all tea is not so good for us

[old3bob]

 A little cut and pasted info:

 

"Unfortunately, over the past century, the tea bags have transitioned from hand-sewed fabric to food-grade plastic, which can leak microplastics into the tea and then into your body. Additionally, modern tea bags are often made with aluminum and epichlorohydrin, which are known to cause Alzheimer’s and cancer, respectively.

 

Recent studies have shown that teas which are advertised as cleansing, detox, or slimming are often quite dangerous. They can create a dependency, strip the stomach of nutrients, and even cause dehydration.  The leaves, fruits, and flowers of the senna plant have been utilized in teas for centuries as a natural laxative for constipation. However, overusing the leaves can cause extreme damage to the body, including colon irritation, diarrhea, and vitamin deficiencies.

 

Other than cleansing, detox, or slimming teas, there is one more very popular variation of the beverage that can cause physical harm: Black tea with lemon. It may be shocking, as black tea with lemon is certainly common all around the world, but this specific combination can actually lead to problems in the brain.   Because black tea contains a decent amount of aluminum when combined with the citrus juice of lemon, the tea can actually lead to brain damage and, more specifically, the development of Alzheimer’s.

   

One of the best ways to keep your body safe while enjoying tea is to skip the brand-name tea bags and buy loose leaves. That way, you’ll know exactly what’s in them and keep your body free of pesky microplastics."

 

[Taomeow]

38 minutes ago, old3bob said:

 A little cut and pasted info:

 

"Unfortunately, over the past century, the tea bags have transitioned from hand-sewed fabric to food-grade plastic, which can leak microplastics into the tea and then into your body. Additionally, modern tea bags are often made with aluminum and epichlorohydrin, which are known to cause Alzheimer’s and cancer, respectively.

 

 

I usually keep a few varieties of tea in my home (albeit I'm mostly a coffee person and tea is effectively limited to one cup per day, not every day, since sometimes it's something herbal instead -- in the second half of the day when coffee is off limits.)  But I don't have any tea bags.  I only make tea with loose leaves, in a pot.  Because there's a variety of teas I use -- black most often, green sometimes, herbal fairly regularly -- I use three different clay or porcelain pots, one Chinese, one Japanese, one English.  (I have more in my small collection, but these three are always handy and in circulation.)  And then there's matcha.  Not a habit but I make it on occasion too.  Tea bags haven't earned a place in my life no matter how they tried.  You spend 5 more minutes on making your tea, you get a five times better outcome.  Worth it.  

 

47 minutes ago, old3bob said:

 there is one more very popular variation of the beverage that can cause physical harm: Black tea with lemon. It may be shocking, as black tea with lemon is certainly common all around the world, but this specific combination can actually lead to problems in the brain.   Because black tea contains a decent amount of aluminum when combined with the citrus juice of lemon, the tea can actually lead to brain damage and, more specifically, the development of Alzheimer’s.

  

I would certainly like to see a reference but I believe it's entirely made up with no evidence.  The part that is true is that when grown on contaminated soil and poisoned with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and the rest of ecocides, tea absorbs and accumulates hundreds of harmful substances, and aluminum is one of them.  Lemon or no lemon is inconsequential.  Poisoned food and drink is the problem; there is no solution.  So even a "reputable" reference would probably fail to convince me because I know that the vast majority of  "studies" that have anything whatsoever to do with human health tiptoe around corporate interests on eggshells, so whatever they "find' is usually something that in a vast majority of cases has nothing to do with anything, and what is really of consequence, they conveniently don't notice.       

[old3bob]

3 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 

I usually keep a few varieties of tea in my home (albeit I'm mostly a coffee person and tea is effectively limited to one cup per day, not every day, since sometimes it's something herbal instead -- in the second half of the day when coffee is off limits.)  But I don't have any tea bags.  I only make tea with loose leaves, in a pot.  Because there's a variety of teas I use -- black most often, green sometimes, herbal fairly regularly -- I use three different clay or porcelain pots, one Chinese, one Japanese, one English.  (I have more in my small collection, but these three are always handy and in circulation.)  And then there's matcha.  Not a habit but I make it on occasion too.  Tea bags haven't earned a place in my life no matter how they tried.  You spend 5 more minutes on making your tea, you get a five times better outcome.  Worth it.  

  

I would certainly like to see a reference but I believe it's entirely made up with no evidence.  The part that is true is that when grown on contaminated soil and poisoned with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and the rest of ecocides, tea absorbs and accumulates hundreds of harmful substances, and aluminum is one of them.  Lemon or no lemon is inconsequential.  Poisoned food and drink is the problem; there is no solution.  So even a "reputable" reference would probably fail to convince me because I know that the vast majority of  "studies" that have anything whatsoever to do with human health tiptoe around corporate interests on eggshells, so whatever they "find' is usually something that in a vast majority of cases has nothing to do with anything, and what is really of consequence, they conveniently don't notice.       

