Your perception of the health value of coffee is influenced by your consumption of it. For example, the National Coffee Association states that almost half of coffee drinkers say that coffee is healthy for you as opposed to 36 percent of people who don't drink it. Yet, even people who don't usually drink tea reach for a cup when they have a cold. Both tea and coffee can have positive effects on your health.
Antioxidants
Tea and coffee both contain polyphenotic antioxidants, or flavinoids, which protect the cells in your body. Joe A. Vinson, University of Scranton chemistry professor, states that tea contains more healthful antioxidants than coffee. However, according to Vinson's research, which was presented at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in May 1999, coffee is the main food source of antioxidants among Americans. This is because the amount of coffee consumed by Americans is significantly more than that of tea.The effect of antioxidants in the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases continues to be tested clinically.
Caffeine
Most teas have little caffeine content whereas coffee contains a high amount. For example, an 8 oz cup of coffee brewed from grounds and prepared with tap water contains 95 mg of caffeine whereas the same size cup of brewed tea prepared with tap water contains 47 mg, according to USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. Even decaffeinated coffee has trace amounts of caffeine in it. Although there is a risk of addiction or dependency associated with caffeine, it does have short-term benefits. In the August 2005 issue of "Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental," Andrew P. Smith states that caffeine consumption contributes to better performance and safety at work. Specifically, in his studies, he found greater caffeine consumption to be significant associated with alertness, fewer cognitive errors and fewer accidents at work.
Type 2 Diabetes
The most popular type of diabetes, type 2 diabetes, is characterized by an insulin deficiency. Your body either produces insufficient amounts of insulin or the insulin produced is not absorbed by your cells. According to a study in the December 2009 issue of "Diabetologia," conducted by Susan Van Dieran and colleagues as part of the Dutch Contribution to the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, coffee and tea consumption lower the risk of type 2 diabetes. For coffee or tea to have a significant effect on your health, researchers suggest drinking a minimum of three cups per day. When this amount was consumed by the participants in this study over approximately 10 years, it reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by approximately 42 percent.
Immune System
Drinking tea every day can prevent you from becoming sick, according to a study published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" in April 2003 by Dr. Jack F. Bukowski of Harvard Medical School. Bukowski found that drinking tea daily resulted in a stronger immune system, better equipped to ward off germs. In fact, when exposed to germs, the immune system of tea drinkers reacted five times faster than that of coffee drinkers. Bukowski attributes this difference to the presence of L-theanine in black tea. When L-theanine is broken down in your body, it produces a molecule responsible for priming your immune system for attack. Coffee does not contain L-theanine.
References
- National Coffee Association: National Coffee Drinking Trends 2008
- The University of Scranton: Take Two Cups of Coffee and Call Me Tomorrow
- USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Coffee, brewed from grounds, prepared with tap water
- PubMed.gov: Coffee and tea consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes
- OnlineLibrary.com: Coffee at work
- USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Tea, brewed, prepared with tap water
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