For those aiming to shed a few pounds, a simple switch in beverage choices might be a surprisingly effective strategy. Both black coffee and black tea, rich in caffeine and antioxidants while remaining low in calories and sugar, have been associated with weight loss. But how do these two popular drinks stack up against each other in terms of their weight loss benefits?
Black coffee is known for its strong metabolic boost, fat-burning properties, and appetite-curbing effects. Black tea, with its unique blend of caffeine, catechins, and theaflavins, offers a gentler approach to fat burning. While some studies suggest coffee has a stronger impact, others highlight tea's supportive role.
Understanding the Basics: Tea and Coffee
Tea, a beverage enjoyed for thousands of years, comes in various forms, including green, black, oolong, and herbal. Coffee, on the other hand, is often seen as an energizer, providing a quick boost to tackle the day. Both beverages have potential benefits for weight loss.
Key Differences and Surprises
To determine which beverage might be better suited for your weight loss journey, let's explore the key differences and surprising similarities between coffee and tea across several important areas:
1. Caffeine Content and Its Impact
Caffeine, a well-studied stimulant, is present in both coffee and tea. Coffee generally contains more caffeine than tea, leading to a stronger impact on metabolism and energy levels. An 8-ounce cup of brewed coffee contains approximately 95 mg of caffeine, while the same serving of black tea contains about 47 mg.
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Benefits of Caffeine:
- Improved Athletic Performance: Caffeine acts as a stimulant for the central nervous system, enhancing athletic performance. Studies have shown that caffeine intake can improve endurance exercise outcomes by about 12%.
- Enhanced Mental Alertness: Research indicates that caffeine improves performance in both simple and complex tasks, enhancing reaction times, memory, and information processing.
- Reduced Risk of Chronic Diseases: Regular caffeine intake has been linked to a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, metabolic syndrome, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Important Note: It's crucial to limit caffeine intake to avoid side effects like insomnia, anxiety, and digestive issues. The amount of caffeine considered safe for human consumption is 400 mg per day.
2. Antioxidant Powerhouses: Polyphenols
Both tea and coffee are rich in antioxidants, particularly polyphenols, which contribute to their distinct flavors and health-promoting properties. These antioxidants protect the body against free radical damage, potentially preventing the development of chronic diseases.
Types of Polyphenols:
- Black Tea: Theaflavins, thearubigins, and catechins are the primary polyphenols found in black tea.
- Coffee: Coffee is rich in flavonoids and chlorogenic acid (CGA).
Health Benefits of Polyphenols:
- Cancer Protection: Studies suggest that theaflavins and thearubigins in black tea may inhibit the growth of lung and colon cancer cells. Similarly, the CGA content in coffee acts as a potent inhibitor of cancer cell growth, protecting against gastrointestinal and liver cancer. Both beverages may also protect against breast, colon, bladder, and rectum cancer.
- Heart Health: Polyphenols contribute to heart health by promoting blood vessel relaxation, blocking the formation of new blood vessels that may feed cancer cells, and preventing plaque formation in blood vessels, thus lowering the risk of heart attack and stroke.
3. Energy Boost: A Tale of Two Approaches
Both coffee and tea provide an energy boost, but they do so in different ways.
- Coffee's Instant Kick: The caffeine in coffee elevates energy levels almost immediately. It increases heart rate and affects the brain's reward system, leading to its addictive properties. Caffeine also blocks adenosine, a compound that promotes sleepiness.
- Tea's Smooth Boost: Tea is rich in L-theanine, an antioxidant that stimulates the brain. L-theanine may provide anti-stress effects by increasing alpha waves in the brain, promoting relaxation. This combination of caffeine and L-theanine provides a relaxed but alert mental state without the jitters often associated with coffee.
4. Weight Loss and Fat Burning
Both coffee and tea have been linked to weight loss and fat-burning properties.
- Coffee: Caffeine may increase calorie burning by 3-13% for up to 3 hours after intake. Coffee has also been associated with fat-burning properties by inhibiting the production of fat cells, potentially due to its chlorogenic acid content.
