Yerba mate is becoming more and more popular as an alternative to both tea and coffee, so today I wanted to gather a few yerba mate facts for you to get more acquainted with this awesome drink and what it has to offer.

It doesn’t matter if you’re already an avid yerba mate drinker or if you still haven’t tried it, you’ll find that there’s quite a bit to learn about it!

Yerba Mate: General Information

The yerba mate plant is mostly grown in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, where the drink is a sign of friendship and bonding when shared with others. This super plant is a great source of energy, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and more.

The plant was first cultivated by the Guaraní people and mate is known to offer incredible health benefits along with a nice little buzz to get that burst of energy and euphoria running through our bodies. Indigenous South Americans referred to mate as the “drink of the gods” and European settlers called it “the green gold of the Indios”, so it has a great reputation.

Mate is the official drink of Argentina and it’s extremely popular in Paraguay and Uruguay, where people grow up on mate. For the rest of us, it is a bit of an acquired taste because the flavor can be quite strong and bitter (although it depends on how it’s brewed). Some people compare the taste with some types of green tea, but if you want to know what it tastes like, you should just give it a try!

Now, let’s move on and take a look at the most important Yerba Mate facts:

Yerba Mate Uses And Benefits

The most well-known yerba mate fact is that it increases our energy, allowing us to be more focused, alert and concentrated. Mate is an energizing drink, but that’s not the only great benefit it has to offer.

Yerba mate contains all the vitamins and minerals we need to sustain life and no other plant in the world has been found to equal its nutritional benefits, which is saying something!

In every cup of mate, you’ll find: vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, B5, C, and E, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium, sulfur and zinc. It also contains flavonoids, chlorophyll, tannins, trace minerals, 15 amino acids, and 11 polyphenols.

Drinking yerba mate has a lot of medical benefits as well and it’s commonly used to relieve mental and physical fatigue, and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). This drink is also a great help when it comes to heart-related issues such as irregular heartbeat, low blood pressure, and heart failure.

Yerba mate can also help with a wide variety of disorders and ailments, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, urinary tract infections, allergies, sinusitis, headaches, and joint pains, among others.

In addition to this, it provides a lot of benefits for our mental health because it helps our body release dopamine, which doesn’t only improve our mood, but it can also help fight symptoms of depression in a very natural way.

Yerba mate is also an amazing digestive aid and it’s often used to treat common problems such as constipation, indigestion, and diarrhea. It can destroy intestinal parasites and it’s a natural antibacterial for E. coli, which means it can come it quite handy whenever you get food poisoning.

Additionally, it offers a great deal of weight loss benefits and it can help you on your weight loss journey by burning through stored fat, increasing insulin sensitivity and energy expenditure, and by reducing your appetite and making you feel full for longer.

Mate has also been known to boost our mental functions and it allows us to be more productive and creative, while improving our memory and our motivation. Thanks to its combination of caffeine, theobromine, and theophylline, mate can be quite stimulating in virtually the same way as chocolate, coffee and tea.

Yerba Mate Dosage

How much yerba mate you can take during the day will depend on factors such as your age and health, among others. Scientists haven’t come up with a range of doses for mate just yet, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful.

Yerba mate is a powerful natural product, so it’s important to keep an eye on the dosage. To get a better idea, make sure you read the product label on your yerba mate and please consult your physician before you start drinking it on the daily.

Some people go for 1 to 3 cups a day. While others, in South America, who grew drinking it, might gulp up even 12 cups a day. But don’t compare yourselves with the heavy drinkers in that geographical area. Moderation is always key to healthiness so you should practice that when you decide what’s the best yerba mate dosage for yourself.

Yerba Mate & Alcohol

As you can imagine, this plant interacts with other substances in our body, so it’s important to know how yerba mate works with alcohol.

When we drink caffeinated beverages, our body works to break down the caffeine and then get rid of it. But when we mix yerba mate and alcohol, the latter makes our body break down the caffeine a lot slower than usual, which can lead to having too much caffeine in our bloodstream.

This can cause the famous jitters we’re all acquainted with and other symptoms such as headache and increased heartbeat. This can be dangerous for people who suffer from heart conditions and it’s uncomfortable in general, so I recommend not mixing these two drinks. It’s best to stay clear of yerba mate with alcohol.

Yerba Mate Caffeine Levels

A regular cup of Joe contains from 95 to 200 milligrams of caffeine (it all depends on how the coffee is made), but it’s always enough to give us that energy boost we need to get up and moving.

Yerba mate’s caffeine level, on the other hand, is moderate and you can find as much as 85 milligrams of caffeine per 8 fluid ounces. This means that yerba mate offers a clean buzz; free of jitters and it won’t interfere with your sleep schedule.

Bottom Line

These were some of the most important facts that one should know about yerba mate. It is incredibly beneficial and it provides a lot of the vitamins and minerals we need to keep our health at an optimal level and our mind as sharp as ever. It also provides a clean buzz to get us going and it can be a powerful ally against a great deal of issues, both physical and mental. After all, it is the drink of the gods!