Drinking tea can be beneficial for health and wellbeing, but failing to follow the correct methods of tea consumption can prevent you from fully appreciating its taste and benefits, and may even cause harm to your body.
Temperature:
Drinking excessively hot tea can irritate the oral and esophageal mucosa, leading to local inflammation. From a nutritional standpoint, slightly cooled to warm tea is most suitable. Drinking overly cold tea can result in the loss of nutritionally valuable components over time, such as catechins and vitamin C, which are easily oxidized.
Hangover Relief:
Drinking strong tea after alcohol consumption can help with hangovers due to the diuretic effect of caffeine, which facilitates the excretion of acetaldehyde through the kidneys. However, acetaldehyde is harmful to the kidneys, and regularly using strong tea to relieve hangovers can lead to kidney dysfunction.
Strong Tea:
Consuming strong tea introduces higher levels of caffeine and theophylline, which can stimulate the central nervous system, causing excitement, hyperactivity, and difficulty concentrating, affecting work and rest. Drinking strong tea before bed can disrupt sleep or even cause insomnia. Since tea is inherently cool in nature, drinking strong tea may trigger gastrointestinal issues in elderly or weak individuals, so it's important to adjust the strength of the tea accordingly when brewing.
Before and After Meals:
Drinking tea before or after meals can affect digestion due to the impact of theophylline on digestive secretions. Tannins can inhibit gastric and intestinal secretions, leading to indigestion, and can form insoluble complexes with proteins from other foods. Experts recommend avoiding tea one hour before and after meals.
Menstrual Period:
It's not recommended to drink tea during menstruation because high concentrations of tannins in tea can hinder iron absorption, exacerbating iron deficiency in women.
Pregnancy:
Drinking strong tea during pregnancy is not advised as the caffeine and other compounds in tea can affect fetal development. Tea also has a diuretic effect, increasing heart rate and placing additional strain on the heart and kidneys. If you choose to drink tea, it's recommended to have a small amount of light tea one hour after a meal. Iron deficiency can affect hemoglobin production, leading to iron-deficiency anemia, which negatively impacts fetal development.
Taking Medications:
If you take medications that contain aluminum, iron, or enzymes, they can react with the polyphenols in tea, forming insoluble precipitates. The stimulating effects of caffeine in tea can counteract drugs designed to calm or induce sleep. Experts advise against drinking tea two hours before and after taking medication.
On an Empty Stomach:
Drinking tea on an empty stomach dilutes gastric acid and juices, hindering digestion, and may cause palpitations, headaches, gastrointestinal discomfort, dizziness, irritability, and interfere with protein absorption. It can also damage the gastric mucosa, potentially leading to chronic gastritis.
Additionally, in the context of tea-drinking, many Chinese people may associate drinking tea continuously throughout the day. However, there are many other scenarios where tea should be consumed differently, such as separating the tea leaves from the water to ensure optimal flavor.
Here are some situations where tea enthusiasts might have certain habits. Do any of these apply to you?
1. Drinking Tea from a Thermos
How many tea enthusiasts enjoy drinking tea from a thermos? In reality, this practice isn't ideal.
Using a thermos results in prolonged high temperatures, which can cause excessive extraction of tannins and theophylline, intensifying bitterness and reducing nutritional content.
2. Not Replacing the Tea Leaves
Some enthusiasts, to save tea leaves or for convenience, reuse the same batch of leaves all day long, which is not a good practice. Regardless of the type of tea, there is a limit to how many times it can be steeped, and the best taste is achieved within that limit.
Reusing the same leaves multiple times (up to twenty infusions) not only results in poor taste but also lacks nutritional value. The harmful substances in the leaves are fully extracted when steeped all day, which is detrimental to health.
3. Steeping Tea for Too Long
Enthusiasts who prefer strong tea often let their tea steep longer than necessary to achieve a more intense flavor, sometimes steeping it for ten to twenty minutes instead of the recommended few minutes.
This results in a stronger-flavored tea, but at this point, approximately 80% of the caffeine and 60% of other soluble compounds are extracted, making the tea bitter and harsh on the stomach.
4. Drinking Raw Pu'er or Green Tea Every Day
Everyone knows that Pu'er tea comes in raw and ripe varieties, and raw Pu'er, along with green tea and partially or non-fermented teas, are favored for their fresh aroma and sweet aftertaste, with many people drinking them daily. These teas can refresh the mind, clear heat, quench thirst, reduce fire, and improve vision. However, green tea and raw tea are inherently cool in nature, and excessive consumption can harm the stomach and body. It's better to alternate with other types of tea for optimal health benefits.
5. Drinking the Same Type of Tea All Year Round
From a nutritional perspective, tea contains relatively few calories and abundant vitamins A, B, and C, providing rich nutrition without the risk of weight gain. Besides drinking plain tea, you can also add ingredients like rose petals, tangerine peel, goji berries, and jujubes to make herbal or blended teas, which offer different health benefits for women.
However, even good things should be enjoyed in moderation and according to the season. Different seasons call for different types of tea, and even different times of day require different choices. For example, during the cold autumn, opt for ripe Pu'er and black tea, while during the summer heat, choose some green tea.
Tea enthusiasts, do you have any of these unhealthy tea-dr