Sorry coffee drinkers: whether it's a pot of jasmine from a traditional tea set or a British milk-and-sugar staple, tea drinkers might be more intelligent. It's not that coffee is bad for you: far from it.
Coffee can help boost your metabolism, helping you to lose weight fast, and the caffeine helps wake us up and get us thinking faster – in the short term, at least.
However, tea (both green and black) might actually change the brain structure of drinkers for the better. A study published in the scientific journal Aging (opens in new tab) examined tea's effects on "system-level brain networks", or how the brain is organised, looking at functional and structural connectivity between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
The study was only performed on a very small scale, with only 36 participants and six of those were women, so more research is needed. However, of the participants who did take part, it was found drinking tea suppressed "hemispherical asymmetry" allowing both parts of the brain to better work together.
Tea is notorious for being a healthy beverage, especially green tea. It's long been known to contain extremely high levels of antioxidants, helping to fight off cancers and keep us healthy.
It's full of potassium, which contributes to healthy nerves and muscle, as well as bioactive compounds (opens in new tab) that contribute to better bone health. However, drinking a ton of green teas will also help you lose weight, contributing to a faster metabolism.
You'll need to drink a lot of it though. In one study, published in the Journal of Research in Medical Sciences (opens in new tab), researchers found people that drank four cups of green tea per day, for two months, saw a significant drop in body weight, their BMI, waist circumference and blood pressure.
If you're looking to get smarter, lose some weight and keep your bone health and cancer levels down, it might be time to switch out your daily cup of coffee for a lower-caffeine, green tea alternative, as well as doing the best exercises for weight loss. We'll drink to that.
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