Green Tea / Fluoride

[Tom_K]

Why Green Tea Would be Healthy EXCEPT for This One Dangerous Issue
by SixWise.com

 
 Green tea has emerged as a major natural player in fighting diseases like heart disease and cancer and helping with weight loss. Many people sip it religiously everyday in the hopes that it will make them healthier. Here is just a short list of some of the conditions green tea is supposed to help:

Cancer
Rheumatoid arthritis
High cholesterol levels
Heart disease
Infection
Impaired immune function
Obesity, overweight
High blood sugar levels


It's true that green tea contains health-boosting antioxidants, but can they make up for the high levels of fluoride?
 
And, in fact, green tea would be healthy-largely because it's a rich source of catechin polyphenols, namely epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is a potent antioxidant-except for one glaring issue: Green tea contains large amounts of fluoride. Black tea also contains fluoride, but the amount in green tea is about double that in black tea. A study in the January 2005 issue of the Journal of American Medicine also found that instant teas appear to contain excessive levels of fluoride.

How Does Fluoride Get Into Tea?

"The tea plant is known to accumulate fluoride from the soil and water," says Michael Whyte, M.D., professor of medicine, pediatrics and genetics. "We don't know how much variation there is from brand to brand and year to year."

Is Fluoride Harmful?

Drinking high levels of fluoride can cause bone-forming cells to lay down extra skeletal tissue, which increases bone density. At the same time, it also increases bone brittleness that can result in a disease known as skeletal fluorosis. So while bones are more dense, they are also more brittle. Skeletal fluorosis can produce:

Bone, muscle and joint pain
Calcification of ligaments
Bone spurs
Fused vertebrae
Difficulty moving joints
Says Dr. Whyte, "When fluoride gets into your bones, it stays there for years, and there is no established treatment for skeletal fluorosis, No one knows if you can fully recover from it." In other words, fluoride accumulates in your body.



Skeletal fluorosis, which has crippled the man above, is caused by consuming high levels of fluoride.
 
And according to one estimate, the first phase of skeletal fluorosis could easily develop in as few as five years if a person were to consume the amount of fluoride found in three or four cups of green tea every day. That's because studies have shown that most green teas have more fluoride than the EPA's safe limit for drinking water, which is 4 parts per million (ppm).

Fluoride can also affect the thyroid. Specifically, it suppresses thyroid function, leading to hypothyroidism. This is a well-known fact, as, ironically, the amount of fluoride in a typical cup of tea is actually much higher than amounts that were used decades ago as medication for hyperthyroidism, to reduce thyroid activity.

Fluoride, Fluoride Everywhere

Perhaps the tea on its own would not be as much of an issue if Americans weren't already exposed to fluoride from other sources, but this isn't the case. Americans get fluoride from fluoridated water (which is also likely used to steep the tea), toothpastes, Teflon-coated cookware, some wines and sparkling mineral waters and chewing tobacco.

Even so, British and African studies conducted in the 1990s have found that some people are drinking between 5.8 ppm and 9 ppm of fluoride everyday from tea alone! Remember that the EPA's safe limit for drinking water is 4 ppm.

Fluoride Together With Aluminum?

Another issue? The fluoride in tea exists along with aluminum. When these two compounds are combined it can actually increase the potential toxicity of fluoride, especially in relation to neurological and renal damage, and increases the extent to which aluminum can be absorbed by the body, which has been linked to Alzheimer's disease.

One Final Thought ...

As an aside, it's also been found that green tea can contain high levels of the pesticide DDT and a similar one called Dursba. So, if you do choose to drink green tea, you may be better off buying organic. This won't affect the fluoride content, but at least you will be spared drinking pesticides in your cup of tea.
 

[willy]

Thank you Tom.  I wonder if they will come out with a new designer water that costs 10X as much and is "floride free"?  I'll bet there is a market there.

Willy

[Ella]

Tom, there's a green tea extract - I think it's called "Chi Organic Green Tea Extract", which claims to be aluminium, caffeine and flouride free.  It also has goji berry concentrate in it. 