 

agreed that definitive chemical specs/tests should go along with the black tea claims, maybe there are some out there,  as always "buyer beware" is good advice. 

[Gerard]

Ditch those bags and enjoy the real thing:

 

https://www.farmer-leaf.com/collections/yunnan-pu-erh-tea

 

It's an ancient art and a legacy of Chinese civilisation.

 

https://teewald.com/blogs/tee-kultur/pu-erh-tee-von-yunnan-in-die-ganze-welt

 

Wonderful

Edited July 4 by Gerard

[Nungali]

I often refuse a tea bag cuppa ... it tastes crap .  Some people get offended .  But I could be offended that they offered me crap, but they dont see it that way .

 

tea shop in local city had sign out front  ' If you friends offer you tea bags - get new friends . '

 

 A pot of tea  .....  $6 for a pot of hot water with a tea bag in it ? I dont think so .

 

A while back I was up at Ebor .... a near deserted half abandond old school country town (sorry Eborites ) . An old Mom and POP general store and cafe .. I asked Mum : "is it tea bag tea ?"

Indignant ; " certainly not ! "

" Those scones there , where did they come from ?"

" I made them myself ."

" Right then, I will have a pot of tea and two scones thanks ."   

 

[Cobie]

19 minutes ago, Nungali said:

… general store and cafe .. 

I like the name, “FUSSPOTS”.  

 

Edited July 3 by Cobie

[Mark Foote]

6 hours ago, old3bob said:

 A little cut and pasted info:

 

"Unfortunately, over the past century, the tea bags have transitioned from hand-sewed fabric to food-grade plastic, which can leak microplastics into the tea and then into your body. Additionally, modern tea bags are often made with aluminum and epichlorohydrin, which are known to cause Alzheimer’s and cancer, respectively.

 

Recent studies have shown that teas which are advertised as cleansing, detox, or slimming are often quite dangerous. They can create a dependency, strip the stomach of nutrients, and even cause dehydration.  The leaves, fruits, and flowers of the senna plant have been utilized in teas for centuries as a natural laxative for constipation. However, overusing the leaves can cause extreme damage to the body, including colon irritation, diarrhea, and vitamin deficiencies.

 

Other than cleansing, detox, or slimming teas, there is one more very popular variation of the beverage that can cause physical harm: Black tea with lemon. It may be shocking, as black tea with lemon is certainly common all around the world, but this specific combination can actually lead to problems in the brain.   Because black tea contains a decent amount of aluminum when combined with the citrus juice of lemon, the tea can actually lead to brain damage and, more specifically, the development of Alzheimer’s.

   

One of the best ways to keep your body safe while enjoying tea is to skip the brand-name tea bags and buy loose leaves. That way, you’ll know exactly what’s in them and keep your body free of pesky microplastics."

 

There are a number of aluminum-containing drugs on the market (like antacids, which have the highest levels), though aluminum compounds are also added to processed foods such as anti-caking agents in pancake mix, melting agents in American cheese, meat binders, gravy thickeners, rising agents in some baking powders and dye-binders in candy. Therefore, it’s better to stick to unprocessed, natural foods. Also, if you cook those natural foods in an aluminum pot, a significant amount of aluminum can leach into the food (compared to cooking in stainless steel).
 

When researchers tried the same experiment with tea, they got a few milligrams of aluminum regardless of what type of pot they used, suggesting that aluminum was in the tea itself. Indeed, back in the 1950’s, researchers noticed that tea plants tended to suck up aluminum from the soil. But it’s the dose that makes the poison. According to the World Health Organization, the provisional tolerable weekly intake—our best guess at a safety limit for aluminum—is two mg per healthy kilogram of body weight per week, which is nearly a milligram per pound. Someone who weighs around 150 pounds probably shouldn’t ingest more than around 20 mg of aluminum per day.
 

Up to a fifth of aluminum intake may come from beverages; so, what we drink probably shouldn’t contribute more than about four mg a day, the amount found in about five cups of green, black, or oolong tea. So, should we not drink more than five cups of tea a day?
 

It’s not what you eat or drink, it’s what you absorb. If we just measured how much aluminum was in tea, it would seem as though a couple cups could double aluminum intake for the day. But if we measure the level of aluminum in people’s bodies after they drink tea, it doesn’t go up. This suggests that the bioavailability of aluminum in tea is low, possibly because most of the extractable aluminum in brewed tea is strongly bound to large phytonutrients that are not easily absorbed; so, the aluminum just passes right through us without actually getting into our bodies. Probably more than 90 percent of the aluminum in tea is bound up.

("Aluminum Levels in Tea", Written By Michael Greger M.D. FACLM • May 17, 2016; Last updated: January 25, 2024)

 

 

Doesn't address aluminum in tea with lemon. 

