Coffee vs Tea : ONE Burns Fat, ONE Causes Inflammation

You drink one of these every morning. And what if I told you one of them is quietly fueling inflammation in your body while the other can help in burning fat and reduce inflammation while you sleep. So stay with me for the next 8 minutes because by the end you will never look at your morning drinks in the same way.

Hi, I'm Dr. Anul Gupta, a former Cleveland Clinic functional medicine physician from US. I help people improve their chronic diseases by making personalized functional medicine plans.

So let's start with coffee. Now coffee is one of the most popular beverage consumed worldwide and interestingly it is also one of those beverages which research scientists have been studying for its effect on your body. In fact a big research study published in BMJ journal found that people who consumed coffee on the regular basis had lower chances of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even certain cancers. The reason being coffee has more than thousand bioactive compounds which have several health benefits. The most important of those is chlorogenic acid which is really a powerful anti-inflammatory substance. And obviously coffee has caffeine into it also. And caffeine stimulates your central nervous system. That's the reason you have that energy spike. Plus it also burns your fat cells. So that's the reason lot of supplements which burn fat will have caffeine into them.

First of all, if you're trying to lose weight, research does support this claim that caffeine in coffee can increase your metabolism by 3 to 10% and thereby it does support your weight loss journey. The second thing is about inflammation. As I shared with you, coffee has antioxidant compounds. So, several research studies do support that regular coffee consumption can reduce inflammation levels in your system. Plus, coffee also supports your liver health. You might have heard of coffee enemas which are used in several integrative and functional medicine clinics as a way to detoxify your body. In reality, these coffee enemas help supporting your liver because coffee has compounds which can help your liver to detoxify. So these are all the good things about the coffee.

But now let me tell you the cons or the negative things about coffee. Now the number one thing which research studies shows is that if you drink coffee first thing in the morning, it leads to cortisol spike. Cortisol is your stress hormone and when you drink that coffee within the first hour of waking up it increases your cortisol at a very high rate and thereby increasing inflammation. The second one is gut irritation. Coffee is acidic. Specifically, if you're drinking coffee on empty stomach, it erodess your gut lining thereby causing acid reflux issues as well as it can upset your stomach and lead to IBS- like problems. Plus ultimately coffee also is responsible for chronic fatigue issues. The reason being coffee does give you momentarily energy because of that caffeine content into it. But research shows after that spike in the energy typically people will feel more tired in the late afternoon because of this morning coffee which ultimately causes adrenal fatigue issues. So these are the pros and the cons about coffee.

Now let's talk about tea. Is that really comparable to coffee in terms of its benefits? Let's see. Now for comparison purposes, the only tea I'm reviewing over here is green tea because that's has the highest amount of research studies supporting it. The black teas and the other teas do not have so many research studies. So let's compare green tea with your coffee.

Now green tea has two different compounds. One is EGCG which is one of the most powerful antioxidant compound and has shown in several research studies to reduce inflammation significantly in a person's body. The second compound is elenine. This elenine supports your nervous system, calms it down, it increases your focus without giving you the jitteriness of caffeine. And we have research studies which supports that green tea can really burn down fat which can help you in weight loss.

Now, here's a part that genuinely surprised me when I was looking at research about green tea. that green tea not only reduces inflammation, it specifically targets those inflammation pathways which are responsible for causing autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's disease, thyroid problems, rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. So let me go through the pros and the cons of green tea real quick. First of all, it is an anti-inflammatory powerhouse because of EGCG into it. It blocks the NFCAP pathway which again is responsible for autoimmune diseases. So definitely it reduces inflammation significantly. The second thing it improves your energy but not because of caffeine into it but because of elenine. The third benefit is that green tea doesn't irritate your gut lining because it is not as acidic as coffee. So for people who have acid reflux or IBS issue, green tea works better.

Now let's talk about the cons about green tea. Well, as it is low in caffeine content, you do not get that immediate kick of energy when you drink green tea in the morning. Second of all, green tea are also very high in tannin compounds. These tannin compounds can interfere with iron absorption from your meals. So, if you're already iron deficient or your feritin levels are low, then green tea can further lower the absorption of iron from your food. And the number four obviously is that green tea doesn't taste as good as coffee. Well, that can be debatable. Some people like coffee and some people like the taste of tea though.

Here, before you move forward with the final verdict, let's also talk about black tea. Is it any good? Well, black tea also has some antioxidant. It also has some caffeine into it. So, definitely it has some health benefits into it. But hands down, green tea wins over black tea over here.

Here's a common mistake that people make with coffee. First of all, all the health benefits of coffee are gone if you add too much sugar. If you add too much dairy like creamers or any kind of dairy into it and second of all if you're drinking coffee very first thing in the morning that ultimately drains your adrenal glands and also causes cortisol spike which ultimately causes more inflammation.

Now in terms of green tea the most common mistake that people make is that they're using very hot water. Well, to get the maximum benefit of green tea, you only need warm water and not hot water because that destroys the antioxidants. Second of all, again, if you're adding too much dairy or creamers or sugar into your green tea, again, all the health benefits of green tea go away.

All right, so let's talk about which one wins. So, if you're targeting inflammation as the main reason of drinking tea or coffee, then hands down green tea wins over here. But if you're looking to get maximum energy to start your morning, then coffee wins hand down over here because definitely it is going to boost your energy significantly in the morning. Now in terms of fat burning, both tea and coffee does an amazing job and both are more or less equal over here.

So drink coffee if you want that energy boost, you want to detoxify your liver, you want to reduce inflammation in your system, plus you like the taste of coffee, but make sure it is black coffee and do not add any sugar or creamer into it. But if you have issues with your gut that you have acid reflux issues or you have IBS problems, plus you get some jitteriness from caffeine and your main goal is to reduce inflammation, then green tea is definitely the choice for you.

So, I hope this video helps you in making better choices in the morning when you're starting your day. Make sure you like and subscribe to my channel so you keep on getting all of this great information in the future. Also, also share this video with others who might benefit from this information. So, share in the comment section after listening to this video. Are you going to go with your coffee or with your green tea as a drink of your choice? Until next time, take care. Bye-bye.