We are constantly seeing new trends pop up in the world of health and wellness, and it can feel overwhelming to try and keep up. In hopes of helping you to navigate which trends are worth considering, we want to break down different trends and their potential benefits. Today, we will be breaking down why some people have switched out their coffee for morning matcha instead.
Both are known for their caffeine quality, but does one truly stand out over the other in terms of benefitting our health? Let’s find out.
Breaking Down What Matcha Is and How It Can Be Consumed
Coffee is the tried-and-true morning beverage, but in recent times, many people have switched over to matcha for their daily dose of caffeine. There are claims that matcha can offer you a more natural boost of energy without the potential for anxiety. So let’s break down what matcha truly is, and its potential benefits to your health.
Matcha is essentially green tea leaves that are ground up into the form of a fine powder. While green tea already has many benefits, it does not give you the maximum benefits that matcha has to offer. When ingesting matcha, you are consuming the whole green tea leaf in powder form, which means you can reap all the benefits that the leaf has to offer. Whereas green tea loses some of its benefits during the steeping process.
With the rise in its popularity, matcha is now being transformed in many ways. While simply mixing the matcha powder in with hot water will still taste quite tasty and is the easiest way to consume the powder, there are other ways to add it to your diet. If you are someone who would rather not consume matcha in the form of a simple beverage, you can add it to your smoothies or oatmeal bowls to still reap its benefits.
When choosing what type of matcha to buy, be sure that you are reading the labels in order to avoid purchasing items with artificial sweeteners or extra unneeded ingredients.
The Benefits of Matcha In Comparison To Coffee
Since many people are considering switching over from coffee to matcha, we thought it would be best to compare the two beverages by comparing their benefits and disadvantages.
Matcha contains amino acids, which are needed for the human body to thrive. Matcha specifically contains an amino acid named L-theanine. L-theanine helps to bring the body into a state of relaxation, and mixed with the caffeine present in matcha, it can give you a relaxed sense of concentration. This is especially great for those who experience anxiety from coffee, because it will allow you to enjoy the benefits of caffeine in a state of peace.
Matcha also contains antioxidants that help to reduce the presence of free radicals in the body. However, this is not unique to simply matcha or tea, but can also be found in coffee. Antioxidants can also help to prevent the potential for inflammation in the body.
This being said, matcha definitely beats out coffee when it comes to potential oral hygiene benefits. Coffee can actually be very detrimental to the enamel of your teeth and can leave a lingering smell to your breath, whereas matcha can actually help fight off potentially harmful bacteria in your mouth.
Given the comparisons, you might still be hesitant to switch over from coffee to matcha, but the real difference comes down to how the caffeine in each impacts your body. The caffeine in matcha pushes your body to become energized without the added jitters that coffee seems to promote. Coffee will give you that spike of energy, but not without a downfall. Matcha has no downfall. It will support your energy levels in a more natural way that won’t impact your glucose and insulin levels in a way that coffee does.
Nowadays, coffee beverages also tend to be packed with artificial sweeteners that are most definitely not good for your health. Both matcha and coffee should be consumed in their natural form as much as possible to avoid increasing your intake of substances such as artificial sweeteners.
It is important to understand the impact that caffeine can have on you regardless of the way you consume it.
How Caffeine Can Impact Your Body and Overall Health
Caffeine is truly everyone’s best friend, and because of its attractive energizing qualities, we tend to overlook its potentially harmful effects. Caffeine is a stimulant found in substances such as tea leaves and coffee beans. Caffeine does have its benefits including acting as a mood booster and increasing endurance, but none of that matters if you do not know how to manage it.
Drinking too much caffeine can cause issues such as anxiety, poor sleep quality, withdrawals, migraines, and irregular bowel movements. It is important to understand how much caffeine your body can take. Every person’s body is different, which means it will react to caffeine in different ways. If you are someone who already struggles with sleep, it might be prudent to stay away from caffeine as much as possible.
On that note, do not rely on caffeine as your only form of energy. If you are finding that you simply cannot go through your day without caffeine, your body is most likely experiencing sleep deprivation and burnout. Simply avoiding the true energy reducing issues at hand will cause you to never truly feel better.
Caffeine can stimulate bowel movements, but should not be relied on as a way to reduce constipation. Instead, one should consider taking a bloat reducing supplement such as a vitamin that helps with bloating like Sexy & Slim. Sexy and slim contains gut health enzymes that will help to regulate your digestion long-term rather than acting as a short-term solution.
However, if you are simply using caffeine in small doses, and not relying on its abilities, then you can safely reap its benefits, and with matcha specifically, you can avoid the potential for jitters entirely.