Remember tea?

What’s the first thing you do when you make it down to the kitchen in the morning, or arrive at work after a long commute, or just decide you need a break? For most of us, it’s to make a cup of coffee. ‘Coffee culture’ has become an inextricable part of daily life for many and let’s be honest: it’s something we tend to rely upon.

But besides the caffeine hit and the benefits associated with that, coffee offers relatively little. So, how about trying different? Something like green tea. Wait, before you throw the used filter paper at me, let me preface this by stating that green tea has just as much caffeine in as regular tea – less than coffee but still about 35 mg per 200 ml serving! But there’s more, Swiss researchers have recently shown using MRI data that green tea extract increases the number of brain connections between the parietal and frontal cortex regions. What this translated to was an increase in cognitive performance, specifically, working memory tasks. This study opens up exciting clinical implications for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders such as dementia further down the line. It’s even encouraged me to try and break my coffee addiction.

So, why not try ditching the coffee at the office and turning to tea? In addition to the many benefits provided by the anti-oxidants that we always hear about, you may just improve your memory!

Image from Web Digest