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A comment on Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease. Parent comment

Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eksith on Sunday March 24, 2013 @11:17PM (#5435187)
It stops being stronger at some point I think. The water can only hold so much of the infusion. I have no scientific evidence other than my own observations -- and that's far from scientific.

"Too much" is generally a relative term depending on where you're from (although this lady didn't fit the customs of the locale) since people drink it both in the morning, evening and stometimes in the afternoon.

These cases also tend to show up in Sri Lanka, which has a tea culture as well. We also need to keep in mind that some areas have naturally high levels of fluoride in the groundwater. Without reading the detailed article (TBA), it's hard to tell if that played a part too.

Edit: Something smells fishy.

Pass it on: A 47-year-old U.S. woman developed a bone disease after drinking a pitcher of tea a day for 17 years.

The actual case hasn't been published in detail and the link to the case : http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm1200995

But it mentions: Brewed tea has one of the highest fluoride contents among beverages in the United States. I'd like to see some actual backup of that with hard data.

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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by phaus on Sunday March 24, 2013 @11:25PM (#5435232)
When I make tea, I find that as little as an extra 3g of tea, or an extra minute of steeping can ruin an entire pot. I can't imagine dumping several ounces of dried tea leaves into a single pot of tea, which is pretty much what this lady was doing.
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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eksith on Monday March 25, 2013 @12:00AM (#5435380)
Agreed. At the most, tea should be left to infuse for 1 minute (loose tea less than that), especially for Black tea blends. Any more and it just kills the flavor.

I'm willing to bet she was doing it for some sort of DIY health thing. People do silly things like over-doing something if they think it's good for you. Well, that then makes it bad for you.

There's a great book on all this called The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Tea

A very good read on the subject. I think Google Books probably has a free translation.

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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eru on Monday March 25, 2013 @03:15AM (#5435846)
> Agreed. At the most, tea should be left to infuse for 1 minute (loose tea less than that), especially for Black tea blends. Any more and it just kills the flavor.

Depends. I can leave my Pu-Erh in overnight, and the flavour is still fine. (But Pu-Erh is well known for that.)

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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eksith on Monday March 25, 2013 @04:35PM (#5439538)
Pu-erh is not like ordinary loose tea so it's quite safe to do that. Without stirring or pressing, you don't get too much of the flavor into the water and it's much more coarse. You'll find a lot of the green teas also don't over-flavor the water because of this.
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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eru on Monday March 25, 2013 @10:41PM (#5441079)
Yes. I guess your 1-minute rule is more appropriate for black teas than anything else. I like my teas more overbrewed in any case.
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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by barrkel on Monday March 25, 2013 @03:46PM (#5439255)
Strongly disagree; I like tea primarily for the tannins, the almost dry taste on the tongue, moderated by the milk. Such a short steep will make a very weak mug.

If you're drinking the tea without milk, I can see preferring something weak.

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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eksith on Monday March 25, 2013 @04:14PM (#5439435)
Adding milk is more of a Western thing ;)

There are some Sri Lankans who do that due to the British influence and I imagine in India as well, but that's not the case with most of the tea cultures.

Also, if you're doing this for health reasons, I strongly recommend avoiding milk and switching to green tea instead: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/09/27/161895873/health...

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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eru on Monday March 25, 2013 @10:42PM (#5441083)
> Adding milk is more of a Western thing ;)

> There are some Sri Lankans who do that due to the British influence and I imagine in India as well, but that's not the case with most of the tea cultures.

I wonder where the Mongolians got their milk-tea from. Probably not from the British.

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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eksith on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @04:44AM (#5441934)
You mean Suutei tsai. It's actually more of a soup than just tea. And milk is just one available ingredient :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suutei_tsai

An old tradition among many Mongols was to not drink water straight. This could have been a result of the Mongols’ belief that water was sacred. It could also have come from the need to conserve water

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Re:Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease by eru on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @05:56AM (#5442154)
Yes, that's what I meant. Thanks! And indeed, it's closer to a soup. It takes a while getting used to.
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