Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic To Brew or Not to Brew?

It all started at a Greek restaurant with a pot of clove tea. I thought to myself that this (tea) was really nice stuff, and I could see why the English like it so much! Furthermore, to my pleasant surprise, I could actually notice the difference in the various flavors of tea, so I decided then and there to make it my hobby and become a tea connoisseur.

Well, when I told my plan to my mother, she was less than thrilled. I'd already figured that a tea hobby would cost money, but since tea is essentially water and I don't drink nearly enough (Really. I'm almost perpetually dehydrated.) I figured it'd be worth the extra few bucks a week to encourage myself to drink more!

Well, my Momma told me:

1. Tea doesn't count as water (in terms of drinking 8 glasses a day) because there's stuff in it. Juice and milk also do not count for this reason.

2. Boiling water takes out the minerals that are needed and can only be found in water.

3. It will stain my teeth.

Well, what should I do? Does tea-drinking have benefits that balance the negatives? Are those negatives even right?

I'm a little confused about the water deal---on the one hand, a professor in health class told me the same as my Mom about water not counting if it's not pure. On the other hand, Snopes.com debunks this by saying even *food* provides half the water you need, or so.

I still have to research all this myself, but in the meantime, does anybody have any input?

And yes, I'm aware that a few of y'all are Brittish.

My OB - and Nan, IIRC, but this was 7 years ago or so - told me when I was pregnant with my oldest that everything but alcohol and caffeine counted towards the water intake - so if it's caffeinated tea, it wouldn't count, but if it's decaf it would.

*shrug*

Another nurse I know also told me that they count milk more as food than drink [when DD6 had her tonsils out, she wouldn't eat or drink anything but finally had some milk which was better than nothing I thought... seriously - she hadn't had more than few ounces of anything in about 24 hours and we were starting to worry about real, hospital trip dehydration...]

FWIW
Carol

I'll start off by saying that I'm not British and I don't drink tea other than when I'm sick. I'm also not a nutritionist of any sort, but I do pay attention to health issues. That said, here are my thoughts:

1. IMO it depends on how you make the tea. Sugared tea, like Lipton or Snapple, wouldn't count. The sugar nullifies the water. If it's really just basic, no-frills tea, I'd say it counts. The tea leaves themselves don't really put "stuff" in the water, they just flavor it. Same as adding a lemon wedge to your water. Juice and milk don't count, but they're a lot less pure water than plain tea, and they have a lot of calories.

2. I have never heard this, ever. Sounds like it's probably an old wives tale.

3. No idea about this one, but I'd guess it depends on what kind and how much you drink. Coffee supposedly does too, and probably so do a lot of foods, but how much do you really care? If we were all worried about that we'd eat and drink nothing but bread and water. I just don't see how this is a major health concern.

All that said, even if you decide to take up tea drinking, I wouldn't necessarily suggest using that as your only source of water. There's probably something to be said about the benefits of good old fashioned water.

ETA: Carol has a really good point about the caffeine. I wouldn't count it if it was caffeinated.

~Anna

Polyphenols in tea have been known to:

-Help protect cells from the normal, but damaging, physiological process known as "oxidative stress." Although oxygen is vital to life, it's also incorporated into reactive substances called free radicals. These can damage the cells in our body and have been implicated in the slow chain reaction of damage leading to heart disease and cancer.
-Help prevent blood clotting
-Help lower cholesterol levels
-Help neutralize enzymes that aid in the growth of tumors
-Help deactivate cancer promoters
-Help stimulate the immune system

Tea also has fluoride for strong teeth, virtually no calories, and half the amount of caffeine found in an equally-sized cup of coffee.

Tea also contains a variety of ingredients that are beneficial to one's health. These include theanine (an amino acid unique to tea), vitamins, minerals, and methylxanthines. These are the components that are the source of the healthful properties of tea. These are known to:

-Help fight against mutagenic agents
-Delay aging
-Help fight high blood pressure
-Help fight against viral and bacterial infection
-Help improve the functions of the digestive and excretory systems

To sum it up - by drinking 2-4 cups a day of tea, you can reap in the numerous curative and preventive tea benefits.

From Tea benefits

Personally, I just drink it because I like the taste. As far as the water thing goes, I've read anything that's not plain water doesn't count as your water intake. But that doesn't mean you can't hydrate yourself with something else, although maybe not as effectively. I don't know if tea w/o milk or sugar counts. But it's true you get some liquid from your food as well.

