Yerba Mate Scientific Paper

Healthy herbs, rooibos, honeybush, decaf tea, and yerba mate.


Feb 2nd, '11, 03:27
Posts: 17
Joined: Nov 21st, '10, 18:47

Yerba Mate Scientific Paper

by matcha/mate.enthusia » Feb 2nd, '11, 03:27

I'm not certain if anyone has seen this yet or not, but it's the most detailed and comprehensive scientific paper/resource I've yet seen on yerba mate:

http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/Jour ... 37-46o.pdf

Feb 17th, '11, 13:16
Posts: 11
Joined: Feb 16th, '11, 12:57

Re: Yerba Mate Scientific Paper

by pokute » Feb 17th, '11, 13:16

That paper is pseudo-science at best, and industry driven puffery at worst. The "phenolic alcohols" and "saponins" that it touts so enthusiastically include carcinogens and other poisonous compounds. The paper also contains the wonderful statement "mate is an important source of caffeine in the diet", as if it were a required nutrient (well, it could be argued that it is, for some of us).

The supposed health benefits of mate are utterly overwhelmed by the increased excretion rates of water-soluble vitamins driven by the caffeine. The reason that mate doesn't produce the "jitters" is because the "jitters" are not produced by caffeine, they are produced by the huge quantity and variety of polycyclic ring compounds created during the roasting of coffee beans.

Some years ago soy sauce was touted as being the cause of long life and low cancer rates among the Chinese. A friend of mine who had been a surgeon in china after the end of WWII went straight through the roof over this, because he learned his chops (pun intended) as a maxillofacial surgeon doing massive facial resections on the many people who developed oral cancer from home-brewed black soy sauce.
The stuff was pretty deadly. My friend is 103 years old and quite spry. He says keeping busy is the most important thing.

In conclusion, I would say that if you enjoy mate, drink it. If you enjoy tea, drink it. If you enjoy coffee, drink it in moderation. But none of these things is going to make you live forever. Chatting on this forum about them probably comes under the heading of "keeping busy" ;^)

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Sep 28th, '11, 15:02
Posts: 270
Joined: Sep 23rd, '09, 15:14
Contact: AlexZorach

Re: Yerba Mate Scientific Paper

by AlexZorach » Sep 28th, '11, 15:02

I'm not seeing the same sort of bias in this paper, I didn't read the whole thing, but I am reading a more skeptical tone in the voice of the paper, not really promoting it, but talking about the fact that so little is known about it...and that there are some possible risks associated with its consumption.

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