If you're a heavy coffee drinker you may not want to hear it (and if you're a tea-holic you may be thrilled) but there are definitely advantages of drinking tea over coffee. It can help you lose weight, you're increasing your intake of antioxidants, and a long list of other benefits--and it does it without the harmful side effects of too much coffee.

This isn't to say that coffee doesn't have it's own list of benefits. Coffee is full of antioxidants, and studies show that Americans get more antioxidants from coffee than anywhere else. Tea also has antioxidants though, and it doesn't have a lot of the harmful side effects of coffee.

Where too much coffee has been known to be bad for your heart, especially if you already have a heart condition, tea actually relaxes your arteries and lowers your blood pressure. Decaf, in particular, is known to cause high cholesterol. Let alone the fact that the weight loss benefits of tea will be great for someone concerned with their heart health.

While both drinks have caffeine, tea has two to three times less. You can drink a lot more tea without having to worry about caffeine side effects than you can coffee.

While stains on your teeth have been a pretty well known downside to the brown drink, adding sugar is the only way that tea is bad for them, in fact, this drink actually has fluoride and tannins in it that help keep your teeth and gums strong and healthy. In fact, as long as you keep out the sugar and milk, it's calorie free!

Green tea, in particular, has a long list of positive benefits. On the list of positive benefits of green tea, there is the fact that it may prevent kidney stones, may help prevent Alzheimer’s, and may help keep your bones strong--whereas coffee has been linked as a contributing factor to osteoporosis. Another benefit of going green here is that if you drink enough everyday it will increase your metabolism, helping you lose weight.

A lot of people think they don't like the green flavor because it has a bitter taste, but this only happens if your drink has been prepared too hot. If you keep your water at a lower temperature, or make it with an electric kettle so the temperature is controlled, you are much more likely to enjoy this healthy drink and it's benefits.

While there are benefits to either drink, tea manages to give you benefits without harmful side effects, and has a longer list of benefits in general. Because of these factors, the advantages of drinking tea over coffee definitely weigh in this drinks favor.