Senior nutritionist Liu Na from the Ministry of Health reminds people that industrially produced tea drinks have reduced levels of their main nutritional components, such as tea polyphenols, vitamin C, and vitamin B. In contrast, the refined sugar, flavorings, and preservatives like sorbic acid added to these beverages are not nutritious components.
Tea is hailed as a natural guardian of health for its benefits, including lowering blood lipids, aiding in weight loss, preventing cardiovascular diseases, resisting radiation, providing antioxidant effects, slowing down aging, and aiding digestion. Liu Na explains that it is best to brew and drink tea fresh. The brewed tea should be consumed within 25 minutes; otherwise, prolonged exposure to air will cause a significant decrease in nutritional components such as tea polyphenols, vitamin C, and vitamin A.
"Unless circumstances dictate otherwise, the most suitable beverages for people are still room-temperature plain water or freshly brewed tea. If the body has special needs, mineral water can also be consumed, but purified water is not recommended," Liu Na says. For tea lovers who find it inconvenient to brew tea while out, they can pour packaged tea powder into water to drink, as its nutritional value is higher than that of tea beverages.
Any bottled beverage, no matter how high or how comprehensive its claimed nutritional content is, will list non-nutritious ingredients like "colorings," "flavorings," and "sorbic acid" (a preservative) on its label. Liu Na points out that industrially produced beverages cannot have their color, taste, and other qualities uniformly standardized without adding these substances. In particular, the refined sugar added contains mostly empty calories with very few nutrients. Excessive consumption can lead to a high glycemic index, causing excess calories to be stored as fat in the body. This can easily lead to metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood lipids, and fatty liver.