[Tom_K]

Thanks Ella

Chi is good health to the last drop. Each 30-drop dose of bottled Chi Green Tea concentrate splashing into the hot water in your teacup is equivalent to 10 cups of standard green tea. Scores of epidemiological and clinical studies in Japan and China have concluded that to get the optimal anti-oxidant immune system boost needed to add years to your life while resisting cancer, heart disease, stroke and other ills, you抎 need to drink 15 to 20 cups of green tea a day -- which many people in those countries do. But that抯 a lot of trips to the Mens?or Ladies?room. With concentrated Chi, two cups does it all.

Chi Green Tea concentrate is the purest you can buy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that imported green tea leaves be sprayed with pesticides before entering this country. Not so Chi. Chi Green Tea is raised organically in the hill country of the Far East. Each tender young leaf is harvested as it has been for centuries. Hand-picked. The old-fashioned way. Chi leaves are quickly steamed on site to prevent degradation by oxidation, rolled to squeeze juices to the surface, and then dried before going through a natural water extraction process without the use of alcohol or chemical solvents. The pure polyphenol-rich liquid is shipped to the United States in sealed vats. Chi is untouched by herbicides, pesticides or insecticides from our seedlings to your lips. The potency of the green tea is enhanced by the other added herbs which combine with it synergistically.

Chi Green Tea concentrate is economical. Drink two cups a day and a single bottle lasts a month.

 

[19Dragon52]

Thanks (((Ella))) & (((Tom)))

A new one for my list!

By the Way...Hi Ella!  It's nice to hear from you.  Don't be such a stranger...PM me sometime, okay?

Lots of Love To You Both.....

[pete c]

HEY Tom
Thank you for the green tea.I have been useing lipton until now that i read this.I take it the only place to buy this chi green tea is in a health food store.   But thank you for the research. Have  good day.

                                                                   pete c

[Pancho and Lefty]

I drank black tea growing up. Drank it all my life. Green tea came out as being the antiox drink. Naturally occurring chemical compounds (like those found in camellia sinensis [the only real tea]) do not concern me. Tea has been consumed by many cultures for many centuries.

[Rainbow]

Even with green tea, the amount that people drink is unlikely to supply enough fluoride to reach toxic levels. About 50 percent of fluoride (from any source) is deposited in the bones and teeth; the other half is excreted.

High amounts of fluoride over several years can cause brittle bones, but this is extremely rare.  Fluoride is toxic in very large quantities but you'd have to ingest about 20,000 times more fluoride than what's in an 8-ounce glass of fluoridated water to see such an effect.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA22857




Besides having many other benefits, GREEN TEA can help the liver fight the Hepatitis C virus.  Harvard Medical School did a study that found that green and black teas contain an anti-oxidant called L-theanine.

"When L-theanine enters the liver, it's converted to a molecule called ethylamine that helps facilitate the work of gamma-delta T cells. THESE CELLS PROMOTE THE SECRETION OF INTERFERON - an important compound that helps the body fight an assortment of infections....including VIRAL INFECTIONS"

"Using a group of 21 subjects, researchers took blood samples from all, then had 10 of them drink five cups of coffee each day for four weeks, while 11 drank five cups of tea each day for the same period. At the end of the test period more blood was drawn from each subject. All of the blood samples were then exposed to E-coli bacteria. In response to the bacteria, THE BLOOD CELLS FROM THE TEA DRINKERS SECRETED FIVE TIMES THE AMOUNT OF INTERFERON as blood samples taken from the same subjects before the test period. The amount of interferon secreted by the blood samples of the coffee drinkers was the same, both before and after the test.

Harvard researchers believe that their study offers a reliable indication that a daily intake of five cups of tea each day can significantly help the immune system fight infection."

http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lbattleofbrews.htm
   

[Rainbow]

BTW, most bottled water doesn't have fluoride.

[Helen]

Thank you for the info Rainbow.

 Good to have you back. 

 Helen

[Rainbow]

Thanks Helen.  It feels good to be back.