Hello everyone. This is Monica Reinagal and you're listening to episode number 556 of the nutrition

Diva Podcast. Welcome. We're talking about Yerba Mate today. What is it? What are the health

benefits attributed to it and how can you best enjoy it?

Mate is a traditional South American beverage that's brewed from the leaves and stems of the

Yerba-Mate plant and that's a tree that belongs to the Holly family.

Mate is widely consumed in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil where the Mate Tree is indigenous.

But you'll also find Mate as an ingredient in energy drinks or even in the herbal tea section of your local health food store.

Fun fact, technically, the word tea only applies to the leaves of the Camilla C Sinensis or tea plant.

So the category of beverages popularly known as herbal tea

are actually Tisanes.

Anyway, human beings apparently have a universal appetite for stimulants.

Depending on where on the globe your ancestors found themselves,

they might have enjoyed beverages made from coffee or cacao beans,

guerana berries, cola nuts, or tea or mate leaves.

Although each contains a slightly different array of active chemicals,

all of these plants contain caffeine, or a closely related molecule with similar stimulant properties.

There are many impressive health benefits attributed to drinking mate, including greater energy, mental focus, reduced fatigue, weight loss,

anti-oxident activity, and enhanced sport performance.

But before you get too excited about this new miracle brew, most of those benefits that are attributed to

Matte are available from any caffeinated beverage.

There's no question that caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and that

results in alertness and reduced fatigue. Now the impact of mate on weight and

...