I”m amazed how sites like this promote the tea’s healthy values without even mentioning the risks of drinking Yerba mate on a regular basis.

While I’m writing this I’m actually drinking a cup of Yerba mate, which I occasionally like to do, but I will continue drinking coffee (black without sugar) on a regular basis because it is much less harmful than so many try to make us believe. Much less harmful than Yerba mate is.

Just because you have never heard of yerba mate you automatically label it a fad. My mother was drinking yerba mate back in the 70s, a decade before I was born. Yerba mate is a tea, but it is a tea with a lot of benefits, just like green tea. The nutrients from yerba mate have been found in scientific studies. I didn’t write an article on it because it is the latest thing, it is something I noticed no one else had written in length about though it has been mentioned in a number of posts throughout Green Options. And lately since we have a new baby in the house it has helped my husband and I keep going through the late nights.

Another important point, which P brought up, is that most yerba mate is grown in a sustainable manner and often they are fair trade, unlike the majority of coffee that people consume.

No, there is nothing wrong with coffee, I drink a lot of coffee, but I do think it is healthy to include tea as an alternative in your diet. For some yerba mate will provide then with a source of energy that will not give them the adverse reactions that coffee or green or black tea can cause.

And when you refer to the nation’s waistline, you seem to have lost me, we are in the middle of an obesity epidemic are we not? An epidemic that researchers are saying will possibly cause a decrease in the life expectancy of U.S. citizens. When people think about coffee these days they think of some sugar laden drink from Starbucks or other coffee chain, not a cup of simple black coffee. At least yerba mate is normally enjoyed without anything else added to it, which is a lot healthier.

- ahem, and coffee isn’t foreign? and most green tea isn’t foreign?

- don’t get me wrong, I totally agree with taking issue with the latest fad “miracle” whatever-it-is when there is often a local option that does just as well if not better, but as someone who was on hardcore asthma meds for many years and for whom caffeine in the form of coffee or green tea made me miserable in a hyped-up “ping-y” kind of way, whatever Yerba Mate has going synergistically in the way of it’s chemical compounds did NOT give me the jitters/side effects the way that the other two drinks can and actually helped me wean off of theophylline and rescue inhalers after decades of use.

Drinking Yerba Mate also helped a colleague wean herself off of a nasty coffee addiction without the usual headaches and other side effects, and yet didn’t leave her feeling subsequently addicted to the YM instead.

- and I also agree with Carlota’s feel for Guayaki as a company. I’d much rather buy ANY drink that’s made/produced organically and fair trade – which SO many coffees and teas are not.

P – (who doesn’t currently drink YM because she’s pregnant, soon to be nursing, but does appreciate what it has to offer – especially for those who are addicted to large amounts of coffee every day)

So instead of eating familiar whole foods, we’re attracted like flies to a bug lamp to “new!”, “exotic!” and other products with health come-ons. Nobody tells you to eat an orange, but our e-mail boxes are filled with spam from people trying to sell us açai berry flushes.

Enough with the fads and gimmicks. There’s nothing wrong with your tea. There’s nothing wrong with your coffee. But there are bored people and there are product marketers who want to convince you that everything your grandmother knew as proper food is wrong and unhealthy.

Just say “no”. Because if you look at this nation’s waistlines and life expectancy, that policy is a complete failure for our health.