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August 10, 2009
Bad news for all dedicated tea lovers, like myself. Those, who like drinking black or oolong tea on a regular basis should be careful and limit the consumption of these types of tea to 3-4 small cups a day. A group of Japanese specialists at Toyama Institute of Health in Toyama Prefecture studied chemical content of the most popular tea beverages (which are considered to have a great number of absolutely unique health benefits and therapeutic properties), and came to quite disappointing conclusions.
They found out that oolong and black tea have increased content of such element as fluorine, which plays an important role in our dental health and good condition of our bones. As a result of more than 130 experiments, the scientists discovered that the levels of fluorine in the mentioned tea beverages considerably exceed the levels of this element in tap water. Therefore, regular consumption of black and oolong tea should be linked to certain dangers to our health, including the risks of damaging our tooth enamel and weakening of bones.
Tetsuo Shimmura, one of the leaders of the study, comments on the findings as the following: “In our study of people’s health in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (in China), we found that the bones of those who consumed water and beverages containing high fluorine density over a long time could develop a propensity to break.” He also underlined that there is no clear information about fluorine content in green tea, which has been gaining popularity for the last decades. The results of the research were recently presented at a meeting of Japan Society for Biomedical Research on Trace Elements in Japan.
Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
[…] grupo de investigadores del Instituto de Salud Toyama en Japón han asociado el consumo de té a una mala salud de los huesos, observando que las personas que consumían demasiado té devenían en un debilitamiento de sus […]
August 11th, 2009 at 10:58 am
This is a good caution. However, be aware that tea is also known for strengthening the bones and for promoting dental health. So it’s not as simple as that tea is either good or bad. A lot of it has to do with how well-designed these studies are and what the scientists are looking for. If they’re skeptics they can insist their doubts are proven by the study. That’s why the scientists of individual studies like this can’t be trusted. Look at tea across vast cultures and billions of people. They don’t all have weakened bones and teeth.