Many people around the world begin their mornings with either a cup of coffee or green tea. Coffee is well known for helping people feel more awake and alert, while green tea is often seen as a calming and healthy drink. But how do these popular drinks affect our heart?
Both drinks contain caffeine, the chemical that helps you feel more energetic. However, the amount of caffeine is different. A regular cup of coffee has about 80 to 100 milligrams of caffeine, while the same amount of green tea has only 30 to 50 milligrams. So, coffee gives a stronger boost, but also may come with stronger effects.
In the past, many studies have shown that coffee can be good for you in some ways. For example, drinking one cup a day might help people live longer after a heart attack.
Some studies even suggest that coffee can lower the risk of having a heart attack or stroke in healthy people. Regular coffee drinkers may also enjoy better mood, sharper focus, and a lower chance of getting certain long-term illnesses.
However, there’s another side to the story. Drinking too much coffee can raise your blood pressure and may make you feel anxious or jittery. This is especially important for people who already have high blood pressure.
A recent study looked more closely at how coffee and green tea affect heart health in people with different blood pressure levels. The study followed more than 18,500 people aged 40 to 79 over nearly 19 years. The researchers grouped the participants by blood pressure, from normal to severely high. They then tracked how many people died from heart-related problems.
They found that people with very high blood pressure who drank two or more cups of coffee a day had a higher risk of dying from heart disease.
However, those who drank only one cup a day did not face this risk, no matter what their blood pressure level was. Green tea, on the other hand, did not raise the risk of heart-related death at all, even in people with very high blood pressure.
This shows that while one cup of coffee a day might be safe, people with serious blood pressure problems should be cautious about drinking too much. It seems their bodies are more sensitive to caffeine’s effects.
Green tea appears to be a safer choice. One reason may be the presence of polyphenols—tiny natural substances found in plants. These help protect the body’s cells and fight inflammation, which may help lower the risk of heart disease. Plus, with its lower caffeine content, green tea is less likely to raise blood pressure or cause anxiety.
In summary, both drinks can be part of a healthy lifestyle, but moderation is important. Coffee can be helpful for most people, but too much of it might be harmful, especially for those with high blood pressure. Green tea, thanks to its plant compounds and lower caffeine, is a safer option for almost everyone.
This study, led by Japanese researcher Hiroyasu Iso, gives us more insight into how everyday choices—like the drink we pick in the morning—can affect our long-term heart health.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing vitamin D could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
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