2 Comments
User's avatar
Meredith's avatar

Hi, I have a question about decaf coffee. How much of the benefits are from caffeine vs polyphenols? Would drinking pu’er tea which is high in polyphenols provide the same benefit as regular coffee? Are polyphenols destroyed in the decaffeination process? Please advise.

Expand full comment
Allan Mishra, MD's avatar

Great question.

Here is a quote from a paper about decaf: "some decaf methods may not alter phenolic content and antioxidant capacity. Decaf methods could be an independent factor for interpreting health benefit studies of decaf." Identifying how "decaf" coffee is created is difficult. Bottom line is decaf still contains polyphenols but they may be reduced to some extent.

Pu'er Tea does contain higher concentrations of anti-oxidants than regular tea but the concentrations vary by the type of tea and how it is brewed.

Below are two references to learn more. Hope this answer helped.

Decaf vs Regular Coffee: https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.921.14#:~:text=Decaf%20methods%2C%20i.e.%20Swiss%20water,benefit%20studies%20of%20decaf%20coffee.

Pu're Tea

https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.921.14#:~:text=Decaf%20methods%2C%20i.e.%20Swiss%20water,benefit%20studies%20of%20decaf%20coffee.

Expand full comment