I am disgusted that they chose to measure tea in bags.
/teasnob
Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#12Oh no! I drink a lot of tea... 47 year old woman...drank a pitcher of tea made from at least 100 tea bags daily, for 17 years Whew, not even close. Also, WTF. Glad to see that simply halting the excess consumption should allow her body to repair the imbalance over time.
At some point you wonder if putting more teabags into the same pitcher doesn't actually make it any stronger. There's gotta be a saturation point for tea solutes. Except maybe for the flouride in them.
It stops being stronger at some point I think. The water can only hold so much of the infusion. I have no scientific evidence other than my own observations -- and that's far from scientific.
"Too much" is generally a relative term depending on where you're from (although this lady didn't fit the customs of the locale) since people drink it both in the morning, evening and stometimes in the afternoon.
These cases also tend to show up in Sri Lanka, which has a tea culture as well. We also need to keep in mind that some areas have naturally high levels of fluoride in the groundwater. Without reading the detailed article (TBA), it's hard to tell if that played a part too.
Edit: Something smells fishy.
Pass it on: A 47-year-old U.S. woman developed a bone disease after drinking a pitcher of tea a day for 17 years.
The actual case hasn't been published in detail and the link to the case : http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm1200995
But it mentions: Brewed tea has one of the highest fluoride contents among beverages in the United States. I'd like to see some actual backup of that with hard data.
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#13Oh no! I drink a lot of tea... 47 year old woman...drank a pitcher of tea made from at least 100 tea bags daily, for 17 years Whew, not even close. Also, WTF. Glad to see that simply halting the excess consumption should allow her body to repair the imbalance over time.
Ha ha, I had the same thought and was coming to post the same excerpt. I drink a huge amount of tea... but not 100 bags a day. I already knew about the fluoride in tea. Also in some other things: http://www.fortcollinscwa.org/pages/fluoride.htm
How much do you drink? The article said that there were other cases in the U.S., and that the typical patient was drinking about a gallon a day.
I myself on a typical day drink 2 32oz pots. That's half a gallon so I kind of wonder if I should cut back.
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#14Oh no! I drink a lot of tea... 47 year old woman...drank a pitcher of tea made from at least 100 tea bags daily, for 17 years Whew, not even close. Also, WTF. Glad to see that simply halting the excess consumption should allow her body to repair the imbalance over time.
They must have been some pretty nasty tea bags for that to be affordable. 100 half decent teabags each day would be barely cheaper than smoking.
Tea is one area where I go for the expensive stuff. It has to be pure. Drinking green tea with impurities like fluoride may or may not be killing me, but the thought of it kills the experience.
Sadly, the woman likely believed she was gaining super health benefits from her daily ritual. That or she really loved her tea.
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
They must have been some pretty nasty tea bags for that to be affordable. 100 half decent teabags each day would be barely cheaper than smoking.
Tea is one area where I go for the expensive stuff. It has to be pure. Drinking green tea with impurities like fluoride may or may not be killing me, but the thought of it kills the experience. Sadly, the woman likely believed she was gaining super health benefits from her daily ritual. That or she really loved her tea.
>Tea is one area where I go for the expensive stuff. It has to be pure. Drinking green tea with impurities like fluoride may or may not be killing me, but the thought of it sure kills the experience.
My Monster cables may or may not provide a better a signal than a coat hanger, but the thought that I might not have the best possible audio sure would kill the experience.
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
At some point you wonder if putting more teabags into the same pitcher doesn't actually make it any stronger. There's gotta be a saturation point for tea solutes. Except maybe for the flouride in them.
It stops being stronger at some point I think. The water can only hold so much of the infusion. I have no scientific evidence other than my own observations -- and that's far from scientific. "Too much" is generally a relative term depending on where you're from (although this lady didn't fit the customs of the locale) since people drink it both in the morning, evening and stometimes in the afternoon. These cases als…
When I make tea, I find that as little as an extra 3g of tea, or an extra minute of steeping can ruin an entire pot. I can't imagine dumping several ounces of dried tea leaves into a single pot of tea, which is pretty much what this lady was doing.
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#17"100 tea bags daily, for 17 years" almost qualifies as an OCD.
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
It stops being stronger at some point I think. The water can only hold so much of the infusion. I have no scientific evidence other than my own observations -- and that's far from scientific. "Too much" is generally a relative term depending on where you're from (although this lady didn't fit the customs of the locale) since people drink it both in the morning, evening and stometimes in the afternoon. These cases als…
When I make tea, I find that as little as an extra 3g of tea, or an extra minute of steeping can ruin an entire pot. I can't imagine dumping several ounces of dried tea leaves into a single pot of tea, which is pretty much what this lady was doing.
Agreed. At the most, tea should be left to infuse for 1 minute (loose tea less than that), especially for Black tea blends. Any more and it just kills the flavor.
I'm willing to bet she was doing it for some sort of DIY health thing. People do silly things like over-doing something if they think it's good for you. Well, that then makes it bad for you.
There's a great book on all this called The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Tea
A very good read on the subject. I think Google Books probably has a free translation.
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tea is one area where I go for the expensive stuff. It has to be pure. Drinking green tea with impurities like fluoride may or may not be killing me, but the thought of it kills the experience. Sadly, the woman likely believed she was gaining super health benefits from her daily ritual. That or she really loved her tea.
>Tea is one area where I go for the expensive stuff. It has to be pure. Drinking green tea with impurities like fluoride may or may not be killing me, but the thought of it sure kills the experience. My Monster cables may or may not provide a better a signal than a coat hanger, but the thought that I might not have the best possible audio sure would kill the experience.
dhissami is actually correct that more expensive teas are lower in fluoride than cheap ones. However, it's because of an accident of biology, not because anyone designed it that way. Higher quality teas tend to be made from younger leaves, and the younger the leaf, the less fluoride.
Re: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Tea is one area where I go for the expensive stuff. It has to be pure. Drinking green tea with impurities like fluoride may or may not be killing me, but the thought of it sure kills the experience. My Monster cables may or may not provide a better a signal than a coat hanger, but the thought that I might not have the best possible audio sure would kill the experience.
dhissami is actually correct that more expensive teas are lower in fluoride than cheap ones. However, it's because of an accident of biology, not because anyone designed it that way. Higher quality teas tend to be made from younger leaves, and the younger the leaf, the less fluoride.
But most people don't use 100 tea bags a day. Low levels of fluoride aren't going to kill you.