Your Daily Tea Routine Is Protecting You From Heavy Metals, Study Finds

Researchers have identified another great reason for drinking tea: it naturally purifies water.

Researchers at North Western University have found that the tea leaves absorb some harmful metals from water like lead and cadmium, which prevent us from feeding. Researchers emphasized that the tea leaves should not be replaced by water filters, but their work sheds light on how this favorite drink is passively protecting our health. Their StudyPublished on the journal Monday ACS Food Science and TechnologyEventually tea drinkers give a real reason to feel higher than the coffee drinkers.

“I am not sure that there is something uniquely significant about tea leaves as an element,” the first author of the study and engineer at North -Western University, said at a university, at a university said at a university StatementThe “But the special thing is that tea is the most used drink in the world. You can crush all kinds of materials to get similar metallic effects, but it will certainly not be practical. With tea, people don’t need anything extra. Simply put the leaves in your water and steep them and they remove the metals naturally ”

The reason for this is heavy metallic ions – atoms of heavy metals with electric charges – equipped with tea leaf surface. To investigate this property, Shindel and his colleagues measure the layers of metals, including lead, chromium, copper, zinc, and cadmium in heated solutions before and after erect with different types of tea, tea bags, mixing methods and steep time.

A number of noticeable observations have been found in their manner. Perhaps the most important reason for the capacity of filtering heavy metal is the time: the longer the tea is, the more heavier metal it filters from the water.

“Some people make their tea for a few seconds and they will not get a lot of remedy. But making tea for a long time or overnight – like ice -tea – most metallic or even water will recover around all metals, “Shindel explained.

Another important thing is the surface area of ​​the tea leaves. In short, the higher the surface area, the more binding sites for metal ions and the heavy metal tea can absorb the leaves. This means that ground tea leaves vs. loose-leaf tea, or contrasts do not significantly change the features of metallic absorption of the leaves used.

“When the tea leaves are processed [tea]They crush and open their holes, “Shindel said.” These crushed and pores add more surface fields. Grinding the leaves also increases the surface area, providing more power to bind. “

Tea bags also play a role in exploiting the contaminants. The team mentions that cotton and nylon bags barely absorb any heavy metal, the cellulose (plant-based) bags absorb a significant amount. “Nylon tea bags are already problematic because they reveal microplastics, but most of the tea bags used today are made from natural materials like cellulose. They can reveal the micro-particles of cellulose but it is only fiber that can operate our body, “Shindel said. He added that the filtering capacity of the cellulose may be due to the area of ​​higher surfaces higher than synthetic materials.

Overall, researchers have reached the conclusion that a common cup of tea (one mug water with one tea bag for three to five minutes) can filter about 15% of the lead from water – even if there is toxic levels in the water. And although researchers emphasized that tea would not solve the real drinking water crisis, their work shows practical insights that can affect future public health research.

“Throughout the population, if people drink extra cup of tea every day, over time we want to see a decrease in illness that is closely related to the contact of heavy metals,” said Shindel. “Or it can help explain that by drinking more tea in the population, they may have less heart disease and strokes than the population of tea.”

In other words: Tea drinkers, keep doing what you are doing.