by Steven Gomez

Created on: November 12, 2008

Most individuals seeking a morning boost opt for coffee. But tea provides far more positive effects than coffee, in many cases providing the same boost as coffee's caffeine, plus more. Here are the benefits of drinking tea rather than coffee:

- Tea leaves can be reused to produce several cups. You can use a tea bag to make a cup of tea, then reuse the tea bag to make another cup. Ground coffee, meanwhile, can only be brewed once.

- Tea costs less for an individual to produce than coffee. Making a cup of drip coffee requires a coffee pot and ground beans (usually about $8-10 per pound). Espresso's costs are far greater. A cup of tea only requires a tea bag (a box of 60 or so tea bags typically costs well below $10) and a pot to boil water in. It costs far less overhead to make a cup of tea. Plus, as mentioned, the brewing process only produces one cup or pot of coffee, whereas a tea bag can be used with hot water several times in a sitting.

- Tea contains fluoride, which strengthens your teeth, along with bactericide, which inhibits the growth the bacteria that causes cavities. Coffee, meanwhile, stains your teeth and makes them more brittle over time.

- Most teas have a pleasant flavor and require no sweetening. Straight coffee tastes bitter and most drinkers need to sweeten it with cream and sugar to make it drinkable.

- Tea's elements reduce cholesterol absorption, while coffee contains cafestrol, a fatty chemical that actually increases cholesterol levels.

- Tea has a higher concentration of water than coffee, keeping a drinker better hydrated while still flushing the system of impurities as a diuretic. Coffee simply dehydrates the drinker.

- Various teas contain antioxidants such as EGCG and theaflavins that help fight cancer and disease. Tea activates chemicals in the body that provide a line of defense against tumors and infections. Coffee's health benefits, while some exist, are limited in scope. Coffee, for example, helps asthma sufferers and helps with decongestion during colds. But tea has many of the same effects, and far more in addition to that.

- While coffee contains more caffeine, it can be an excessive amount, enough to cause anxiety, excess hunger, high blood pressure and other problems. Black tea provides more measured quantities of caffeine that don't cause and, in some cases, even reduce these effects. And herbal teas contain no caffeine, yet contain a variety of nutrients that can provide energy in a healthier fashion.

- Tea helps you lose and keep off excess weight better than coffee. Yes, caffeine promotes faster metabolism in general, but the effect is fleeting, and the aforementioned cafestrol's affect can actually counteract the caffeine's weight loss benefit. Plus, caffeine does less to suppress appetite than tea, promoting extra eating while tea can leave a person feeling satisfied between meals.

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