- Tea: Tea polyphenols, such as theaflavins, may inhibit pancreatic lipase, an enzyme that plays a key role in fat metabolism. Studies suggest that tea polyphenols may lower blood lipid concentrations and reduce weight gain, even with a high-fat diet. They may also alter the diversity of gut microbiota, impacting weight management.
5. Additional Health Benefits
Beyond weight loss, both coffee and tea offer a range of additional health benefits. Coffee drinking is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, depression, and cognitive decline. Tea may protect against cavities, kidney stones, and arthritis.
Read also: Weight-Loss Trend: Coffee Loophole Diet
6. Potential Side Effects and Considerations
While both beverages offer numerous health benefits, it's important to be aware of potential side effects. Coffee has been associated with heart failure, increased heart rate, and high blood pressure, but moderate consumption is generally considered safe. High coffee intake may result in dependence or addiction due to caffeine's effect on the brain.
If you're highly sensitive to caffeine, tea may be a better choice due to its lower caffeine content and the presence of L-theanine, which has calming properties.
Tea and Coffee: Provenance, Chemical Composition and Properties
Tea (Camelia sinensis L.) and coffee (Coffee arabica, L. and Coffea caniphora, L.) are popular drinks with health benefits. These plants contain caffeine, theaflavins, catechins, chlorogenic acid and polyphenols. These plants and plant molecules can be efficient for prevention and treatment of numerous metabolic disorders including metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and obesity. Tea and coffee are the most popular drinks, the most highly traded and valued commodities that originates from the developing world. Their global consumption is permanently increasing due to their sensory and health properties. They can help in preventing and combatting obesity - the current world’s pandemics.
Tea Tree (Camelia sinensis, L.)
Tea tree (Camelia sinensis, L.) is a bush or a small tree from the Theaceae family grown in tropic and subtropical regions around the world. Based on the processing method (fermentation in the presence of bacteria or oxidation) and the taste, colour, aroma and biological effect of the tea, we recognize white, green, matcha, black, oolong, and Puerh tea. Despite most of Europe and the New World being accustomed to black tea, more antioxidants and tannins are present in non-oxidated and non-fermented white and green teas.
The most important tea metabolites are alkaloid theobromine, its metabolite caffeine (1,3,7 trimethyl-xantin) and polyphenols (theaflavins), catechins - epigallocatechin, epicatechin and their metabolites epigallocatechin gallate, epicatechin gallate. gallocatechins and gallocatechin gallate. Gallates contain biologically active ethers of gallic acid. Tea contains also smaller amounts of other biologically active polyphenols - quercetin, kaempferol and myricetin. Black tea contains also polyphenolic compounds theaflavins and thearubigins. In addition to that, tea contains microelements borate, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenite and lead, pigments, polysaccharides, alkaloids, free amino acids, and saponins.
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Coffee Plant (Coffea spp.)
Coffee plant (Coffea spp.) is a short tree or a bush native to Africa, the fruits of which are red coffee “cherries.” For preparation of drinks, two coffee species are used - Coffee arabica, L. (Arabica coffee) and Coffea caniphora, L. (Robusta coffee). The best-known molecule in this fruit is alkaloid methylxanthine caffeine (1,3,7 trimethylxantin) - a toxin, which protects the plant from herbivores. In addition to caffeine, coffee fruit contains alkaloid trigonelline, polyphenol chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid, diterpenes cafestrol and kahweol, melanoidins and coffee lipids and microelements.
Physiological and Medicinal Effects
Polyphenols of green tea are efficient against chronic inflammatory conditions of liver, gastrointestinal tract, and against neurodegenerative diseases. A link has been determined between green tea consumption and memory of older men. It is peculiar that the memory of older women was not affected. Tea catechins can have an anti-tumour effect. They inhibit multiplication of cells, trigger their apoptosis (death) and autophagy and reduce vitality of cancer cells. They can even enhance the therapeutic effects of medicine against tumour diseases and simultaneously mitigate their adverse side-effects.
