Hacker News Reader

Comment by MrDresden | Hacker News Reader

Yerba Mate got me through university.

It was such integral part of that time of my life that even now more than a decade later I still meet people who remember me as the strange tea pipe guy (I used a traditional gourd and metal bombilla).

However I stopped drinking it once it got known to me that it might have cancer causing properties.

Scanning the article I can see there have been direct connections made via PAH concentration in the plant, which gets extracted along with everything else once brewed.

It seems to be recommended that leafs only be used once to avoid extracting much of the PAH, but still it seems that the extraction does happen. And while we have all too many cancer causing chemicals in our daily life already, I am not sure I would want to introduce one knowingly.

Am I wrong here? Is the risk negligible or some known way of circumvent PAH extraction? Perhaps a Yerba Mate cold brew?

View on HN

I've heard Andrew Huberman [0] often say the ill effects come from the smoked variety [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_D._Huberman

[1] https://twitter.com/hubermanlab/status/1500601677904113664?s...

Do you know what his source is? He also recommends taking his preferred brand of dietary supplements which gives me pause about him.

Not sure if he cites this one specifically, but you can look at this one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6443446/

Interesting, thank you for the link.

I'm currently working my way through his podcast back catalogue, and am very much liking the content and his way of delivering it.

Must say I have never heard about smoked yerba mate though.

I wonder if that is something akin to how coffee is roasted?

edit: turns out the smoking is part of the common processing done to dry the leaves. I guess finding a supplier that dries via other methods would then be preferable.

The brand I use says that about their product:

"Our Yerba Mate is 100% air dried through a process that use warm air instead of smoke. That drying system enable the leaves to be free of PAHs. This creates a safe, healthy and light tasting yerba mate."

I don't know if the claim is true or not.

Which brand do you use? I couldn't find an exact match via web search :(

https://matelibre.com/ out of Montréal. They even have them in cans.

Looking at their site, they apparently even make a vodka drink with them now. Uh, caffeine & alcohol drinks is usually not very well received by the government here. I wonder if it'll stir some political drama.

Huberman is great but I wouldn't use any of his product or supplement recommendations, whether paid or not. I mean, Athletic Greens — WTH?

What's wrong with Athletic Greens?

There is a Yerba Mate cold brew called Tereré[1], is very common in some countries of South America. Even more than the hot version in some places. I myself had it many times, sometimes mixed with lime juice, and even mixed with vodka

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terer%C3%A9

Thank you for the suggestion, but I live on a small island in the North Atlantic where availability of goods is not particularly high.

I can get the Yerba Mate leaf, but the cold brew I would need to make my self.

I was rather trying to see if there was any literature out there on if cold brewing limits or eliminates the PAH extraction.

I too live on a small island in the North Atlantic and I'm making my way through my first bag of Anna Park Yerba Mate (Andrew Huberman recommendation)[1]

Hello from Canada!

[1]https://www.amazon.ca/Anna-Park-Yerba-Mate-Organic/dp/B01B6W...

Well yes, my island is not disconnected from the wider world.

It is just prohibitively expensive to ship individual products in.

Also there is no Amazon or its like here.

Hello back from Iceland!

I see the https://metamate.cc/ mentioned elsewhere here seems to deliver to Iceland. Don't know about the cost though, maybe acceptable? They are based in Berlin and seem well stocked?

Edit: You know, thinking about the amount of flights to and from Kevflavik, no matter if commercial airlines, or business jets doing a stopover there for refueling, I feel there is a niche to exploit. For something like a mini UPS/FedEX/DHL using that empty space, which has to be there?

I mean, open https://globe.adsbexchange.com/ point it to KEF, let it run for a day in some tab, and see how much air traffic from BOTH sides of the Atlantic goes there?

Thank you for pointing them out. Have already sent them an inquiry about their drying process.

It isn't that there is difficulty actually transporting goods here.

It is that with transportation and import fees the products can, and often does, double in price. For cheaper things, it simply doesn't make financial sense to pay 4-5x the product price in fees.

Just ordered a bag! Do you have any recommendations for how to best prepare it?

The only difference is using ice water instead of hot water. Preparation is the same: fill the gourd with yerba, pour water, spit out the first mouthful to clear the dust, pour water again and drink.

In other words, if you have the leaf you can make either version.

Apparently the cold version has less PAH. Not sure if this is a practical concern but for what it's worth there's literature.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09567...

I've been drinking mate my whole life but Tereré, if you are not used to it, is known to ensure you a fast and mostly unexpected bowel evacuation.

I never experienced this. Maybe if the ice & water is from dubious origin?

No. As a seasoned tereré drinker, the fact that you're drinking lots of (mostly) cold water, added to the higher polar and ionic charge of various organic compounds and soluble mineral found in it, should somewhat encourage movement of your lower intestinal tract. Doctors here do not discourage drinking of tereré, but warn that it does not hydrate the body properly, but the contrary. And this is one of the reasons: in the balance, your body loses more water than it gains, so you should supplement it with regular hydration.

There's also the fact that regular Camellia sinensis tea has astringent properties, and people keep expecting that yerba mate, being a "herbal tea", might have similar effects, when in fact it doesn't.

Of course, as parent stated, many people never experience such effects. YMMV.

I’m a coffee -> mate convert but wasn’t aware of the PAH cancer risk.

It seems that the risk is only present when drinking mate at high temperatures: https://www.verywellhealth.com/yerba-mate-and-cancer-5082076

Hrm. Regarding cancer, you could say the same about tea. Why would that be? Maybe because most drink it too hot? Hot fluids are bad for your esophagus over long times. So let it cool down?

Yes: https://aps-repo.bvs.br/aps/a-erva-mate-possui-acao-terapeut...

""" 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. """

It's in Portuguese unfortunately. Some people drink at 90oC almost the boiling point.

Do you mean that people drink it at high temps or steep it at high temp? Can you steep it at high temperature but then wait until it cools down to drink it?

It’s the literally burning hot water going in your mouth. Coffee does the same thing. You have to let it cook a bit.

I can't do this. People I know claim I drink insanely hot drinks, but I think I have just gotten good at it over time. I don't burn my mouth or anything, but I can kind of sip of drinks while sucking in like 1:1 air:liquid, so I think that cools it down. Still, if I can stick my finger in a hot drink for more than a second, then it's too cool for me.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com