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Coffee or tea drinkers: Who’s got better bone density?
As a woman of a certain age, one of the things I’m most concerned about is bone loss. And it’s no wonder…
The drop in estrogen that accompanies menopause is no joke. Up to 20% of a woman’s bone loss occurs during this period, leading to osteoporosis and making fractures prevalent in women over 50. Worse, roughly half of women over 50 will experience an osteoporosis-related bone break.
There are ways to combat menopause-related bone loss, including estrogen replacement therapy, but it’s not an option for all women.
Thankfully, you can make lifestyle changes to strengthen your bones. Usually, those changes mean giving something up, but that’s not the case here…
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The difference between tea and coffee
Because coffee and tea are part of the daily routine for billions of people, researchers believe understanding the long-term effects of these popular beverages on bone health is essential.
However, previous research has been inconsistent.
Researchers at Flinders University in Australia decided to access a large dataset from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures. This study followed almost 10,000 older women for 10 years, who reported their coffee and tea intake and underwent regular DEXA scans to measure bone mineral density at the hip and femoral neck.
The results showed that women who drank tea had slightly higher total hip BMD than those who didn’t. Although the improvement was slight, the researchers said it was statistically significant…
“Even small improvements in bone density can translate into fewer fractures across large groups,” says study co-author Enwu Liu, a professor at Flinders.
The findings for coffee were mixed. Moderate intake, defined as roughly two to three cups a day, was not associated with harming BMD. However, consuming more than 5 cups a day was linked to lower BMD, suggesting that very high coffee consumption may negatively affect bone strength. This isn’t the first study to link drinking too much coffee with harmful effects.
Another blow to coffee drinkers involved alcohol…
Coffee consumption was negatively associated with femoral neck BMD in women with higher alcohol intake — while tea showed stronger benefits in women with obesity.
Previous research has shown that coffee may encourage bone growth and block bone loss, but it may depend on how you drink it and how much alcohol you consume.
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Catechins make the difference
Ryan Liu, a researcher and medical student at Flinders who was a co-author of the study, says tea is rich in catechins, plant compounds that may encourage bone formation and help slow bone loss.
“Coffee’s caffeine content, by contrast, has been shown in laboratory studies to interfere with calcium absorption and bone metabolism, though these effects are small and can be offset by adding milk,” he says.
According to Enwu Liu, the research suggests that drinking tea daily may be an easy way to support bone health as people age. By contrast, high consumption of coffee “may not be ideal, especially for women who drink alcohol,” he says.
While the results are statistically significant, the researchers note that the differences are not dramatic enough to warrant sweeping lifestyle changes.
“Our results don’t mean you need to give up coffee or start drinking tea by the gallon,” Enwu Liu says. “But they do suggest that moderate tea consumption could be one simple way to support bone health.”
He adds that calcium and vitamin D “remain cornerstones of bone health,” and that a daily cup of tea could be another small step to add to that regimen.
If (like me) you’re already a tea drinker, there’s nothing you need to change. But if you are a woman in menopause who’s a heavy coffee drinker, you may want to scale back your habit to a couple of cups a day to avoid any ill effects on your bones.
To give an added boost to your efforts, combine tea drinking with a daily probiotic, which has been shown in studies to boost bone growth.
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Sources:
Tea may strengthen bones in older women while heavy coffee weakens them — ScienceDaily
What Women Need to Know — Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation
Menopause and Bone Loss — Endocrine Society
By Carolyn Gretton
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