I've lived in Argentina since 2006, when I discovered mate.. it changed my whole approach to stable productivity because it would not crash you like coffee.
I'm happy to see this study finally. Surprisingly when I asked my doctor here if there were any studies on it, I was shocked to hear "Oh No!" when asked why.. she responded "1. there is no $ for funding it. 2. No one cares here about the clinical health effects, we all drink it ( +/- 45 million ), it works, and the only thing people care about is how many 'palos'/sticks get into the bag".
Personally, having drank it for 16 years, I do deeply wonder about the long term effects of it on the nervous system, which I don't think the paper addresses.
I grew up in the south Brazil, we share the same strong passion for things with Yerba Mate (Erva Mate in portuguese). People there drink for the entire life, like myself.
There's some studies from universities from south of Brazil and Embrapa that is a institution that oversees research on things related to agriculture.
One of the references I quickly found, that have more references. All in portuguese unfortunately:
"""Another clinical study demonstrated an increase in antioxidant capacity in serum and in total blood and a reduction in LDL-cholesterol in individuals with dyslipidemia after ingestion of 1L per day of yerba mate infusion for ninety days, which suggests that this is an auxiliary dietary supplement in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in individuals who have a free food diet. The same action has already been described by other authors previously. Klein et al (2011) reported that consumption of mate tea for 60 days improved the control and glycemic profile of individuals with type 26 diabetes. Experimental research analyzed in a literature review indicates that mate tea improves glucose tolerance in obese animals.
"""
Yerba mate consumption has been associated with the incidence of oropharyngeal and esophageal cancer, however, this seems to be mainly related to the habit of some people to drink the drink at very high temperatures. The ideal water temperature is 70 to 80ºC.
"""
I drink coffee daily and don't experience any crash. I do drink water between sips so that may affect my experience. Many blog posts online claim this practice helps to avoid crashing. I like the taste of Yerba Mate but I find it makes me feel weird a lot of the time.
I started drinking Mate later in life, and definitely recall it sitting weirdly in my stomach at first. You might want to try drinking it in smaller concentrations? i.e. steeping for less time, with a smaller quantity of "tea".
A random theory, but since the chemical profile of Mate is quite different from coffee, it might be your body going through selective withdrawal from coffee that's producing the "weird" effect.
For long term effects, ask the long term drinkers of it. Sounds like you may have family who have drank it for a long time. They’re way better as a guide (with significant noise) as to what you could expect.
This is of course not scientific in the usual sense. But family history is another thing.
I'm happy to see this study finally. Surprisingly when I asked my doctor here if there were any studies on it, I was shocked to hear "Oh No!" when asked why.. she responded "1. there is no $ for funding it. 2. No one cares here about the clinical health effects, we all drink it ( +/- 45 million ), it works, and the only thing people care about is how many 'palos'/sticks get into the bag".
Personally, having drank it for 16 years, I do deeply wonder about the long term effects of it on the nervous system, which I don't think the paper addresses.