Why tea is harmful: 6 unexpected findings of scientists

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

New harmful facts about the old healthy drink.

There are few doubts about the benefits of tea: billions of Asians who have been drinking this hot drink for millennia cannot be wrong. Tea perfectly quenches thirst and invigorates, lowers cholesterol and normalizes the work of the cardiovascular system, slows down aging and even makes you smarter.

However, the abundance of pluses does not at all exclude minuses.

1. Hot tea can cause bleeding

British otolaryngologist and plastic surgeon Henry Sharpe believes Tea could be bad for your health that the habit of drinking hot tea can badly affect the vessels of the nasopharynx. The steam from the cup causes them to expand and often causes nosebleeds.

In addition, there is a version of Tea drinking habits and oesophageal cancer in a high risk area in northern Iran: a population based case-control study that hot tea may increase the risk of developing esophageal cancer. Fortunately, not everyone agrees with her.

In any case, the optimal temperature of the drink is considered to be 50-60 ° C. To achieve the ideal, a cup of freshly brewed drink is enough to stand for 5-7 minutes at room temperature.

2. Too strong tea destroys teeth and bones

The New England Journal of Medicine published the stories of several patients who suffered from the habit of drinking too strong a drink. So, the case of a 47-year-old woman Skeletal Fluorosis Due to Excessive Tea Drinking is noteworthy, for 17 years she was treated to tea every day, brewed from 100-150 bags. In a relatively short period of time, she lost almost all of her teeth and acquired excessive fragility of her bones. These are the symptoms of skeletal fluorosis Fluorosis. It is caused by the accumulation of fluoride in the bones, including from strong tea.

It is clear that not everyone will pour so much strong tea into themselves, but it is still worth remembering about the measure. Nutritionists recommend that you consume no more than 4-5 cups a day.

3. Tea may contain heavy metals

In 2013, the Canadian Journal of Toxicology published the results of the study The Benefits and Risks of Consuming Brewed Tea on a large number of samples of tea bags from different regions of the world.

Toxicologists found heavy metals in the samples, in particular lead, aluminum, arsenic and cadmium. It is assumed that metals get into tea leaves due to soil pollution: often plantations are located, for example, next to non-environmentally friendly coal-fired power plants.

The concentration of metals in a beverage depends on the brewing time. If the bag is in water for 15-17 minutes, the level of toxic substances rises to an unsafe level (for example, in some samples the concentration of aluminum was up to 11 449 μg / L with an allowable daily maximum of 7,000 μg / L).

Scientists concluded: the longer the tea is brewed, the more any nasty things are washed out of the leaves into the water. Therefore, do not insist on the drink for more than 3 minutes.

Another option is to give preference to white tea. Its leaves are plucked very young, which means that they do not have time to accumulate in themselves a critical dose of heavy metals.

4. Sometimes tea is bad for the liver

Herbal teas often accumulate pyrrolizidine alkaloids, toxins produced by some species of flowering plants. For example, a seemingly harmless mother and stepmother.

These toxins negatively affect the body as a whole, but their main target is the liver. Toxicity and metabolism of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. In 2015, the American journal Food Chemistry published the results of the study Pyrrolizidine alkaloids in herbal teas for infants, pregnant or lactating women 44 samples of herbal teas intended for babies, pregnant and lactating women. Scientists have found pyrrolizidine alkaloids in 86% of the samples.

In principle, the dose of toxins that can actually be obtained from tea (with moderate consumption, naturally) is practically safe for an adult. The situation is different with infants and pregnant and lactating women. Due to low body weight, an infant and even an unborn baby are more vulnerable to toxins that get to them from their mother.

5. Drinking tea after meals can lead to iron deficiency

Research carried out at the University of California in 2011 proved Iron deficiency anemia due to excessive green tea drinking: tea "binds" the iron taken from food, significantly impairing its absorption by the body. If you regularly drink tea after meals, you can drink to the glandular deficiency, which is fraught with unpleasant consequences: from deterioration of the skin, hair, lethargy to iron deficiency anemia, which will have to be dealt with with a doctor.

Therefore, doctors recommend Effect of tea and other dietary factors on iron absorption not to drink breakfast, lunch or dinner with your favorite drink. At least 20 minutes should pass before tea drinking.

6. Tea provokes insomnia

Caffeine and aromatic substances are to blame for this, for which we, in fact, love tea. The invigorating effect of the drink has a physiological basis: the pulse quickens, the blood flow accelerates, the adrenal glands release more adrenaline. Caffeine affect blood pressure, the central nervous system and the brain become agitated … In the morning or in the midst of a working day, tea is just a godsend!

But in the evening, tea overexcitement can interrupt your entire sleep. If you really want tea at night, it is better to limit yourself to herbal drinks, the content of caffeine in which is reduced in comparison with black and especially green tea.