Is Decaf Tea Good for You?
Before we get into whether decaffeinated tea is good for you, we need to understand what caffeine is and what it does. It is already pretty clear why most people consume caffeinated drinks, but do we know why some plants produce it?
Plants produce caffeine to help defend themselves from other organisms, mainly herbivores. One of the main characteristics of caffeine is that it has a bitter taste, but for some insects it is not the taste of caffeine that puts them at risk, but what it does to them if consumed. It turns out that caffeine is a natural insecticide! When certain bugs consume plants with caffeine in them, it can paralyze them and eventually even kill them.
It wasn’t until October of 1984 when Science magazine first published a study by James A. Nathanson on the subject. Nathanson, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, noticed that caffeine itself wasn’t such a great insecticide, but by combining caffeine with other insecticides it became a much powerful agent. Perhaps the natural concentration of caffeine in plants is not high enough to kill every single time, but it is still enough to disrupt a bug’s life and lucky for us humans it poses no hazard.
Now, while caffeine exposure seems to suppress certain enzymes in an insects’ nervous system, it appears to have the complete opposite effect on humans. To our nervous system, caffeine works as a stimulant. It helps us shake off sleepiness, although it is important to say the need to sleep remains, we simply lose the sensation of tiredness.
What are some other effects of caffeine?
- It increases the heart’s rate
- It increases dopamine in the system (pleasure for our brains)
- It makes us feel alert
- It creates dependency over time
- It may cause headaches
- It can keep you awake when you want to sleep
So, again, is decaf tea good for you?
Taking into consideration the effects of caffeine in our bodies, it seems the good qualities of coffee are short term while the negatives come with long term consumption. Whether decaf tea is good for you goes hand-in-hand with asking whether caffeine consumption is good for you, and the best answer is yes and no. Let’s say you couldn’t get enough sleep last night and you woke up this morning feeling tired. You need to get to work and you have to make it through the day feeling alert and ready for whatever comes your way. Maybe a cup of coffee or two will do you a lot of good. But would it be safe to consume coffee every day? While many people do so, the real question is why would you want to become dependent? If you are constantly feeling tired, it could be a sign of a bigger problem. Consider revising your schedule and sleeping patterns. If the problem persists, visit your doctor. While caffeine might stimulate your heart rate, so does exercising.
The point is that any of the benefits achieved from caffeine consumption, can be achieved through other means without creating dependency. In other words, drink coffee when you need it, but don’t become dependent on it. There is no point in jolting our system every day. Are we drinking coffee every day because we need it to wake up? Or is it sometimes only? This is no different than jump-starting our cars every day before heading out. Now, why would we want to do that?
Decaf tea is going to be better for you in the sense that you won’t mistakenly be creating a substance dependency. Coffee is good for you in moderate amounts. As a matter of fact, this is probably true of anything in life…