Is Tea as good as Coffee for your Liver & general Health?by Harold Gunatillake

Website:www.Doctorharold.com

Recently, I viewed an interview given by Dr. Sanjiv Chopra MD Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, regarding the health benefits of consuming coffee pertaining to your liver

He gave some good reasons to drink coffee per day. He said multiple studies and meta-analysis have shown that people who drink two cups of regular have 40% reduction in primary liver cancer mortality. colon cancer, skin cancer including malignant melanoma, among others.

I thought, I should discuss the comparison between the health benefits of tea drinking, goodness and general side effects, with drinking regular coffee.

An ingredient that both coffee and tea has is caffeine.

Brewed coffee has more caffeine than brewed tea. It is because coffee is a stronger drink than tea. On the other hand, tea leaves contain more caffeine than coffee beans.

The average cup of tea contains about half as much caffeine as the average cup of instant coffee, and the average cup of instant coffee contains about half as much caffeine as a cup of espresso coffee.

Caffeine levels vary a lot in both beverages. More specifically a cup of coffee has between 95 and 200 mg of caffeine. Black tea has between 14 to 70 mg of caffeine.

A cup of brewed tea contains around 47 mg of caffeine per 240 ml cup.

If you get caffeine -related side effects the choice would be to drink tea, more than coffee.

If you have no side effects with caffeine the choice would be a cup of coffee when you need a quick jolt of energy. Black tea has less caffeine, will keep you energized and aler

Liver health.

Green tea seems to have similar health benefits on your liver like regular coffee.

Green tea helps in the regulation of lipid metabolism, which reduces the accumulation of fat in the liver. Green tea also has polyphenolic antioxidants that has a protective effect against malignant changes in the liver.

Lipid metabolism in the liver

High carbohydrates consumption, insulin resistance can cause fatty livers leading to liver cirrhosis. Normally, the liver produces cholesterol, triglycerides and phospholipids, discharges cholesterol in the form of bile.

Green tea seems to help in the regulation of lipid metabolism, preventing non-alcoholic fatty livers and chronic inflammations.

Drinking too much of tea with an intake of over 800 mg of antioxidants may cause liver damage. That would be equivalent to drinking over 15 cups of tea a day.

A new study published in Hepatology has investigated the mechanism of action of caffeine on lipid metabolism, and the findings are that caffeine reduces lipid content in the liver just as drinking green tea, or coffee.

On the other hand, an increased consumption of coffee may help to reduce the risk of liver cancer

Tea, both green and black are made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis. You would be seeing plenty of tea plantations as you drive to Nuwara Eliya, in Sri Lanka, in the hills on both sides of the road. Tea bushes are pruned so well that it resembles a carpet, in most well-kept Tea plantations.

The key difference between the two is that black tea is an oxidized form and the green tea is more unprocessed. Black tea goes through various processing, the leaves are rolled in the factories and then exposed to the air to trigger the oxidative process.

Both varieties have phytochemicals that have antioxidant properties.

They lower your blood pressure and LDL cholesterol and helps to reduce your risk of heart disease.

The health benefits on the liver is remarkably like the benefits from coffee drinking.

Both have protective effect on the liver and prevent scarring following diseases like non-alcoholic fatty liver and other chronic inflammation.

Catechins in Green Tea

Green tea contains a catechin called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). Catechins are natural antioxidants that help prevent cell damage and provide other benefits. These substances can reduce the formation of free radicals in the body, protecting cells and molecules from damage

 Oolong and black tea have significantly less catechins because they are either partially or fully oxidized

Black tea contains another group of antioxidants called flavonoids, which benefit heart health.

 Studies have found that regularly drinking black tea may help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Black tea is rich in oxalate, a compound found naturally in many foods. Too much of it can also lead to kidney stones.

Coffee is particularly rich in several powerful antioxidants, including hydrocinnamic acids and polyphenols (5,  What’s more, the polyphenols in coffee may prevent a number of conditions, such as heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes

Coffee has its own potent antioxidants and its own demonstrated health benefits. Instead of catechins, coffee contains primarily chlorogenic acids. Some studies have found that coffee actually contains more antioxidants than green tea

Coffee has been shown in studies to reduce the risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s, colon cancer, asthma and depression. However, green tea is also effective in preventing many of the same conditions, and probably more.

Theanine, an amino acid present in green tea but not in coffee, relaxes and soothes even as the caffeine lifts you up. Also, catechins,which act as powerful tea antioxidants, combine with caffeine in hot water to make it less active.

Overuse of coffee can cancel out many of its health benefits, causing irritability, anxiety and interrupting your sleep-a clear case of “too much of a good thing!”0000

Hope you enjoyed watching this video. You may assess for your self the choice of your drink, coffee , tea or both.

Thank you for listening, Stay safe, Bye for now