For years, there has been a debate between tea drinkers and coffee drinkers regarding which drink is better and why. There have been multiple studies on the effects of these two beverages on health and performance of regular drinkers. But these studies usually focus on only one beverage and its relation with human health. Thus, even after so many studies, there hasn’t been a clear verdict about which one is better.
So here is a comparison between the two to help you decide which team you’re on.
1. Most Consumed Drink
Tea is the 2nd most consumed beverage all around the world, right after water. However, coffee isn’t too behind either. It is on number four following beer. The top position of tea may be attributed to the vast variety of the beverage in terms of added flavours like peach, lemon, blueberry among other fruits. However, now with coffee companies emerging with new varieties of coffee along with nespresso compatible pods have made it easier to spread to reach of coffee.
2. Source of Caffeine
Both tea and coffee are natural source of caffeine. They result in better alertness and enhance your performance. However, in terms of content of caffeine, coffee is a better source. A standard cup of tea has only 40 to 60 mg caffeine while a same cup of coffee contains about 100 to 115 mg caffeine. But, there are evidences that a cup of tea as strong as coffee can have more caffeine and result in better alertness than a normal cup of tea.
3. Health Benefits
There have been hundreds of surveys and studies on the health benefits of the two beverages. While early studies showed them to be causing certain diseases, more recent ones have debunked those claims and shown that, rather, help preventing many chronic diseases.
Studies show that coffee is helpful in preventing diseases like liver and breast cancer and reduces risks of heart attacks and other vascular diseases as well as colorectal cancer. Coffee also helps in improving digestive system.
On the other hand, tea, especially green tea, helps with better bone density and faster healing of fractures. Tea is also linked with curbing the risks of cardiovascular diseases. Thus coffee may have more clear health benefits than tea.
4. Weight loss
While coffee helps boost metabolism and enhances endurance helping you work out more efficiently, tea, specifically green tea, helps you manage your weight more efficiently by helping with fat oxidation and burning more calories. Studies were conducted with green tea and placebos and it was shown that those who had 3-4 cups of green tea are better able to lose excess weight. Green tea helps thermogenesis more than coffee and thus is a better option when it comes to losing weight. However, adding sweeteners will reduce the benefits of green tea substantially.
5. Longevity
In terms of increased longevity, tea may be a winner since there are studies showing that regular tea drinkers have lower risks of premature death than non tea drinkers, although around 6 cups of coffee regularly can also help reduce this risk by around 10% among men and 15% among women.
Tea is a significant part of Japanese culture and we all know that it has one of the highest life expectancy in the world, of 84 years.
6. Positivity
When it comes to being calm and healing your soul, tea is clearly the way to go. This is probably why Rachel offered to fix Ross a cup of tea to cheer him up (FRIENDS season 5 episode 2). One Study has also shown that offices where people drink coffee have a positive outlook than those that don’t have coffee. Evidences also show that coffee helps reduce risk of depression in a long run even though it increases heart rate as an immediate effect. However, tea tends to calm the nerves and helps with overall anxiety, especially chamomile and earl grey tea. I guess you can say it’s positiviTEA and not positiviCOFFEE.
Although there are many scientific researches going on to put this tea v/s coffee debate to bed, this whole debate is more emotional than scientific. It is just on the basis of individual preference and liking. While the tea drinkers and coffee drinkers are waging wars against each other, the cocoa drinkers are just worried about their sprinklers and trying to decide whether they should put milk or water in their cocoa.