Is drinking tea too much of this fatal harm?
tea is the traditional Chinese drink. However, there are many rumors about the taboo of drinking tea. One of the most widely circulated items is that "people with anemia can not drink tea," and even "too much tea is easy to anemia". Is that true? Fan Zhihong, associate professor of food science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, will answer this question.
first of all, from epidemiological and human trials, it is not discovered that drinking tea can cause problems such as iron and calcium deficiency. From the point of view of metabolic studies, it was also not found that drinking tea would significantly affect the excretion of minerals in feces and urine.
study found that intake of black tea extract or strong tea may reduce the iron absorption rate. However, studies have shown that if the tea is not very strong, instead of daily drinking water, it will not affect the absorption of iron. It is only when the iron supplements are put together in the tea water, or when the iron rich food and tea are eaten together, the effect of reducing the iron absorption rate is shown.
in all kinds of tea, the effect of reducing iron absorption rate is strongest, while green tea and flower fruit tea are slightly weaker. Researchers believe that the influence of iron absorption may be tea polyphenols, and its type and content are closely related.
also, the study also showed that tea did not affect the absorption of iron in the intestines, but when iron was directly encountered, polyphenols and iron formed complex in tea to reduce the absorption of iron. Moreover, the iron must be "non heme iron" to be affected by tea - that is, the iron in the food such as pork, beef, mutton and fish is not affected. Only the iron in the plant foods such as the Auricularia and celery will be affected. Moreover, vitamin C supplementation can partially eliminate this negative effect.
it is therefore possible to conclude that as long as the supply of iron in the diet is sufficient, especially in fish and meat, which is rich in heme iron, drinking tea will not cause anemia. In fact, Fujian and Guangdong residents often drink tea very strongly, but these areas are not the areas with the highest incidence of anemia.