Most studies carried out on animals and humans report that tea (extract from tea tree leaves) reduces manifestations of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (including reducing the risk of heart attack). Other studies demonstrated positive effect of tea on decreasing insulin in blood, but not on the concentration of glucose, triacylglycerols, fatty acids and hormones of adipose tissue. The ability of coffee to reduce blood sugar is not dependent on caffeine but on its other components. This effect probably comes from chlorogenic acid. Chlorogenic acid has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, it can affect metabolism of glucose and lipids. Thanks to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and metabolic effects, coffee and its molecule chlorogenic acid have a preventive and therapeutic influence against diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, tumours, inflammation, lipidation of liver and Parkinson disease. Their consumption can be recommended not only to healthy people but also to people with high cholesterol and blood glucose, with hypertension, metabolic syndrome or diabetes. Anti-diabetic effects were determined not only for chlorogenic acid but also for other acid components of coffee - caffeine and ferulic acid.
Large-scale studies showed a correlation between the habit of drinking coffee and reduced mortality linked to cardiovascular diseases, reduced risk of heart attacks and diabetes. Contrary to a popular belief, drinking coffee was not linked to increased occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias. Thanks to the ability of coffee’s antioxidants to bind free radicals and to reduce diseases and mortality, coffee earned the title “longevity beverage”.
Effect of Tea and Coffee on Fat Storage
All performed studies validated the ability of tea and its components to reduce fat stores and body weight of humans. This effect was achieved thanks to polyphenols. According to the existing data, epigallocatechin and caffeine from tea leaves have independent mechanisms of effect but synergic effect on weight loss. According to some sources, black tea polyphenols are more efficient than green tea polyphenols, but other authors report evidence of stronger effect of green tea.
Tea molecules reduce fat stores through several pathways:
- they influence neuroendocrine metabolic regulators of appetite and reduce food consumption
- they reduce emulsion and absorption of lipids and protein in gastrointestinal system and consequently reduce calorie intake
- they act on gastrointestinal microbiota (lacto- and bifidobacteria), which are responsible for digestion. For example, they produce short fatty acids, which increase the rate of lipid metabolism
- they inhibit the differentiation and proliferation of preadipocytes
- they reduce lipid production
- they promote lipolysis and lipid metabolism
- they stimulate conversion of white adipose tissue to brown, increase its oxidation, burning and expenditure of energy through heat production
- they promote fecal lipid excretion
However, it is necessary to take into consideration that the effect of green tea and its molecules manifests only when large doses are consumed.
Coffee extract’s application for weight loss and treatment of some metabolic disorders (diabetes, obesity, etc.) is validated by science. Through action on gastrointestinal microbiota, which can also affect obesity. Thanks to these effects, coffee can reduce fat stores in obese animals and humans and reduce body weight of humans.
Safety and Dosage
Tea consumption at a dose of 3 cups a day or epigallocatechin gallate at a dose of 300 mg a day over the course of 12 weeks, or 704 mg epigallocatechin gallate a day had no significant adverse side-effects. No cyto- and genotoxic, mutagenic, carciogenic and embryotoxic effects of green tea were determined either. Consumption of tea polyphenols can have a toxic effect on liver especially when consumed on empty stomach, or as pills rather than as beverage.
Some studies reported the ability to caffeine to affect negatively the reproductive system - damage DNA, reduce sperm capacity and prolong pregnancy. Caffeine in large doses can cause anxiety, insomnia, loss of calcium from the body and consequent increased risk of fractures, especially in people with osteoporosis. Possible negative effects of caffeine on brain development and development of reproductive organs in embryos and children have not been excluded. There are indications that caffeine and coffee can damage sperm and prolong pregnancy. Cafestrol and kahweol can increase blood cholesterol levels.
Tea, Coffee, and Weight Loss: What the Studies Say
Numerous studies have explored the potential of both tea and coffee in promoting weight loss and managing obesity. The mechanisms by which these beverages exert their effects are multifaceted and involve various metabolic processes.
Tea's Impact on Weight Management:
Tea, particularly green tea, has been extensively studied for its weight loss properties. The active compounds in tea, such as catechins and caffeine, work synergistically to influence body weight. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a prominent catechin in green tea, has been shown to have independent mechanisms of action that contribute to weight loss.
