Is There Too Much of Good Thing When It Comes to Black Tea?
In findings presented 25 July 2010 at the 2010 International Association of Dental Research Conference, Dr. Gary Whitford who is a professor at the Medical College of Georgia, School of Dentistry said that black tea
This conclusion started with four patients with skeletal fluorosis who had one thing in common. They drank excessive amounts of black tea every day. I love my tea and in the south I know drinking iced tea is a big thing but one to two GALLONS of tea a day?! And they drank it for 10 to 30 years.
This lead the good doctor to trying to find out if black tea actually has more fluoride than the 1 to 5 milligrams per liter previous reports showed. He created a way to actually measure the amount of fluoride including that in aluminum fluoride which previous studies had not been able to measure. That raised the result to “as much as 9 milligrams” per liter.
When you learn that it only takes 20 milligrams daily to become a health hazard, you can understand why drinking over a gallon a day becomes a problem. Of course, the researchers said you had to do this for over 10 years to create the bone and joint problems. Additionally too much fluoride can be a problem to people’s thyroids if they have low iodine intake and if they have kidney disease.
These findings were based on results from seven brands of store bought black tea. Apparently the tea plant absorbs and accumulates large concentrations of fluoride and aluminum. When you steep your black tea, these minerals leach out into the water. If your water source is fluoridated, you are compounding the problem. Guess that makes a good case for bottled water with no added fluoride.
Good News About Black Tea and Theaflavins for Allergies
Now turning to some good news about black tea
Black tea has lots less polyphenols than green tea. This new study focused on theaflavins in black tea instead and particularly two: theaflavin-3-gallate and theaflavin-3,3-digallate (TFDG).
What the study found was these two theaflavins kept mice, or actually their bodies, from producing pro-inflammatory cytokines. That means no or much lowered inflammation in the body.
When the mice were either given an injection or fed the theaflavins, there was "... significant preventive effects against mouse type IV allergy" which also didn't raise the oxidant levels in the mice either. A type IV allergy is known as a "delayed type hypersensitivity" which can cause the allergic response up to 24 hours later. That has to be tough. But if you have it, drinking black tea
Filed under black tea, Health Benefits of Tea by on Jul 30th, 2010. 
Do we need to worry about black tea prices?
OK, I’ll admit I am not the best person to understand stock and commodities markets. But the article from our source below, plus other information I read today, seems to imply we might have something to worry about this year. I am stressing “might” in that sentence.
Although the price of African Tea has fallen for the 3rd straight week, violence from ethnic clashes, which have claimed 1500 lives already, and an extreme drought are causing the tea crop in the Eastern and Western Rift Valley regions to decline. Earlier sales set a new record high, however.
These valleys are where the best quality tea leaves are grown in Africa according to the news report. Why should we care? Because Kenya is the top exporter of black tea in the world. More may be grown in India but the vast majority of it, maybe 95%, is consumed in India as well.
So, will supplies of black tea decline so we end up paying more? Who knows with the way commodity markets work? Certainly not me, but if I learn any more, I will post it here.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aq2eLaUXaMj0&refer=africa
Filed under Tea by on Mar 12th, 2008.
We’ve been learning about all the health benefits of green tea. We will probably post more about that here in the days to come. We know that black tea also provides some measure of health benefits as well but so far, it has looked like green tea was the clear winner.
Now, out of the University of Dundee’s Neurosciences Institute comes some results which make black tea look very good indeed. Dr. Graham Rena, an insulin researcher with the University has found that good old black tea holds the potential to help people with type 2 diabetes by mimicking the action of insulin. The findings were published in the Aging Cell journal.
As usual, much more research will need to be done including some human testing and finding out just how much black tea will do the trick. However, this is some very good news for those suffering this debilitating disease.
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/How-the–humble-cuppa.3834328.jp
Filed under Tea by on Mar 7th, 2008.