­mend­ed. May cause sleep dis­tur­bances and lead to rheuma­toid arthri­tis.

It should be not­ed that the ton­ic effect of tea is slow and mild. The effect of drink­ing a cup does not appear imme­di­ate­ly, but with­in 3–6 hours after inges­tion. This is impor­tant to con­sid­er, because many peo­ple, in order to achieve max­i­mum vig­or, brew tea too strong and drink sev­er­al cups in a row. And after a few hours, they “receive” the overex­ci­ta­tion of the ner­vous sys­tem, when it is no longer required.

First­ly, green main­tains a nat­ur­al bal­ance between thea­nine and caf­feine. There­fore, it simul­ta­ne­ous­ly tones the body and pro­tects the ner­vous sys­tem and psy­che from the con­se­quences of excite­ment (stress, ten­sion, obses­sive and depressed states).

Sec­ond­ly, green tea also con­tains vit­a­min C. It addi­tion­al­ly heals the body, has a slight ton­ic effect and sig­nif­i­cant­ly strength­ens the immune sys­tem. In black tea, vit­a­min C is destroyed dur­ing fer­men­ta­tion.

But this does not mean that green tea is a store­house of vit­a­mins. The fact is that vit­a­min C is destroyed by heat­ing. For its com­plete “destruc­tion” it is required to boil for 2–3 min­utes. Tea is not brewed, but is brewed with hot water at a tem­per­a­ture of about 90–95 degrees. There­fore, already 15–20 min­utes after brew­ing, vit­a­min C is destroyed.

Thus, green tea should be drunk imme­di­ate­ly after brew­ing.

Coffee

Cof­fee is the most pop­u­lar of invig­o­rat­ing and ton­ic drinks. It con­tains caf­feine, a pow­er­ful psy­chos­tim­u­lant that almost instant­ly “awak­ens” and ener­gizes. Cof­fee begins to “act” with­in a few min­utes after drink­ing — how­ev­er, its ton­ic effect also pass­es quick­ly.

In par­tic­u­lar, for most peo­ple, the ton­ic effect of a cup of cof­fee occurs with­in 20 min­utes after drink­ing. And ends in about 2–3 hours. That is why many peo­ple drink one cup after anoth­er, try­ing to main­tain their ener­gy lev­els through­out the day. But it’s pret­ty dan­ger­ous. How­ev­er, more on that lat­er.

First, let’s talk about the ben­e­fits of cof­fee. In addi­tion to a pow­er­ful psy­chos­tim­u­lant effect, this drink boasts a large amount of antiox­i­dants. These sub­stances slow down the aging of cells and tis­sues in the body, have a reju­ve­nat­ing effect and serve to pre­vent can­cer.

Cof­fee also rais­es blood pres­sure. On the one hand, it is very use­ful for hypoten­sive patients — it allows you to cheer up and improve your well-being. On the oth­er hand, it is con­traindi­cat­ed in hyper­ten­sive patients. They can’t increase the pres­sure.

Final­ly, cof­fee improves diges­tion. It stim­u­lates the pro­duc­tion of gas­tric juice, which is espe­cial­ly use­ful for indi­ges­tion or sim­i­lar prob­lems. How­ev­er, drink­ing cof­fee on an emp­ty stom­ach is unde­sir­able, espe­cial­ly for peo­ple at risk of pep­tic ulcers.

But the harm from cof­fee is no less than good. First, caf­feine is addic­tive. It man­i­fests itself both in tol­er­ance — in order to cheer up, you need more and more espres­so — and in depen­dence. It can be dif­fi­cult to “wake up” with­out a cup of cof­fee. And the use of caf­feine in exces­sive dos­es can lead to neg­a­tive men­tal phe­nom­e­na, includ­ing stress, anx­i­ety, headaches, ner­vous­ness, and even depres­sion.

Cof­fee, unlike most soft drinks, has strict con­traindi­ca­tions for use. Among them are hyper­ten­sion and pep­tic ulcers, as well as a ten­den­cy to them.

