Caffeine fix

Drinking tea or coffee is a habit for most people. Are non-imbibers missing out on more than a hot cuppa?

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Question:

I recently read a newspaper health column about tips for a long life, with recommendations including drinking three cups of freshly brewed coffee daily. I don't drink hot drinks, as I never acquired the habit. Are there any stats about the health benefits, or otherwise, of never imbibing tea or coffee?

Answer:

Although advice on precisely what to eat and drink in the name of good health and longevity is often varied and frequently contradictory, the reality is relatively simple.

To paraphrase author Michael Pollan, your health will benefit from eating real food, not too much, and mostly plant-derived.

But, of course, the details of that can vary significantly according to your personal preferences, including whether you enjoy drinking coffee or tea. Both are consumed worldwide but originated in particular regions - tea in Southeast Asia and coffee from the Ethiopian plateau.

So, these beverages were originally a traditional part of diets in some parts of the world, but not others. We can safely say the famously healthy inhabitants of Crete, who ate the acclaimed Mediterranean diet, were not traditionally tea or coffee drinkers.

And while we talk about coffee in a singular sense, it's worth noting that its preparation varies widely, with different types of beans, roasting, grinding and brewing methods employed to produce espresso, instant, drip, French press, percolated... the list goes on. All of these significantly influence the intricate mixture of more than 1000 bioactive compounds in a cup of coffee.