Coffee or Tea?

When you woke up this morning was one of your first thoughts, "do I want coffee or tea this morning?" More than 80 percent of Americans over the age of 18 report drinking coffee at least occasionally and over 50% of us drink it everyday. The number of teenage coffee drinkers is on the rise with all the hip after-school type gathering places offering a coffee bar plus wireless internet and a somewhat wholesome environment to just hang out. But is this a healthy habit? A recent study just published (Public Health Nutrition January 2008) looked at a bunch of epidemiological (human-based population), animal and in vitro studies and came to the conclusion that coffee and tea are both safe beverages. But TEA is healthier since it has a possible protective role in the prevention of certain cancers and cardiovascular disease. Tea also tends to contain less caffeine than coffee. Will the caffeine in coffee stunt your teens growth? No, probably not. However, excess caffeine can cause other undesirable side effects in teens and in adults including anxiety, headaches, jitters, sleep interference to name a few. And we all know teens need their sleep!

January is actually "hot tea month." Black tea, green tea and white tea contain a substance called theanine that helps the brain in a really neat way. We like to refer to the effect of theanine as a sense of "relaxed alertness." In other words, theanine increases alpha brain-wave activity and this is known to induce a calm, yet attentive state of mind. So if our teens want to hang out at the coffee house and sip a cup of green tea before or while during their homework, this may actually be a good thing. We just wouldn't encourage the habit much later than 3 or 4 pm because after that the caffeine (about 50 to 60 milligrams) may start to interfere with sleep.

It's also worth mentioning once again that green tea has also been shown to play a supportive role in weight management. Some studies suggest that green tea may reduce visceral body fat and assist in healthy metabolism. So when the weather gets chilly again warm up with a cup of tea and enjoy!