What and what they are
Tea, coffee, cocoa and food products that contain them in large quantities are traditionally included in the category of nerve foods . The list can also be extended to alcoholic beverages and those based on cola, guaranà, maté and nervine substances in general (caffeine, theobromine, theine, ephedrine, ioimbina, sinefrina ...).
Effects and properties
Regardless of their tonic and invigorating characteristics, nervine foods, if consumed with rationality, are precious health allies. Tea polyphenols, for example, have a strong antioxidant action, like those of cocoa, dark chocolate and red wine, while a coffee at the end of a meal, preferably unsweetened, facilitates digestion. We must also not forget their anorectic (suppress appetite) and thermogenic (enhance the body's energy consumption) properties; not by chance, therefore, nervine drugs (guarana, coffee, extracts of tea, cola, ephedra, maté, bitter orange yohimbe ...) are widely used in the dietary field for the preparation of energy and slimming products. Their use is however not recommended during pregnancy, lactation, children under 12 and people who are particularly sensitive to their action.
Note: tea and coffee do not provide calories (unless they are taken with milk or sugar). Alcohol or ethanol provides a lot of energy, but is considered an "empty food" [food, because it supplies calories, empty because it is devoid of the fundamental nutritional principles (carbohydrates, lipids and proteins)]. Ethanol, in itself, is a toxic substance and as such lacks any health benefit, which is instead ascribed to moderately alcoholic beverages, such as red wine and beer, due to the presence of useful micronutrients that have nothing what to do with alcohol.
In-depth articles on single nerves
FOOD AND NERVINI PRODUCTS | NERVINE SUBSTANCES |
Green tea and black tea | Theophylline |
coffee | Caffeine |
Cocoa and chocolate | Theobromine |
Guarana | Synephrine |
Bitter orange | Ephedrine |
Mate | amphetamines |
There | Alcohol |