Tea and 5 Incompatible Foods: Don't Let Good Tea Become Poison
The term "tea medicine" (see "tea medicine" inscribed by Wang Guo in the 14th year of the Dali era of Emperor Daizong of Tang Dynasty) has existed since the Tang Dynasty; in the "Shanjia Qinggong" written by Lin Hong of the Song Dynasty, there is also the assertion that "tea is medicine". It can be seen that tea is medicine and has been included in medical books (anciently called Ben Cao). However, in modern usage, the term "tea medicine" is limited to preparations containing tea in their formulas.
Because tea has many effects and can prevent and treat many diseases in internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, and pediatrics, tea is not only a medicine, but also, as Chen Zangqi of the Tang Dynasty emphasized, "tea is a medicine for ten thousand diseases".
Small issues to pay attention to when drinking tea, because tea can be incompatible with some foods.
1. Tea and White Sugar
Tea is bitter and cold in nature. The purpose of people drinking tea is to use the bitterness of tea to stimulate the digestive glands, promote the secretion of digestive juices, and enhance digestive function. Secondly, it is to use the cold nature of tea to achieve the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying.
If sugar is added to tea, it will inhibit this function. However, there are also folk remedies in ancient books that combine tea with white sugar to treat diseases. It can be used as a dietary therapy, but it is not suitable to pair with sugar when drinking tea normally.
2. Tea and Eggs
When boiling eggs in tea water, the tea is very strong. Strong tea contains more tannic acid, which can turn the protein in food into indigestible coagulated substances, affecting the human body's absorption and utilization of protein.
3. Tea and Alcohol
Many people like to drink tea after drinking alcohol, hoping to achieve the effects of moistening dryness and relieving alcohol, eliminating stagnation and aiding digestion, and regulating water passages. However, this is not good for the kidneys. Because drinking tea after alcohol, the theophylline in tea has a diuretic effect. At this time, acetaldehyde, converted from alcohol, has not been completely decomposed, and it enters the kidneys due to the diuretic effect of theophylline. Acetaldehyde has a great irritating effect on the kidneys, which can easily damage kidney function. Then symptoms such as kidney coldness, frequent and turbid urination, and testicular pain and distension appear one after another.
4. Tea and Mutton
Although eating mutton from time to time is very beneficial to the body, when eating mutton and drinking tea, the rich protein in mutton can "combine" with the tannic acid in tea to form a substance called tannic acid protein. This substance has a certain astringent effect on the intestines, which can weaken intestinal peristalsis, reduce water in the stool, and easily cause constipation.
Therefore, it is not advisable to drink tea while eating mutton. It is also not advisable to drink tea immediately after eating mutton. You should wait 2-3 hours before drinking tea.
5. Tea and Medicine
The tannic acid in tea can undergo chemical reactions with certain drugs (such as ferrous sulfate tablets, ferric ammonium citrate, berberine, etc.) to form precipitates, affecting drug absorption.
If sedatives (such as phenobarbital, diazepam, etc.) are taken with tea water, the stimulants in tea such as caffeine and theophylline will counteract or weaken the sedative effect of the drugs. Because there are many types of drugs and it is not easy to master them, it is beneficial and harmless to take them all with warm water.