Key effects of tea and its components on weight loss:
- Reduced Fat Storage: Tea polyphenols inhibit the differentiation and proliferation of preadipocytes, which are precursor cells that develop into mature fat cells. By reducing the number of new fat cells being created, tea can help prevent weight gain.
- Enhanced Fat Metabolism: Tea promotes lipolysis, the breakdown of stored fats into usable energy. This process is crucial for weight loss, as it allows the body to burn existing fat reserves.
- Modulation of Gut Microbiota: The gut microbiota plays a significant role in digestion and metabolism. Tea polyphenols can alter the composition of the gut microbiota, promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria that enhance lipid metabolism.
- Reduced Calorie Intake: Tea influences neuroendocrine metabolic regulators of appetite, leading to reduced food consumption. Additionally, it reduces the emulsion and absorption of lipids and proteins in the gastrointestinal system, further decreasing calorie intake.
Coffee's Role in Weight Loss:
Coffee, primarily through its caffeine content and chlorogenic acid, has also been recognized for its potential to aid weight loss.
Key effects of coffee on weight loss:
- Inhibition of Adipocyte Multiplication: Coffee inhibits the multiplication of adipocytes, which are cells specialized in storing fat. By reducing the number of fat cells, coffee can contribute to weight management.
- Modulation of Gut Microbiota: Similar to tea, coffee can influence the composition of the gut microbiota, which can affect obesity.
- Increased Energy Expenditure: Caffeine in coffee increases energy expenditure, leading to a higher number of calories burned throughout the day.
- Improved Glucose and Lipid Metabolism: Chlorogenic acid in coffee has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, which can improve glucose and lipid metabolism.
Dosage Recommendations:
To achieve the desired effects of tea on weight loss, it is generally recommended to consume 3-4 cups of strong tea a day, providing 100-600 mg of polyphenols. For green tea, a daily dose of 100-460 mg of epigallocatechin gallate plus 80-300 mg of caffeine over a period of 12 weeks or more is often suggested.
For coffee, metabolic effects are typically achieved with a daily intake of at least 510.6 mg of chlorogenic acid and 121.2 mg of caffeine, which can be obtained from approximately 3-5 cups of strong coffee per day.
Practical Tips for Incorporating Tea and Coffee into Your Diet
To maximize the weight loss benefits of tea and coffee, consider the following tips:
- Choose Freshly Brewed Beverages: Freshly brewed tea and coffee contain higher concentrations of beneficial compounds compared to pre-packaged or instant versions.
- Avoid Added Sugars and Creamers: Adding sugars and creamers to your tea or coffee can significantly increase the calorie content and negate the weight loss benefits. Opt for natural sweeteners like stevia or a splash of unsweetened almond milk.
- Drink Throughout the Day: Consuming tea or coffee throughout the day can help maintain energy levels, suppress appetite, and promote fat burning.
- Combine with a Healthy Diet and Exercise: Tea and coffee are most effective when combined with a balanced diet and regular exercise.
Precautions and Potential Side Effects
While tea and coffee are generally safe for most people, it is important to be aware of potential side effects and precautions:
- Caffeine Sensitivity: Individuals who are sensitive to caffeine may experience anxiety, insomnia, or digestive issues. In such cases, it is advisable to choose decaffeinated versions of tea or coffee or opt for herbal teas.
- Liver Toxicity: Consumption of tea polyphenols, especially in high doses or on an empty stomach, can have toxic effects on the liver in some individuals. It is recommended to consume tea with food to minimize this risk.
- Drug Interactions: Caffeine can interact with certain medications, so it is important to consult with a healthcare professional if you are taking any medications.
- Pregnancy and Breastfeeding: Pregnant and breastfeeding women should limit their caffeine intake to avoid potential adverse effects on the developing fetus or infant.
The Verdict: A Matter of Personal Preference
Ultimately, the choice between coffee and tea for weight loss comes down to personal preference and individual tolerance. If you prefer a stronger caffeine kick and enjoy the taste of coffee, it may be the better option for you. However, if you are sensitive to caffeine or prefer a gentler energy boost with added relaxation benefits, tea may be a more suitable choice.