CAFFEINE AND BEVERAGES

About a month ago in one of my favorite social media groups a lady raised the concern of her aged aunt refusing to take one too many cups of tea simply because she believed tea has caffeine which would worsen her hypertension.Well, question is does tea have caffeine? How many cups of tea would one have to take so that the caffeine in it has significant effect on your system? What are  these effects of caffeine? All in all hope is not lost because I might be able to give some answers to these questions.

WHAT IS CAFFEINE?

According to the oxford journal of analytic toxicology, caffeine is a psycho-stimulant for enhancing alertness and improving performance. In simple terms we can say that caffeine is  a chemical stimulant produced naturally in seeds, fruits and leaves of certain plants for example tea, coffee, cocoa, guarana and yerba mate. It is used as a food additive in most soft drinks, snacks, energy drinks and also in some medication like fat burners and performance enhancers.

Like everything in this world it has both positive and negative effects. These may vary from enhanced performance and alertness to headache, anxiety, insomnia and irritability.

CAFFEINE AND TEA

Does tea have caffeine? Yes, tea has caffeine. However the amount of caffeine in a cup of tea varies depending on several factors as highlighted below;

• type of tea plant used 
• clonal/seed propagation in which case it is stipulated that cloned tea has higher levels of caffeine
• fertilization method as nitrogen based fertilizers lead to increased levels of caffeine in the plant
• harvest season
• the plant part used whether the leaf/ the bud or both usually the recommended is two leaves and a bud
• the tea processing specifically the fermentation
• the brewing/steeping time

The most important fact about caffeine in tea is an 8oz cup of tea that is approximately 240 ml has 15 mg to 70 mg of caffeine. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) of caffeine for adults is 200 mg to 400 mg. Hence, an average adult can have 4 to 6 cups of tea per day and still be within their daily caffeine allowance. There are also decaffeinated teas which have traces of caffeine that is less than 12 mg per cup. Below is a chart of caffeine in various types of tea;

Note that the RDA of caffeine for pregnant women is 300 mg and for adolescents is <100 mg/day as for children it depends on their weight will do more research on the same and write more on these topic especially when I will be covering ADHD.

Below is a chart showing amount of caffeine in various beverages;

With this chart in hand you can work around it and make wise healthy choices on the kinds of beverages you want to include in your daily meal plan. Feel free to leave your comments below. You can also contact me for a profession meal plan.

You can also check out the links below for more information on the above topic:

1. the tea talk
   
2. http://www.chadao.blogspot.ca/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and-reality.html