Could your relationship with caffeine be improved?

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Patjulian80
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Sat Jan 21, 2023 5:27 am

Hi Teaheads
I've written a booklet for tea drinkers who are concerned about their caffeine consumption. I offer some practical tips on how to mitigate some negative effects and draw on the knowledge of some tea experts and health professionals:

https://www.amazon.com/author/patrickhuwyler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m9emibw0pI

Do feel free to ask me questions and I look forward to some interesting discussions...

Patrick

Introduction:

Teahead’s Bible on Caffeine Managnement offers some evidence-based ideas on how to mitigate the negative effects of tea with emphasis on tea-derived caffeine (also known as theine). By tea, I mean the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant.

The idea for this booklet began as my reply to the first question in Sally Fallon Morell’s blog post entitled ‘What’s Wrong With Coffee?’ (2022). The question that I replied to basically asked if tea is a better option than coffee as the person had had a better experience with it. I could not resist and this short e-book is my extended comment on Fallon’s blog post. Fallon is the chairperson of the Weston A. Price Foundation which advocates raw, organic and pastured dairy, homemade bone broths, organ meats, healthy fats, and fermented foods prepared in traditional ways.
Whether she is right or wrong, I don’t want to give up tea. I love tea and the whole culture that surrounds it. And I’m convinced that you could continue to enjoy your tea and be healthy if you’re willing to make a few adjustments and perhaps a sacrifice or two.

I once saw an Instagram post juxtaposing a very large glass of coffee with a very large glass of matcha—and then posing the question: “Coffee or matcha: which is best?” I think a question [post] like this is missing the point as it only comes from the ‘what’ angle. Both the Ethiopians and Japanese drink their traditional drinks in small amounts—oftentimes on special or ceremonial occasions. They don’t drink out of half-litre vessels and have them morning, noon and night. Even the Italians, who have a renowned coffee culture, don’t drink like this. If you ask for a coffee in Italy, you’ll most likely be served a ristretto—technically speaking, it’s an espresso with 50% less water—quality, taste and appreciation above quantity. In any case, filtered coffee and matcha are both bad choices if you’re concerned about your caffeine intake. You might have heard about L-theanine in matcha (which was what the Instagram post was using to promote theirs), but to paraphrase Cherniske (1998): at the end of the day, caffeine is caffeine—and it doesn’t matter whether you get it from matcha during a Japanese tea ceremony in Kyoto, or from a coffee [ristretto] at the train station in Milan.

Healthy eating and drinking is not only about the what but also about the when, why and how. Think about your tea-drinking experience from a holistic point of view—the big picture. You might, for example, argue that the Japanese drink green tea and therefore live long, healthy lives. I would say this isn’t the entire picture and that it’s too atomistic—again, this argument only focuses on the what. Many in Japan not only eat very healthily but also moderately. Hara hachi bu is a well-known term that originated in Okinawa city, and it means to eat until you’re 80% full. Also, there is a very strong sense of community, and people tend to lead healthy and active lifestyles.

There is, to the best of my knowledge, no conclusive research that proves tea is healthy. There are studies out there that indicate that tea (especially green tea) is super-healthy and even a preventative or cure for certain diseases. Be wary. Even though tea was first used for its medicinal properties, it’s worth bearing in mind that it’s now a commodity above all else—and studies can be funded by the wrong people.
However, there is also no conclusive evidence that one serving of tea [caffeine] a day is unhealthy. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, and tea will remain, unless proven otherwise, a double-edged sword due to its caffeine, theobromine and other anti-nutrient content. Therefore, caffeine is a good ‘tool’ if used wisely—‘the dose makes the poison’ as the old adage goes. There is no need to give up tea if you really enjoy it and can be prudent about it. Bestselling authors on the subject of caffeine such as Stephen Cherniske and Michael Pollan do consume coffee-derived caffeine but they are very careful with it. Just don’t do what I did and throw all your precious tea leaves away!