I see an article in Times of India that claims lemon does allow the absorption of aluminum from tea, but then there's this:
 

12 healthy volunteers on a controlled aluminium (Al) diet each consumed a tea infusion (500 ml/70 kg body weight), with either milk or lemon juice as additives, or mineral water, following a three-way crossover design. The concentrations of Al were determined in the diet, mineral water and tea infusions, and in plasma samples collected before and up to 24 hr after consumption of tea or water, using graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry or inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry. Consumption of up to 1.60 mg Al from tea with milk or lemon juice did not increase plasma Al levels compared with consumption of approximately 0.001 mg Al from mineral water. The results suggest that, in the short-term, drinking tea does not contribute significantly to the total body burden of Al.

(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8444383/)

 

I'm ok with tea bags and old, caked matcha.  What can I say.  Great that I can buy organic black tea bags from Safeway now!

I am particular about coffee, maybe someday I'll be less lazy about tea...

 

 

 

 

[Taomeow]

9 minutes ago, Mark Foote said:

There are a number of aluminum-containing drugs on the market (like antacids, which have the highest levels), though aluminum compounds are also added to processed foods such as anti-caking agents in pancake mix, melting agents in American cheese, meat binders, gravy thickeners, rising agents in some baking powders and dye-binders in candy. Therefore, it’s better to stick to unprocessed, natural foods. Also, if you cook those natural foods in an aluminum pot, a significant amount of aluminum can leach into the food (compared to cooking in stainless steel).
 

When researchers tried the same experiment with tea, they got a few milligrams of aluminum regardless of what type of pot they used, suggesting that aluminum was in the tea itself. Indeed, back in the 1950’s, researchers noticed that tea plants tended to suck up aluminum from the soil. But it’s the dose that makes the poison. According to the World Health Organization, the provisional tolerable weekly intake—our best guess at a safety limit for aluminum—is two mg per healthy kilogram of body weight per week, which is nearly a milligram per pound. Someone who weighs around 150 pounds probably shouldn’t ingest more than around 20 mg of aluminum per day.
 

Up to a fifth of aluminum intake may come from beverages; so, what we drink probably shouldn’t contribute more than about four mg a day, the amount found in about five cups of green, black, or oolong tea. So, should we not drink more than five cups of tea a day?
 

It’s not what you eat or drink, it’s what you absorb. If we just measured how much aluminum was in tea, it would seem as though a couple cups could double aluminum intake for the day. But if we measure the level of aluminum in people’s bodies after they drink tea, it doesn’t go up. This suggests that the bioavailability of aluminum in tea is low, possibly because most of the extractable aluminum in brewed tea is strongly bound to large phytonutrients that are not easily absorbed; so, the aluminum just passes right through us without actually getting into our bodies. Probably more than 90 percent of the aluminum in tea is bound up.

("Aluminum Levels in Tea", Written By Michael Greger M.D. FACLM • May 17, 2016; Last updated: January 25, 2024)

 

 

Doesn't address aluminum in tea with lemon. 

I see an article in Times of India that claims lemon does allow the absorption of aluminum from tea, but then there's this:
 

12 healthy volunteers on a controlled aluminium (Al) diet each consumed a tea infusion (500 ml/70 kg body weight), with either milk or lemon juice as additives, or mineral water, following a three-way crossover design. The concentrations of Al were determined in the diet, mineral water and tea infusions, and in plasma samples collected before and up to 24 hr after consumption of tea or water, using graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry or inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry. Consumption of up to 1.60 mg Al from tea with milk or lemon juice did not increase plasma Al levels compared with consumption of approximately 0.001 mg Al from mineral water. The results suggest that, in the short-term, drinking tea does not contribute significantly to the total body burden of Al.

(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8444383/)

 

I'm ok with tea bags and old, caked matcha.  What can I say.  Great that I can buy organic black tea bags from Safeway now!

I am particular about coffee, maybe someday I'll be less lazy about tea...

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, that's what I thought.

 

On a different note, an acupuncturist of my acquaintance tells me that her teacher yells at her for drinking water.  He thinks that every such instance, every sip, is a wasted opportunity to offer the body something better -- tea or herbal tea.  We live in an age of deficiencies, why not replenish whenever we can?  And we can every time we're thirsty.  She has to hide her water bottle in his presence or he gets furious.  Old school.   

[old3bob]

when we were kids Hostess twinkies were the go to snack, god only knows how unhealthy those are?!  The government doesn't do nearly enough to protect people from questionable and even toxic crap in our food,  water and air!   (issues with an endless amount of informational facts related to our health that is at least mind blowing and sometimes even deadly !)

 

Greek yogurt is supposedly good for us but who knows what lurks inside   (they say mostly friendly little buggers?)

 

 

 

Edited July 4 by old3bob

[Nungali]

On 7/4/2024 at 9:19 AM, Cobie said:

I like the name, “FUSSPOTS”.  

 

 

Just like me