Tea or Coffee . . .Both or Neither . . .?

What’s to be done? Tea is good for you – or is it? Coffee is bad for you – or is it? The reports are coming in, thick and fast, and they are often conflicting.

The one I like best is the news that coffee (and caffeinated drinks) are good for your short-term memory. A group of radiologists used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to check brain activity in volunteers during a short-term memory task, and found improvements after 100 mg caffeine – that’s about 2 cups of coffee.

Another ‘positive’ report: tea drinking (green tea or regular black tea) seems to be linked with a 50% reduction in the risk of developing ovarian cancer, according to Swedish researchers. Coffee didn’t have the same effect, though.

Here’s an interesting finding. Women who drink coffee don’t seem to develop raised blood pressure as a result, but they do if they drink sugared or diet cola beverages. So it isn’t the caffeine – or is it?

Coffee drinkers seem to have some protection against type 2 diabetes; decaffeinated coffee has a similar but lesser effect. But tea has no such action.

Still confused? How about a glass of wine? We know that’s healthy.