Btw, I've heard tea is a diuretic, so I don't know where that leaves you.

Looks like those health experts have been changing their minds again.

All I know about tea is that I gave up drinking it almost a decade ago because I was advised by my dietician that the tanin in tea was bad for those with high BP.

They've either updated their advice since (always possible) or it's one of those cases of having to weight up the pros and cons and make your own choice - some ingredients in tea being bad for your health and some being good.

Looks like I could quite happily go back to drinking it if I wanted to. But I doubt I will. About four months after giving it up, I made a cup of tea for myself and found I couldn't stand the taste. Which was pretty bizarre. Haven't taken any since. It was no great loss it has to be said as I was never a huge tea drinker anyway. So I can't say I've missed it terribly.

I'd be dubious about that water theory btw. I keep a bottle of water with me pretty much all the time and fill it up a couple of times a day. Frequently, to jazz it up some, I put a healthy couple of jolts of pure lemon juice in it. I can't say that it's seemed to make it any less like water when I drink it.

LabRat

In the bathroom, I imagine.

I, of course, am also not an expert. However, there is something to be said for the wonderfulness of water.

I used to drink all kinds of liquids (milk, juice, soda, coffee, tea, etc) but noticed that I was perpetually thirsty no matter how much I drank. I would get so irritated that after a big glass of milk I felt like having another. So... now I only drink water. That's it (except for the occasional frozen margarita..mmmm). And voila, I'm not thirsty all the time anymore.

I have found that water is the only thing that quenches my thirst. Not any other drinks or foods. But that's just me.

I think it would be okay to drink tea if you're also drinking water (by itself). Cause like gr8 said, tea is a diuretic which will dehydrate you, not quench your thirst. And yes, it will stain your teeth. At least, the tea down here in Texas will.

BUT, things don't always work the same for everyone. My grandpa is 91 in June and all he drinks (at least for the past 25 years) is black caffinated coffee. Seriously, that's all he drinks, no water or anything else. So... who's to say really. Just be sure you're not constantly feeling thirsty if you start drinking a lot of tea cause that probably means you're getting dehydrated.

Aaaah.

Thanks very much, guys.

Ahahaha.

Ahem.

Anyway, I drank a truckload of tea last year because it was one of few things that didn't make me sick when I was on my brain medication, and I don't think I'm too much worse for wear. I'm pretty sure we could find something wrong with everything we eat and drink, so I say have a party with your tea kettle! And drink other things, too. I think tea as a hobby would be pretty interesting!

JD

Just a week ago there was an article in my local newspaper about how people are too worried about not getting enough water, and how the supposed health benefits of drinking water when you aren't thirsty simply don't exist. A medical study was presented, and a professor of medicine was interviewed. According to this study, people who made sure they got at least eight glasses of water a day whether they were thirsty or not were not healthier than those who only gave themselves liquids when they felt thirsty. The dedicated water-drinkers didn't have a lower mortality rate, either. The professor who was interviewed said that drinking water when you aren't thirsty generally won't harm you, but it won't make you healthier, either. It will just send you to the bathroom more.

However, I have heard about several studies which claim that tea is, for the most part, positively good for you. For example, I remember that I have heard that it may lower blood pressure. Also, it seems to lower the risk of getting high blood sugar levels and developing diabetes, particularly green tea.

I think you may safely drink tea, Mary. If you are thirsty and feel like a cup of tea, by all means drink it. It is another myth that your body doesn't get the liquid it needs if you don't drink pure water. When my mother was younger, she mostly drank caffeinated coffee (decaf didn't exist in Sweden back then, and it is hard enough to find it here these days - most Swedes still haven't heard of it). If my mother couldn't have gotten the liquid she needed from the coffee she drank, she would have died of dehydration many years ago.

Ann

Yes, tea counts as water. It's flavored water, but it's water. And, as Ann mentioned, there isn't really much evidence for the 8 glasses a day thing, anyway.

Besides, we're all individuals, with different requirements. A smaller, thinner person generally needs less than a bigger, heavier person. Someone who sweats more will need more fluid to replace what was lost. Someone who's sick, has ingested something bad, or for any other reason has things floating around that need to be flushed out will need more fluid to help do the flushing.

Even caffeinated drinks are hydrating. It's just that the caffeine itself is a toxin and needs to be flushed out. So you need a little extra fluid to help do that. So a caffeinated drink isn't quite as hydrating as a non-caffeinated drink.

