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Coffee is a "Health Drink"
WoodenRobot writes "Not that it would stop an Italian or a techie from drinking the stuff, but Chiara Trombetti, of the Humanitas Gavazzeni institute of Bergamo has reported that coffee, especially espresso, is good for you and provides numerous health benefits. All the more reason to tuck into a cup o' Joe - but no more than 3 or 4 cups a day."
I read the article and it's just too damn short. "It COULD do this and it COULD do that". "It has anti-oxidants and that's good". Well duh. It also has caffeine which some health nuts say is good for you (raises metabolism, messes with your appetite, gives you energy to work out) and it can be bad for you (making you dependent on it, screwin' with your metabolism, etc). Coffee also supposedly messes with your cortisol levels (which is partly responsible for giving the fat gathering around the waist area).
My point is, you'll see reports say it's healthy, you'll see reports say it's bad for you. I've seen more detailed reports saying it's bad and just a few "well it could be good for you" reports saying it's good.
Shall we discuss if wine is good or bad for us now?
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Tea contains caffeine too, although not as much as coffee does . This is only partly relevent though as the reported health benefits of coffee isn't entirely due to the caffeine.
Caffeine can relieve tension headaches, which have nothing to do with caffeine withdrawal. They're caused by overdilation of capillaries in your head, and caffeine (like ibuprofen) is a vasoconstrictor.
That's actually the proper way to brew any tea. When the tea is confined in a bag or mesh container, the leaves can't "bloom" properly and you won't get a really good cup because some of the compounds won't be released. Also, black teas need to be brewed with water that is still boiling as it is poured over the leaves for proper brewing; green, white, red, and oolongs can be a little cooler i.e. 190-200 degrees F. For a really good cup of tea, invest in a Yixing teapot and use it every day. The porous unglazed clay absorbs the flavor of the tea and over time begins to bring out subtle nuances of the tea, assuming you're using high quality stuff.
Oh and teas can have just as much caffeine as coffee but because of its peculiarities, the form of caffeine in tea is absorbed more slowly and produces a gentler, but more lasting effect. Or so the information available suggests; as someone totally unaffected by caffeine, I wouldn't know. And tea almost certainly has more caffeine than your precious espresso (I like those too). Why? The longer roasting time for dark coffee beans destroys a significant amount of the caffeine in said beans and the short extraction time for espresso doesn't allow a great deal of the caffeine present to be extracted.
Yeah, I'm a geek.
It's amazing how much "mature wisdom" resembles being too tired. - Robert Anson Heinlein
The "tea is different!" confusion generally comes up because caffeine can also be called theine -- it's the same chemical, though. Tea's got a lot of healthy stuff in it, but its stimulant properties work exactly the same way as coffee's -- via caffeine. The only significant difference is the average dosage.
... i found Caffeine FAQ which discusses some of the myths typical of any discussion about coffee.
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www.theindependent.com
I hope someone else finds this as funny as I do.
"Some Tea's are higher in caffeine than coffee, so you may not be as caffeine-free as you thought."
While it's certainly possible to create a cup of tea and a cup of coffee, with the cup of tea having more caffeine than the cup of coffee, that's not how it works in actual daily life.
Check the Caffeine FAQ
From one list, for 7 oz servings:
Drip coffee = 115-175 mg of caffeine
Espresso = 100
Brewed coffee = 85-135
Instant coffee = 64-100
Brewed tea = 40-60
Instant tea = 30
Iced tea = 41 (i.e., 70 for 12 oz)
Other lists from other sources are there, and they are similar.
Green tea is even lower than black tea. From Stash Tea, we have:
5 oz cup of coffee = 80 mg
One bag of black tea = 40
One bag of green tea = 20
Health wise, green tea r00lz! But black tea is good for variety, and gives benefits as well.
Of course, the amount you actually get depends on how long you brew the tea. I tend to prefer tea brewed for a much briefer time than many people: I like around 2 minutes, and shudder a bit when 5 bits is recommended, let alone when I see people leave the bag in the cup for 10 minutes or more. Yech. When you brew too long, you are adding mostly acid and yucky taste.
"And tea almost certainly has more caffeine than your precious espresso."
The Caffeine FAQ disagrees with you.
Espresso = 100 mg caffeine per 7 oz
Brewed tea = 40-60 mg caffeine per 7 oz
So does Stash Tea.
5 oz cup of coffee = 80 mg
One bag of black tea = 40
One bag of green tea = 20
how coffee effects different people differently.
It makes you want to do all that, and all it make me want to do is take a crap.