Don't Drink Tea Carelessly or You Might "Lose" Your Life!
Whether male or female, young or old, many people enjoy leisurely brewing a pot of tea on weekends to relax. However, not everyone is suitable for drinking tea for health. Let's look at the situations in which we should avoid tea.
1. Avoid tea when you have a fever
The caffeine in tea not only raises body temperature but can also reduce the effectiveness of medication.
2. Patients with liver disease should avoid tea
Most substances in tea, such as caffeine, are metabolized by the liver. If the liver is diseased, drinking too much tea beyond its metabolic capacity can damage liver tissue.
3. Patients with neurasthenia should be cautious with tea
The caffeine in tea has a stimulating effect on the central nervous system. Patients with neurasthenia who drink strong tea, especially in the afternoon and evening, may experience insomnia and worsen their condition. They can drink tea once in the late morning and once in the early afternoon. Flower tea is suitable in the morning, green tea in the afternoon, and no tea at night. This way, patients can feel invigorated during the day and calm at night, helping them fall asleep earlier.
4. Pregnant women should avoid tea
Especially strong tea. Tea contains a large amount of tea polyphenols and caffeine, which have many adverse effects on the fetus's development in the womb. To ensure the fetus's normal intellectual development and avoid excessive stimulation from caffeine, pregnant women should drink little to no tea.
5. Patients with ulcers should be cautious with tea
Tea is a stimulant for gastric acid secretion. Drinking tea can increase gastric acid secretion, irritating the ulcerated area. Drinking strong tea often can worsen the condition. However, for mild cases, one can drink some weak tea two hours after taking medication. Sweetened black tea or milk-added black tea can help reduce inflammation and protect the gastric mucosa, also having a certain effect on ulcers. Drinking tea can also block the synthesis of nitroso compounds in the body, preventing precancerous mutations.
6. Patients with malnutrition should avoid tea
Tea has the function of breaking down fat. For people with malnutrition, drinking tea to break down fat will worsen their nutritional status.
7. Be cautious with tea when drunk
Tea has a stimulating effect on the central nervous system. Drinking strong tea when drunk can increase the burden on the heart. Tea also accelerates urination, causing toxic aldehydes from alcohol to be excreted by the kidneys before they are broken down, which is highly irritating and harmful to health. Therefore, people with heart or kidney disease or poor function should not drink tea, especially not large amounts of strong tea. For healthy individuals, they can drink a small amount of strong tea. After sobering up, they can eat a lot of fruit or take small sips of vinegar to speed up metabolism and alleviate drunkenness.
8. Be cautious about taking medicine with tea water
There are many types of drugs with different properties, so whether tea water can be used to take medicine cannot be generalized. The tannins and theophylline in tea can undergo chemical changes with certain drugs. Therefore, when taking sedatives, hypnotics, iron supplements, enzyme preparations, or protein-containing drugs, it is not advisable to use tea water because tea polyphenols can easily react with iron to form precipitates, affecting the drug's efficacy.
9. Anemia patients should avoid tea
The tannic acid in tea can combine with iron to form insoluble complexes, reducing the body's iron absorption. Therefore, anemia patients should not drink tea.
10. Patients with urinary stones should avoid tea
Urinary tract stones are usually calcium oxalate stones. Since tea contains oxalic acid, it can form stones with calcium excreted in urine. If patients with urinary stones drink large amounts of tea, it will worsen their condition.
11. Avoid drinking tea on an empty stomach
Drinking tea on an empty stomach can dilute gastric acid and inhibit gastric secretion, hindering digestion. It can also cause "tea intoxication" symptoms like palpitations, headaches, stomach discomfort, dizziness, and irritability, and it affects protein absorption and can cause gastritis. If "tea intoxication" occurs, sucking on candy or drinking sugar water can relieve it.
12. Avoid drinking large amounts of tea before or after meals
It is not advisable to drink tea about 20 minutes before or after meals, as it can dilute gastric acid and affect food digestion. Additionally, the oxalic acid in tea can react with iron and protein in food, affecting the body's absorption of these nutrients.
13. Avoid drinking overnight tea
Tea is best brewed and consumed fresh. Leftover tea not only loses nutritional components like vitamins but can also go bad easily, making you sick if consumed.
14. Avoid the first infusion of tea
Because modern tea can be contaminated with pesticides, fertilizers, and dust during cultivation, processing, and packaging. The first infusion is actually for washing the tea leaves and should be poured out quickly before adding more hot water. This way, the brewed tea is the most hygienic.
15. Children should not drink strong tea
When tea concentration is high, the tea polyphenol content is too high, which can easily react with iron in food, hindering iron absorption and easily causing iron-deficiency anemia in children. Children can drink a moderate amount of weak tea (one-third the strength of adult tea). For preschool children, coarse tea can be drunk as it has a lower content of tea polyphenols.
16. Coronary heart disease patients should be cautious with tea
For patients with coronary heart disease who have a rapid heart rate, premature beats, or atrial fibrillation, the caffeine and theophylline in tea are stimulants that can enhance heart function. Drinking large amounts of strong tea can speed up the heart rate, often triggering an attack or worsening the condition. Therefore, such people can only drink weak tea. Conversely, patients with a heart rate generally below 60 beats per minute should drink more tea, which is not harmful and can actually increase the heart rate, complementing drug therapy.
17. The elderly should not drink unroasted green tea
So-called "unroasted green tea" refers to baked green tea that is dried directly after fixation without rolling. This tea has a natural green appearance, and its internal components are basically the same as the fresh leaves, with low-boiling aldehyde and alcohol compounds not much transformed or volatilized, giving it a strong "raw" aroma. When the elderly drink this green tea, it is highly irritating to the gastric mucosa and can easily cause stomach pain. Young people may also feel stomach discomfort after drinking it, a phenomenon commonly known as "scraping the stomach." If you accidentally buy this type of tea, it is best not to brew it directly. You can place it in a greased iron wok and slowly roast it over a low flame to remove the raw aroma until a light chestnut-like fragrance appears, then it can be consumed.
18. Patients with high blood pressure should not drink strong tea
"Strong tea" is defined as tea using less than 50ml of boiling water per gram for the first infusion. Patients with high blood pressure should not drink too much or too strong tea, as the stimulant effect of caffeine can cause blood pressure to rise, which is not good for health.