When it comes to superfoods and healthy foods, things can get out of hand pretty quickly. An article will be released informing readers that eating avocados can help protect their brain from degenerative disorders, and everyone flocks to the store to stock up, eating as many avocados as they can, creating entire industries in climates where avocados grow (often to the detriment of the people living in those climates).
It’s no secret that people are obsessed with health in this era and that everyone’s looking for one magic ingredient to help them live forever and stay youthful. In reality, health is far more complicated than these flash and pop articles make it seem. There’s no one-size-fits-all option as people’s health is tied intrinsically to their genetics, history, environment, and lifestyle. With that in mind, the following will explore one lauded health product in detail: Herbal Tea.
What Is Herbal Tea?
Herbal teas are sometimes also referred to as herbal infusions. They’re not actually tea (meaning they don’t come from the camellia sinesis plant) but are made from steeping parts of other plants in hot water. The water slowly gains color and taste, as well as some of the health benefits of drinking these plants. Herbal teas can be cooled after the steeping process is done to produce a chilled drink as well.
Given the widely known benefits of many herbal teas, a lot of consumers are trying to get as much of it in their diet as possible. This can beg the question of whether there’s such thing as too much tea, or if there’s an ideal amount of tea to drink every day.
Can You Drink Too Much Tea?
Too much of anything can cause problems for your health and wellbeing. You can drink too much water or exercise too much, or have too much oxygen; potassium poisoning is a real thing that happens when you eat too many bananas. Basically, anything done in excess can be a problem for you, even if that thing in moderation is extremely healthy.
Tea is not an exception. You can drink too much herbal tea, and it can cause problems for your health, digestion, or mental state. This is especially the case for herbal teas that have strong herbal effects like detoxing or organ changes or highly caffeinated teas, as this can cause nervousness, discomfort, and feelings of frantic energy.
Preparation Considerations
It’s not just what you’re drinking that’s important, but how you’re drinking it. You need to also consider secondary features like whether the teas are organic (too many pesticides are a big problem) and think about the method of preparation.
Some teabags contain plastic elements, meaning microplastics are constantly being leeched into your tea as it steeps. This is especially critical as most people are experiencing a plastic overload in their diets, consuming on average a credit card’s worth of plastic each week.
Other teabags contain harmful chemicals or dyes that increase the risks of cancer when left sitting in hot water. And don’t think that devices for steeping loose-leaf tea are necessarily better. Anything with aluminum or plastic releases flakes into your tea, which you then ingest, and your body has to deal with. Aluminum has been linked to brain degenerative disorders and plastics to endocrine disorders and certain types of cancer.
How Much Is Just Right?
So if there’s such a thing as too much tea, and you don’t want no herbal tea because those health benefits are tempting, how do you determine what’s a good amount for you? There’s no strict guideline as people are all different shapes and sizes and have different levels of sensitivity, but the general consensus seems to be that five or fewer cups of tea each day is safe for the average person.
This is five cups of all tea, meaning you can’t drink five cups of green tea and then five cups of ginger tea and think you’re in the clear. If you’re small or thin, less than this is probably best for you. It’s also worth noting that a cup means 250ml; many popular mugs and to-go cups are actually a lot bigger than 250ml, and so it’s easy to end up drinking a lot more than you meant to.
The above information should have made it clear that there is such a thing as too much tea. If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, extra considerations need to be taken. Likewise, if you’re noticing strange symptoms or feelings of discomfort after including a new tea in your life, you need to listen to these effects and consider removing the tea. Some people are more sensitive than others.
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