Social media has perpetuated the fantasy of coffee and coffee shops, but don’t count tea out just yet.
Tea, next to water, is the cheapest beverage. Hence, the cost of a box of 20 bags of tea is around $3. Tea bags can be reused multiple times before you must throw them away.
Coffee, on the other hand, can cost over $5 for a bag of coffee beans. Coffee beans can only be used one time before they must throw it away. Instant coffee can only be used for one cup and then must be thrown away.
In fact, tea has several health benefits. In a Harvard University health publishing article, they discuss how their studies have shown evidence of tea having many benefits.
One benefit is that tea has two polyphenols chemicals: catechins and epicatechins, which are substances linked to better health. They reduce inflammation and help fight against cancer.
In Tea and Health: Studies in Humans by Naghma Khan and Hasan Mukhtar, they said drinking tea can prevent multiple debilitating human diseases. These include maintenance of cardiovascular and metabolic health. In addition, it is associated with beneficial effects in prevention of cardiovascular diseases, particularly of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Khan and Mukhtar have both published several articles on how tea is helpful.
Malcolm Cross, a psychologist at City University London, said when you drink tea, it calms your heart and body down by reducing anxiety levels; just one cup of tea can make you calm to a small degree.
Coffee is also said to be helpful. According to Khan and Mukhtar, coffee reduces the risk of diabetes. However, most people add cream, half and half, etc. to their coffee, adding sugar to make it sweeter. The excess sugar can contribute to potential diabetes.
There is caffeine and caffeine free tea. One cup of caffeine tea has about half the caffeine of one cup of coffee. Tea can be made stronger to have the same amount of caffeine.
People would argue that coffee is better to wake them up due to the amounts caffeine, but having coffee in the afternoon can mess up sleep schedules. The National Sleep Foundation said caffeine can temporarily make us feel more alert by blocking sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain and increasing adrenaline production. However, it also takes six hours for half of the caffeine in a cup of coffee to get out of anyone’s system.
Most people do not drink decaf because of the taste and prefer regular coffee. Furthermore, decaf coffee is not 100% caffeine free because the laws still allow it to have traces of caffeine. Several online sources argue the amount of caffeine in decaf can be around 3 percent. The USA regulations provides a guideline that 97 percent of the original caffeine must be removed. The USA does not have a maximum level of residual caffeine. With this in mind, decaf coffee may have more caffeine then people know.
So, the next time you’re reaching for your morning cup of coffee, consider having a cup of tea instead.