In general... Your body knows what it needs. Drink when you're thirsty, and you should be fine on that score.

As others have mentioned, tea is not only hydrating, but there's evidence that it contains beneficial nutrients. Particularly green tea, but also oolong, and, to some degree, just about any other kind of tea you can name.

As for minerals... It depends on the water you're drinking. Some of it's filtered already, some of it may have picked up harmful substances. Boiling the water will not get rid of any minerals, however. Minerals are heavier than water, and will not be destroyed by heat. So they'll stay in the kettle just fine.

In fact, that's how steam distillation works. You boil water, capture the steam, and cool it down in a separate pot. Anything that has a higher boiling point than water will be left behind in the first pot. Anything that has a lower boiling point will evaporate first. So you throw out the first bit that comes through, and after that, you get pure, clean water in the second pot. ... Except that water is the universal solvent, and will begin picking up new solutes as soon as it comes in contact with them.

As for those minerals not being present anywhere else... As you mentioned, food has water, too. Natural foods like fruits and vegetables are grown in that same water, and will have the beneficial minerals in them. Meat comes from animals who drink water and eat plants, so that will also have minerals and nutrients. Bread is cooked with water, so it, too, will have... You get the idea.

Of course, fruits and vegetables will also have organic nutrients - more complicated chemicals that your cells need to function. Sugars, carbs, amino acids, vitamins, etc. And meats will have more of some of those nutrients and less of others, so it's good to have a balance (if you don't object to eating meat).

Moving on... Tea will, indeed, make your teeth darker. As will coffee and a variety of other things. But tea is notorious in that respect. Whitening toothpaste can help. Or you can live with darker, more yellowish teeth. Not quite as attractive, perhaps, but it won't harm you, and the benefits of being healthy (thanks, in part, to the antioxidants and other nutrients found in tea) may just make up for it, anyway. (What's more attractive, sickly with shiny teeth or strong and healthy with yellow teeth? - A bit of a stretch, but you see my point?)

So... yeah. Tea is, on balance, good for you. Even if it is slightly caffeinated and has some sugar in it. (Your body needs sugar, and there isn't that much caffeine in most tea. Estimates vary, but it's about half as much as you'd find in coffee. You can see here , here , and here if you're interested.)

And there are a lot of different kinds. Herbal teas (which don't actually contain tea leaves), Chinese teas, English teas, bagged, loose... Have fun trying them and seeing what suits you.

Everyone else has explained the benefits of tea. My aunt used to say that the antioxidants in tea were quite beneficial for certain types of blood diseases, which apparently my family could inherit. Of course, I have no idea what disease that is. But it's quite tasty!

But all of the benefits aside, I would like to give my opinion. I personally don't like fruit-flavored or mint teas, but I know many people do. Spice teas are yummy. I have a holiday tea that has cinnamon, cloves, and some other spices, and it's soooo good. I'm partial to Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Constant Comment, and some others put out by Twining and .. darnit, I forgot the name, but it starts with a B. Variety packs are good.

If you're going to drink a lot of different types, invest in a tea ball or tea infuser. It works great for the loose-leaf teas, such as the japanese teas (oolong). Stay away from powdered teas. *still traumatized by a powdered japanese plum tea*

Happy drinking!

If you ARE going to brew, have you looked into Japanese teas? They're wonderful.

I fell in love with Genmai-cha when I bought it at Epcot in FL. When I ran out I went nuts looking for it, but only found some in Stash's catalog. Price was 4x the price that I had paid in Epcot (and you know Epcot is over-priced), but it tasted SO good that I bought some anyway. Yum!

Then, a few months later I looked intently until I found a Japanese store in a major city about 1.5 hrs from me. Next time we took a drive, I went in and they HAD the Genmai-cha. I also bought and tried (and loved) Kukicha and Hoji-cha. Lovely, nutty tastes. They even taste super as iced teas.

btw, if coffee is 5 on a caffeine scale and most teas are 2.5, the ones I mentioned are 1 or below. VERY low caffeine. I can drink them at night with no problems whereas your run-of-the-mill teas will keep me up at night.

You will find that teas taste differently depending upon how long you brew them AND the temp of the water you use--so experiment.

As for them being a diuretic, I've noticed no water loss issues drinking these teas, and I normally do 2-3 cups/day (and these are 12 oz. cups, btw). On hot days I can drink up to a 1-1.5 quarts and they refresh and quench me just as water or natural fruit drinks do.

hth,
Bobbett
Farmer in KY