L-Theanine - Um, What's The Thought Process Here?
Not only are we ridiculously handsome over here at NuRange Coffee, we’re also big science guys. As we were developing our coffee we knew that we also wanted it to serve as a functional beverage. We’re not heavy into the “gym” life, and knew that a protein coffee wasn’t what we were shooting for. What we wanted to do was solve the problems associated with coffee and caffeine. Therefore, we took a look at the negative side effects associated with coffee (jitters, anxiety, upset stomach) and researched what compounds actively counteracted them. Our discovery of L-Theanine was entirely accidental, but we’ve been married to her ever since.
So, What Is It?
For those of you who don’t know, L-Theanine is an amino acid found in tealeaves. The human body does not naturally produce it; therefore, we’ve got none of it in us. L-Theanine affects the levels of serotonin and dopamine in your brain, which directly affects your stress levels. We saw this as a way to possibly counteract the adrenal response caused by caffeine in your brain, which leads to anxiety after drinking too much coffee.
So, What Does It Do?
In a 2012 study conducted in Australia, researchers were able to observe a noticeable change in people’s mental focus when they consumed a combination of L-Theanine and cafffeiene. To sum up the study, those that took the combination committed fewer errors on a test than the control group. Does L-Theanine make you smarter? We can’t legally say. But we definitely feel smarter after drinking our coffee for a year now.
Outside of attentiveness, there are a litany of other benefits that have been observed by people taking L-Theanine. There are claims that it aids in relaxation, because L-Theanine can reduce your resting heart rate. Due to it’s slight umami flavoring, it can make you feel more full and reduce your appetite. What does a reduced appetite cause? Weight loss. Will NuRange Cold Brew Coffee get you your summer bod? Again, we can’t legally say it will, but just check out how chiseled we are if and when pool season ever returns.
In addition to weight loss and relaxation, there are a few other suspected benefits to L-Theanine. It has properties suspected to boost your immune system, as well as anti-inflammatory effects that can prevent illness. It has been linked to reduced blood pressure, which can counteract your risk of stroke and heart attacks. All of these are alleged benefits from published studies, but it AIN’T pseudo-science.
Witchcraft/Safety concerns
Legally, our lawyers really want us to stress that while this is all supported by independent research, we can’t claim cause and effect. These are all suggested benefits. But it’s not like we’re telling you we’ve ground up precious stones and crystals to boost our coffee’s energy. We really beleive in the benefits of L-Theanine, and we’ve seen an improvement in our everyday lives since adding it to our coffee. Plus, the FDA has labeled it as “generally recognized as safe” so this isn’t witchcraft.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, we added L-Theanine to our coffee because we trust it and we think that it will work for you. We put some seriously big brain time into researching it and the best way to incorporate it into our coffee. Is it magic? Maybe not. But as it is entirely safe and can be useful to people, we wanted to include it on our coffee journey. Going to end this blog with a special shoutout to our childhood hero, Bill Nye The Science Guy. While he had nothing to do with this, we figured it was time he got the recognition from us that he deserved.