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From: jcp@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Tea
Message-ID: <607@osiris.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-Nov-85 11:23:00 EST
Article-I.D.: osiris.607
Posted: Fri Nov 22 11:23:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Nov-85 06:52:20 EST
References: <3441@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: Johns Hopkins Hospital
Lines: 28

> In the discussions of quitting smoking, and regarding addictive
> substances, people have often mentioned coffee. No one talking about this
> area ever seems to mention tea. Tea contains caffeine, of course, and I
> thought that it was this addictive substance that was being avoided by
> cutting out coffee. I'd like to see some discussion about tea.
> 

	A cup of tea contains about a third as much caffeine as the same
amount of coffee. The other main substance in tea is tannic acid - the
stronger you make the tea, the more tannin it contains (which is why it
gets bitter). At a certain point, the increased tannin actually causes a
decrease in the amount of caffeine. Both tannin and caffeine have a destructive
effect on vitamins, so you should not take the two together - better to have
the tea 20 minutes before or after when you take the vitamins. I just recently
read that a person would have to drink more than 10 cups of tea a day to take
in enough caffeine to be a problem. Cheap teas, by the way , (like Liptons,
red Rose, etc) contain more tannin than better quality teas. SOme people 
feel that excessive tannic acid intake over time can cause irritations of the
esophagous and stomach linings, and possibly cancer but I haven't seen proof
of this. A friend once told me that the British have a much lower rate of 
throat cancer than the Chinese because the Brits put milk in their tea, but
I haven't quit drinking my tea plain yet.

-- 
jcpatilla

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