Aside from plain water, coffee and tea are the most enjoyed beverages around the world. No matter where you go, you have access to them. Believe it or not, coffee has more than 100 different chemical compounds in it while teas depends on the type of leave.
While caffeine is natural within coffee beans, tea makers dry and crush the leaves to bring out their oils, then they might expose them to air for a while for fermentation. The longer they’re exposed, the more caffeine they have.
However nobody knows about their heathy benefits. We may be more aware of teas more than coffee. But coffee apart of keeping you awake or increasing your self-awareness?
There we go:
– Tea and coffee help your body fight free radicals with chemicals of their own called antioxidants. However they’ve less antioxidants than fruits or vegetables.
– Both tea and coffee are linked to a lower chance of getting Type 2 Diabetes.
– Coffee and tea may help against Parkinson’s Disease due to caffeine can ease early symptoms.
– Doctors once thought people with this should cut down on tea and coffee, because of the caffeine, but now it seems they may protect you from it. In one study, people who drank 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day were less likely to have a build up of calcium in the vessels that bring blood to your heart muscle. That could mean a lower chance of heart disease.
– Drinking 3 or more cups of coffee a day may lower your odds of having chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and liver cancer.
– Coffee can ease inflammation and help control your blood sugar levels. And drinking black tea is linked to lower blood pressure, which can make you less likely to have a stroke.
– Coffee and green tea might help prevent breast and prostate cancers.
– Coffee has antioxidants that may help protect neurons, and green tea has some that may help prevent the clusters of proteins believed to cause the disease. Therefore they might help against Alzheimer’s Disease.
– Coffee can lower your chances of getting gallstones because it helps move fluid through your gallbladder and makes the cholesterol less likely to crystallize into gallstones.
IMPORTANT: Do not overdo as despite the health benefits of coffee and tea, too much caffeine can make you anxious or irritable and make it hard to sleep. It also can make you less able to hold onto calcium, which can lead to bone fractures (calcium keeps bones strong).
In Chinese Medicine, coffee is not considered a herbal medicine per se but close botanical cousins to coffee, which is a member of the Rubiaceae family. Still has some therapeutic effects given in a certain dosage range to get the desired effects.
Coffee regulates Liver Qi. This action in coffee, according to western physiology, is due to the influence of caffeine on the central nervous system. By Liver Qi regulation means breaking the blockage on it. That’s why coffee’s first therapeutic uses was for menstruation regulation.
Thus, if someone presents with Liver Qi stagnation, coffee may be beneficial to regulate your menstrual cycles which might be the first pre-step before trying to conceive a baby naturally.
Photo by Fahmi Fakhrudin
