The world offers a wide array of beverages in various types, flavors, and colors. However, despite our passion for different drinks, water remains the top choice. It’s arguably the healthiest option. In the end, it’s low in calories, easily accessible from the nearest tap, and essential for replenishing the fluids we lose while going about our daily lives.
Yet, of course, humans don’t live by water alone.
This brings us to a common question for those who want to indulge or simply change things up: Is there life beyond water?
Harvard experts say there certainly is. The Nutrition Source is a website from the Harvard University School of Public Health’s Department of Nutrition that provides reliable information on food and nutrition. Among its recommendations are two surprisingly healthy alternatives to water: coffee and tea.
Wait... coffee? That’s right–coffee. Contemporary science has demonstrated that the belief that coffee consumption (especially with caffeine) increases the risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer is simply a myth. In fact, Harvard researchers explain that “consumption of 3 to 5 standard cups of coffee daily has been consistently associated with a reduced risk of several chronic diseases.”
Moreover, coffee is a powerful stimulant. The popular beverage enhances mental clarity and alleviates sleepiness by blocking adenosine–a neuromodulator that has sedative effects on the vascular and central nervous systems. Coffee also activates dopamine and acts on the anterior cingulate gyrus. This activation improves executive memory, attention, and concentration, aiding coffee drinkers in planning and completing tasks. As if that weren’t enough, coffee also speeds up reaction times.
When consumed alone, coffee is essentially just water “with things.”
Coffee is clearly not suitable for everyone. “Some individuals may not tolerate higher amounts of caffeine due to symptoms of jitteriness, anxiety, and insomnia,” the Harvard study points out. Additionally, experts don’t recommend it for “those who have difficulty controlling their blood pressure.” However, for most people, coffee can be a surprisingly healthy choice. This may come as a surprise given its bad reputation.
Teatime. Tea often has a negative reputation, too. In fact, the World Health Organization said in 2016 that drinking very hot tea could potentially lead to cancer. However, the issue isn’t with the tea itself but with the high temperatures at which some individuals consume it. Tea–whether black, green, oolong, or white–is a wonderful beverage. Herbal teas, which contain no caffeine, are also beneficial.
What are the benefits of tea? Several observational studies have linked the consumption of 2 to 3 cups of tea per day with a reduced risk of “total mortality, cardiac death, coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes mellitus.” While correlation doesn’t imply causation, these findings provide insight into the potential health impacts of tea.
The greatest benefit of all. Interestingly, the best part of drinking tea and coffee may not stem from the beverages themselves but from what they replace in your diet. Drinking plenty of water (or tea or coffee) helps keep you hydrated and reduces thirst. As such, it makes you less likely to reach for less healthy drinks, which often have high sugar or alcohol content.
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