Is the caffeine in coffee or theine in tea healthier?

Answer

There have been many studies, especially on coffee. The latest study involved more than 520,000 people in 10 European countries over a 16-year period (Annals of Internal Medicine, August 15, 2017). Fewer people died in the group that drank 3-5 cups of coffee per day than in the group that drank no coffee. Coffee drinkers would be protected against, among other things, liver diseases (men and women) and heart and blood vessel problems (women). Among female coffee drinkers, slightly more people died of ovarian cancer.

So, according to this large study, except in women at risk of ovarian cancer, drinking coffee is good for health. There are also studies for tea drinking that describe positive effects, but to my knowledge there has not been such a large-scale study as in the case mentioned above for coffee.

It is not clear which substances in these drinks are responsible for the health effects. It is generally thought that the polyphenols contained in it mainly have beneficial effects. Polyphenols are substances of plant origin that protect the plant, but also humans, from oxidative damage – they act as anti-oxidants. Incidentally, caffeine and theine are one and the same substance (but with two names), so that cannot be responsible for any differences between coffee and tea.