Question
This article that I came across this morning is enough to make me consider switching from coffee to tea. It's not the first study to suggest the positive effects of tea over coffee, but the results of this study are quite impressive.
As reported on CNN:
Tea could reduce risk of circulatory disease
Studies show that drinking tea can significantly reduce chances of atherosclerosis
NEW YORK -- Tea drinkers take heart. People who drink tea each day significantly reduce their chances of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, according to a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Those who drank one or two cups a day lowered their risk by 46 percent. For those who drank four cups a day, the risk dropped by 69 percent.
Women seem to benefit more by drinking tea, the second most consumed beverage in the world after water. And adding milk, honey, lemon or sugar do not diminish the positive health effects, experts said.
CNN's Dr. Steve Salvatore reports new evidence suggests tea can significantly lower your risk of developing one of the most common and often fatal diseases.
"If can be linked directly that consumption of tea prevents development of blockages, then obviously tea would become a very important part of our dietary counseling for patients who have heart trouble or are at risk for heart attack or stroke," said Dr. David Vorchheimer of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.
The beneficial effects of tea are probably due to bio- flavanoids, natural substances that act as powerful anti- oxidants, limiting the effects of free radicals in the body.
"Free radicals are very damaging because they can trigger a chain reaction," said Dr. Michael Gaziano of Brigham & Women's Hospital.
"One free radical can damage thousands and thousands of lipid molecules. So the reaction, we like to stop it early on in the process."
Most studies supporting the health benefits of tea have concerned black tea, the most widely consumed tea in the world. Green tea also has anti-oxidant properties, but experts say more research is needed.
"If you have 1 or 2 percent of the population drinking one kind of herbal tea, and 1 or 2 percent of the population drinking another kind of herbal tea, it might be very difficult for us to see any kind of association given those small numbers," said Gaziano.
Researchers caution that more studies would be necessary to determine if tea is directly responsible for the health benefits.
"The tea itself might have had nothing to do with the prevention of heart attacks.
The tea might have been a marker for patients who live a healthy lifestyle, people who avoid caffeine, who don't smoke, who exercise," said Vorchheimer.
Although tea has caffeine, most doctors see no reason why people should stop drinking it. Caffeine can increase heart rate and blood pressure, but a cup or two a day of tea, which has half the caffeine of coffee, probably will not hurt.
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"The heart is the happiest when it beats for others."
~ Mary ~
Answer
The local news, here in Oregon, has been running articles on caffeine lately. One other thing they found out was that Instant coffee has less than half the caffeine of brewed coffee. If you really need that caffeine 1-2 cups of instant will give you the caffeine your body needs to "wake up" in much safer quantities.
It is also a proven fact that if you drink 5 or more cups of brewed coffee per day and you decide to quit, you will go through caffeine withdrawal. One major symptom is headaches. Says something about the addictiveness of caffeine.
I can't say much though, I drink about 3-4 cups a day myself.
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Answer
"Decaffinated" coffee, until recently was produced primarily by leaching the caffeine with carcinogenic solvents. Interesting a new process is now being adopted involving "supercritical carbon diozide", which uses liquid carbon dioxide to act as a solvent.
Now heres a hint to cut down on caffeine. Most truckers drink coffee to stay awake. Well, if you drink a six ounce can of grapefruit juice at the same time the half-life of the caffeine in the blood is extended greatly, allowing one cup of coffee to keep you awake three times as long.
Answer
Thanks for the tip, Tom! I didn't know that, but I'll sure give it a try when I need it.
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"The heart is the happiest when it beats for others."
~ Mary ~