The good news is that there are certainly ways of making tea healthier. And the ultimate goal of this book is to help you better your relationship with tea-derived caffeine. Nevertheless, drink sensibly and in moderation (treat it a bit like any other drug—technically speaking, caffeine is a drug—a psychoactive stimulant). Listen to your body. And be mindful and appreciative of tea’s energy—the energy that has delivered the tea into your teacup, and the energy that the tea provides—not only in terms of the psychoactive effect but also what the Chinese refer to as cha qi.
Last edited by Patjulian80 on Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:11 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Victoria
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Sat Jan 21, 2023 2:01 pm

Patrick maybe you can share a few excerpts from your publication, since many of us don’t use kindle. Over the years a few members have needed to back off tea due to caffeine intolerance build-up, so your insights could be useful.
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Patjulian80
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Sat Jan 21, 2023 2:38 pm

Yes, that's a good idea. Thanks for your support, Victoria.
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Baiyun
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Sat Jan 21, 2023 5:12 pm

The health in moderation and listen to your body approaches are all well and good, but I keep seeing people state that the science on tea is lacking, or that studies are commercially biased, but I don't think that is largely true. There are a lot of in-depth tea polyphenol specific and caffeine related studies published in respectable journals, without dubious funding background, many available for anyone to peruse on https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/. I am not sure what people expect to see as conclusive in medical biochemistry, but I do not think this field easily allows for single statement conclusions that people can run with.

Neither do I think that your paraphrased "caffeine is caffeine no matter where you get it from" statement by Cherniske, whom I am not familiar with to be fair, has much merit. Sure we may know what caffeine as a molecule looks like, where it generally binds, what pathways it generally affects, but caffeine on its own versus caffeine plus some other bioavailable compound are not the same. It does matter where it comes from, because it matters what else it comes with. This is the relationship that causes effects, the rest is just atoms. Coffee and tea have varying polyphenols, which for each beverage are heavily processing dependent, complicating the desire for anything blanket conclusive even further.

Cell signalling transduction and specific cell responses triggered by the binding of one specific molecule are different for each cell type in the body, and the information pathways that ultimately lead to any physiological reaction driven by responses within any given cell type are complex and often interrelated multi-step cascades involving several types of proteins, enzymes, relaying molecules, ions, and whatnot, that can rely on the presence of other compounds - and importantly - activate or inhibit each other, with varying factors of multiplication, rather wildly. Even how exactly a signalling molecule, say caffeine, binds to and then dissociates from known receptors is difficult to pin down, it is even difficult to image or map those receptors proteins because the change shape and move all the time. It's just not straightforward.

But anyway!
Zhaozhou said: Go have some tea.
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Patjulian80
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Sat Jan 21, 2023 6:08 pm

Hi Baiyun
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Tea-derived caffeine is indeed found together with other substances such as theanine—I do point this out in my book. Moreover, caffeine is not the only stimulant in found in tea. Tea-derived caffeine and coffee-derived do indeed have quite different effects on the body. Again this is something I also point out. Nevertheless, what Cherniske (his book Caffeine Blues happens to be a bestseller—at least in the West) is trying to say is that caffeine still enters the body whether it's bound to something or not. He is, by the way, not the only reference I use (see my reference list if you do decide to read my book). In any case, I'd be interested to know what you think after you have read everything—and I would most welcome a review from you ;)

Caffeine is certainly not straightforward but I discuss traditional practices and approaches that have been proven to lower caffeine levels significantly—again please see my reference list and I have actually used studies found on pubmed as well (and not from any dubious funding backgrounds).

My introduction merely serves to outline some basic thoughts, some common sense, and to set the structure of how I choose to tackle this issue.

Of course I would like my book to do well and be read (like any writer would)—but my higher aim is to spread the word that you don't have to give up tea because you're worried about caffeine. There are many things you can do to lower caffeine content and enjoy tea. I'm convinced that one could drink tea and still be happy and healthy—and I provide practical tips such as cold-brewing, ice-brewing and choosing stem teas—just to name a few.

I hope to hear from you.
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Baiyun
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Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:40 pm

@Patjulian80 I don't have any caffeine concerns, so I am not the audience for your book, but I do wish you all the best with it. My response was limited to what I read in your introduction.
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Patjulian80
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Mon Jan 23, 2023 1:06 am

Thanks, I’ll keep your comments in mind.
All the best
Patrick
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