Caffeine - Coffee vs Tea
Feb. 25th, 2010 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wwcitizenLast night before going to bed, I forgot to turn on the dishwasher so the coffee carafe wasn't clean; I had no inclination of taking it out of the dishwasher and washing it by hand either. Still not feeling well (sinuses are killing me) and I only got roughly 4.5 hours of good sleep. So I opted for tea.
Whilst sipping me tea here this morning, finally starting to read through two weeks of friends' posts, I got to thinking - a quick thought and one I knew wouldn't take long to answer: Is there a difference between chemical make up of caffeine found in coffee and caffeine found in tea.
"Caffeine is caffeine. The only difference between the caffeine in tea and coffee is possibly the amount, and sometimes not even then.
There are other differences between the two drinks, but it isn't in the caffeine.
Caffeine itself is a relatively benign substance. In excessive doses it can cause heart palpitations, upset stomach and insomnia. But it can also relax the airways in asthmatics during an attack, and it boosts the effect of pain relievers like aspirin. And it is a relatively mild stimulant compared to most others. Caffeine may even help protect against Parkinson's (according to a single, limited study.)
Incidentally, tea turns out to have substances that may be good for you in various ways, including helping protect your teeth, believe it or not. It also has substances called flavonoids may help lower blood cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. (Actually there is more in chocolate.) It also has antioxidants (specifically, "polyphenols") which theoretically may help prevent cancer. (But if it worked very well, nobody in China and Japan would get cancer, but they do.) So tea is not a horrible thing to be drinking.
But neither is coffee. Coffee was suspected of causing heart disease, hypertension, stomach ulcers, etc., but it has been cleared of all charges. In fact it may help prevent gallstones (again, according to a single, limited study.) There is a certain type of coffee, the kind made with a French press, that may raise blood cholesterol, but it takes a lot of coffee."
So, I'm happily drinking my Lipton tea and not worrying about my typical coffee consumption (2-4 cups a day). But, I've discovered through reading all these things that I would have to drink twice the amount of tea in the mornings to match the caffeine gleaned from coffee.
Whilst sipping me tea here this morning, finally starting to read through two weeks of friends' posts, I got to thinking - a quick thought and one I knew wouldn't take long to answer: Is there a difference between chemical make up of caffeine found in coffee and caffeine found in tea.
"Caffeine is caffeine. The only difference between the caffeine in tea and coffee is possibly the amount, and sometimes not even then.
There are other differences between the two drinks, but it isn't in the caffeine.
Caffeine itself is a relatively benign substance. In excessive doses it can cause heart palpitations, upset stomach and insomnia. But it can also relax the airways in asthmatics during an attack, and it boosts the effect of pain relievers like aspirin. And it is a relatively mild stimulant compared to most others. Caffeine may even help protect against Parkinson's (according to a single, limited study.)
Incidentally, tea turns out to have substances that may be good for you in various ways, including helping protect your teeth, believe it or not. It also has substances called flavonoids may help lower blood cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. (Actually there is more in chocolate.) It also has antioxidants (specifically, "polyphenols") which theoretically may help prevent cancer. (But if it worked very well, nobody in China and Japan would get cancer, but they do.) So tea is not a horrible thing to be drinking.
But neither is coffee. Coffee was suspected of causing heart disease, hypertension, stomach ulcers, etc., but it has been cleared of all charges. In fact it may help prevent gallstones (again, according to a single, limited study.) There is a certain type of coffee, the kind made with a French press, that may raise blood cholesterol, but it takes a lot of coffee."
So, I'm happily drinking my Lipton tea and not worrying about my typical coffee consumption (2-4 cups a day). But, I've discovered through reading all these things that I would have to drink twice the amount of tea in the mornings to match the caffeine gleaned from coffee.
