While coffee is already one of the most popular drinks drunk worldwide, matcha, a powdered form of Japanese green tea, is becoming more and more popular. If you've heard about matcha's potential health benefits, you might be curious how they stack up against coffee's well-established advantages.
When made without additional components like milk, sugar, cream, or flavouring syrups, both coffee and matcha have very little calories.
Unlike coffee, which is traditionally brewed with hot water, matcha is typically made by combining 1 teaspoon (or around 2 grams) of the powder with 2 ounces (or 60 mL) of hot water. The flavours of both drinks are bitter. When compared to coffee, which is known for its roasted, occasionally nutty, chocolaty flavour and scent, matcha is described as having a grassy or earthy flavour.
Matcha and coffee are both well known for having a variety of health benefits. In reality, the two drinks have many similar advantages.
Matcha and coffee both contain caffeine, which may aid in weight loss by stimulating brown adipose tissue, or brown fat, and boosting energy expenditure and fat oxidation.
Aids Weight Loss
Due to its capacity to produce heat and metabolise foods like glucose and fat, brown fat is thought to prevent the buildup of body fat. Actually, a number of research, some of which are older, indicate that caffeine may raise your metabolic rate by up to 13% for roughly 3 hours. In addition to caffeine, coffee also contains chlorogenic acid (CGA), while matcha includes a significant amount of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). The possibility that CGA and EGCG could help people lose weight has been investigated. According to research conducted on animals, CGA may have an impact on hormones that are linked to obesity, which may help lower blood triglyceride and cholesterol levels, body weight, and fat storage. Similar to this, research on EGCG in animals demonstrates that this substance aids in weight loss by preventing the synthesis of fat and encouraging its breakdown.
Packed With Antioxidants
Antioxidants are advantageous substances that lessen the negative effects of oxidative stress in your body, which would otherwise promote the initiation and development of numerous diseases, including cancer. A class of powerful antioxidants known as polyphenols can be found in fruits, vegetables, coffee, and tea. The primary elements of the polyphenols found in green tea and coffee, respectively, are EGCG and CGA. EGCG may limit the development of specific blood arteries that feed tumours, stop the growth and spread of tumours, as well as encourage the death of malignant cells. Similar to this, CGA may prevent liver, colorectal, esophageal, gastric, and oral cancer by inhibiting tumour growth. In addition, coffee includes cafestol and kahweol, all of which have antioxidant properties, whereas matcha is abundant in rutin, vitamin C, and chlorophyll, giving it its distinctive green hue.
Protects Heart Health
Numerous substances contained in coffee and matcha may help lower numerous risk factors for heart disease. To begin with, its polyphenol concentration may lessen platelet aggregation, which can assist in preventing artery blockage and lowering the risk of a heart attack. In addition to relaxing blood vessels, polyphenols can lower excessive blood pressure. Additionally, the EGCG in green tea may lower blood pressure and lower levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, and LDL (bad) cholesterol by preventing the absorption of lipids from your stomach. Although unfiltered coffee contains cafestol and kahweol, which are both heart-healthy polyphenols, they may raise levels of total and LDL (bad) cholesterol as well as triglycerides.
Both beverages' caffeine, as well as matcha's L-theanine and EGCG, may enhance mood, focus, memory, and reaction speeds.