Coffee, Tea, Chocolate: health and sustainability

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This chapter examines coffee, tea, and chocolate, including their nutritional benefits, health effects, and use in both traditional cultures and today’s world. Coffee is the world’s primary source of caffeine and may raise LDL (bad) cholesterol, a risk factor for heart disease, but coffee and caffeine have also been associated with less depression and improved cardiovascular health. Like coffee, tea is rich in phytochemicals, with similar benefits for blood pressure, blood sugar, cognition, and brain health. It highlights the powerful polyphenols, antioxidants, and phytonutrients found in green tea, kombucha, yerba maté, and matcha and explores the medicinal use of drinking chocolate and its rich polyphenols and antioxidants, noting that added sugar and milk reduce its value. Finally, the chapter considers the ecological impacts of coffee, tea, and chocolate production, including deforestation, environmental sustainability, biodiversity loss, monoculture, climate change, and the use of child and forced labor in the chocolate industry.