In gen­er­al, cof­fee is char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. A quick ton­ic effect, which is short-term at the same time — comes after 20 min­utes and dis­ap­pears after 2–3 hours. It is achieved due to the inclu­sion of a large amount of caf­feine in the com­po­si­tion of the drink;

2. Bean and instant (freeze-dried) cof­fee con­tain approx­i­mate­ly the same amount of caf­feine. So there is not much dif­fer­ence between these two types of drink from a chem­i­cal point of view. But it is bet­ter not to use decaf­feinat­ed cof­fee at all — it under­goes spe­cial pro­cess­ing, as a result of which its com­po­si­tion changes great­ly;

3. Caf­feine has an exclu­sive­ly psy­chos­tim­u­lant effect. Sub­stances that could help avoid the neg­a­tive side effects of exci­ta­tion — or even overex­ci­ta­tion — of the ner­vous sys­tem, are not in cof­fee;

4. The ben­e­fi­cial effect of cof­fee extends to the car­dio­vas­cu­lar and diges­tive sys­tems, but only in cas­es where their nat­ur­al func­tion is reduced;

5. The harm­ful effect of cof­fee also affects the car­dio­vas­cu­lar and diges­tive sys­tems in case of hyper­func­tion or the pres­ence of cer­tain dis­eases. Also, this drink is addic­tive and, if con­sumed exces­sive­ly, can cause overex­ci­ta­tion of the ner­vous sys­tem with all the “con­se­quences”;

6. Con­trary to com­mon mis­con­cep­tions, you can drink cof­fee after lunch or even in the evening. The ton­ic effect will have passed by the time you fall asleep. How­ev­er, it is worth con­sid­er­ing your own metab­o­lism — in some peo­ple, caf­feine decom­pos­es in the body very slow­ly and invig­o­rates with­in 5–6 hours after drink­ing.

The most unpleas­ant and neg­a­tive effect of cof­fee is the appear­ance of depen­dence. It is sim­i­lar to drug, tobac­co or alco­hol, but it man­i­fests itself more eas­i­ly and with a weak with­draw­al syn­drome. How­ev­er, with addic­tion, you have to drink much more cof­fee than usu­al for vivac­i­ty, and it is no longer pos­si­ble to “wake up” with­out it. Yes, and men­tal con­se­quences like stress, ner­vous­ness and headaches will not keep you wait­ing.

A treat­ment option for cof­fee addic­tion is to con­sume decaf­feinat­ed ver­sions of the drink. How­ev­er, it is worth remem­ber­ing that the grains for their prepa­ra­tion under­go a spe­cial chem­i­cal treat­ment, so their com­po­si­tion changes sig­nif­i­cant­ly.

So, let’s sum up.

All these short­com­ings apply not only to grain cof­fee, but also to instant (sub­li­mat­ed). The chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion of these two drinks is the same, as a result of which both pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive effects are also sim­i­lar. The dif­fer­ence is in con­cen­tra­tion, also called “strength”.

What is better to drink — tea or coffee? Comparison

In com­par­i­son of use­ful and harm­ful qual­i­ties, tea, of course, wins. But every­thing is good in mod­er­a­tion. When con­sumed in excess, tea can be quite harm­ful.

Thus, in terms of ben­e­fits, tea wins. And green. How­ev­er, it is def­i­nite­ly not worth abus­ing it — it also has a harm­ful effect. It is rec­om­mend­ed to drink tea in the morn­ing to avoid tone before going to bed.

Don’t give up cof­fee either. A rea­son­able solu­tion would be its irreg­u­lar infre­quent con­sump­tion.

In gen­er­al, the most cor­rect solu­tion would be to respect diver­si­ty. It is worth drink­ing green tea, and black, and cof­fee, and com­potes, and fruit drinks, and oth­er drinks. Then the body will receive all the nec­es­sary nutri­ents in equal pro­por­tions, and the harm­ful effects will be min­i­mized. Although, of course, cof­fee should be aban­doned if there are con­traindi­ca­tions.