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A new study has revealed a surprising connection between daily tea and coffee habits and cognitive decline in adults over the age of 60, suggesting that moderate consumption may help protect memory and reasoning abilities.
Researchers found that drinking around three cups of tea or coffee daily was associated with better cognitive health, while consuming more than four cups of coffee a day was linked to poorer results. Interestingly, tea drinkers initially performed worse on memory and reasoning tests at the start of the study, but their decline slowed over time.
“The reasons behind these associations remain unclear,” the researchers said, as reported by News Medical. They suggested that caffeine content could be a key factor. A cup of tea contains roughly 28mg to 45mg of caffeine, compared to about 95mg in a cup of coffee. This difference might explain why high coffee consumption was associated with a faster decline, while tea intake seemed to offer protective benefits.
Published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the study tracked more than 8,700 UK adults between ages 60 and 85 over nearly a decade. Participants were divided into three groups: non-drinkers, moderate drinkers who consumed one to three cups per day, and high-intake drinkers with four or more cups daily.
Researchers excluded individuals with conditions that could influence cognition, such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, diabetes, or hypertension, and those who consumed more than 14 units of alcohol weekly. Cognitive abilities were assessed using computer-based tasks that measured reaction time, verbal and numeric problem-solving, memory, and visual pair-matching skills.
The findings showed that moderate coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers experienced slower cognitive decline, while those consuming four or more cups of coffee daily showed more errors in memory tasks over time. Tea drinkers, particularly moderate to high consumers, demonstrated slower cognitive decline than those who avoided tea. However, tea intake did not significantly affect reaction time, pair-matching accuracy, or numerical memory.
Researchers noted that these results align with previous studies linking tea consumption to better cognitive performance and slower decline. A 2022 Chinese study similarly reported that drinking more than four cups of tea daily could help reduce cognitive deterioration.
However, the study did have limitations. It did not account for how the beverages were prepared such as whether participants drank decaf coffee, the types of tea they consumed, or whether they added milk or sugar leaving some questions unanswered.
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