Have a cuppa for your health
Hidden health plusses in tea and coffee.
The next time you reach for that morning mug, you’ll be comforted to know you may be getting more than just a jumpstart to your day. Whether it’s coffee or tea, both have been equally linked to various health benefits. From Parkinson’s disease to gallstones and type 2 diabetes, both brews, taken in moderation, have revealed many health plusses in various studies.
Last year at Harvard, researchers linked drinking four cups a day to lower the risk of endometrial cancer in women by 25 percent. Another study, published in the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association, linked moderate coffee drinking to reduced heart disease. But notice how the emphasis is in ‘moderation’? Here’s how you can get the most from your morning mug:
Do the math. Researchers recommend only four, 8-oz cups of coffee per day. As each cup would have about 200mg of caffeine, anything more and it can affect your blood pressure. Or make you jittery. So stick to decaf if you have issues like irritable bowel syndrome or acid reflux. Tea has about 60mg of caffeine per cup and you can safely sip 6-8 cups a day. Unfortunately, decaf tea or coffee don’t share the same health bonuses, although you’ll still get the benefit of the antioxidants in tea and chlorogenic acid in coffee.
Don’t ruin the benefits. Drink them black. Adding sugar or nondairy creamer will only interfere with the absorption of antioxidants. Plus, you don’t need the extra calories. Creamers are often made with partially hydrogenated oils and contain trans fats that are a health risk. If you must flavour your brew, opt for cow’s, soy or almond milk instead. And try raw honey over sugar for your drinks.
Read your tea leaves. Which tea you choose matters. White tea has the most antioxidants, followed by green and black teas. That’s because white and green teas are made from different parts of the tea leaves. They are also minimally processed while black tea is fermented. And drink it pure. Getting bottled, designer tea drinks blunt tea’s heart-health benefits, as they are often ladenned with sugar, preservatives and other stuff not good for your health.
Choose paper. Drinking French press, espresso, Turkish or any boiled, unfiltered coffee may not be the healthiest brew. Coffee brewed without a paper filter retains much of the beans’ chemical, cafestol, a compound that raises your LDL (bad) cholesterol level. Where possible, opt to have your coffee filtered. Or, just save those special brews for another occasion.