Be wary of drinking too much tea
ninerbuff
Posts: 49,030 Member
Sometimes teas are high in oxalates and over consuming them may result in kidney issues and/or failure. I brought this up because I had a member in the gym tell me today that he was consuming 10 8 ounce glasses of tea a day.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Replies
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I probably drink that, but with the same tea bag beginning to end. I wonder how long it takes to leech all the good bits out of the bag?0
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Maybe a dumb questions, but Would that apply to something like Lipton instant tea too? I drink that all day...0
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I doubt it. The guy I was talking about drank black tea unsweetened.Maybe a dumb questions, but Would that apply to something like Lipton instant tea too? I drink that all day...
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Oh ffs, I drink around 5-10 cups of tea everyday. The normal bushels teabag type, with milk. Please don't take this away from me
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Really? Sigh. I drink about 40oz of tea a day. How much is dangerous?0
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I'm British, therefore there is no such thing as "too much tea" ;-)0
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I drink up to 3 qt/day, but typically drink closer to 2qt.
Based on a quick search, it looks like oxalates can lead to calcium oxalate kidney stones or as crystals that cause renal failure.
A single drink of black tea puts you over the recomeded daily limit of oxalates.
However, this problem is usually associated with gastric bypass surgery, other deficiencies are present, or ethelyne glycol poisoning.
If overconsumption of tea was a problem there would be more than one case that I could easily find. As I know scores of people who drink tea all day long. Also oxalates are found in many foods, which would compound the problem.
If I listened to everyone who told me not to eat something I would be drinking water only and eating only from a small handful of approved foods. I'll take my chances with the tea.0 -
Like anything else, moderation is fine. Only brought it up because lots of times, members on the site (especially lurkers who don't post) will go with the mantra, "if it's great, I'll do MORE than average". Whether it's calorie deficit, exercise, supplements, etc., excessively exceeding moderation doesn't always lead to better results.nordlead2005 wrote: »I drink up to 3 qt/day, but typically drink closer to 2qt.
Based on a quick search, it looks like oxalates can lead to calcium oxalate kidney stones or as crystals that cause renal failure.
A single drink of black tea puts you over the recomeded daily limit of oxalates.
However, this problem is usually associated with gastric bypass surgery, other deficiencies are present, or ethelyne glycol poisoning.
If overconsumption of tea was a problem there would be more than one case that I could easily find. As I know scores of people who drink tea all day long. Also oxalates are found in many foods, which would compound the problem.
If I listened to everyone who told me not to eat something I would be drinking water only and eating only from a small handful of approved foods. I'll take my chances with the tea.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Yep. Too much of a good thing can be bad. It's has to quite a bit to be too much, though.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/22/news/la-heb-tea-skeletal-fluorosis-20130322
http://www.medicaldaily.com/too-much-tea-mans-kidney-failure-linked-massive-tea-consumption-3278960 -
How about Green Tea? I drink a Costco brand Green Tea that has zero calories, especially because I'm trying to give up Diet Coke!0
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All those folks in the South are gonna be upset to hear about this.0
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CurlyCockney wrote: »I'm British, therefore there is no such thing as "too much tea" ;-)
I too come from a British family so this would be hard for me to swallow.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Yep. Too much of a good thing can be bad. It's has to quite a bit to be too much, though.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/22/news/la-heb-tea-skeletal-fluorosis-20130322
http://www.medicaldaily.com/too-much-tea-mans-kidney-failure-linked-massive-tea-consumption-327896
"100 to 150 tea bags per pitcher. (That must have been one extra-large pitcher.) "
Yep, I agree, too much of things can be bad. Anything you have to filter out of your body in excessive amounts can cause kidney/liver damage. But the guy in the 2nd article is the only one I can find who claims to only have drank 10 cups/day and had problems and supposedly it is the only thing wrong with him. Everyone else falls into other compound effects or excessive overdose.
No medical website (i can find) warns against kidney failure if you drink too much tea. There are warnings for excessive caffeine intake, increased osteoporosis risk, reduced clotting effect, and a few other things, but no kidney stones/failure linked to tea. Of course, oxalate intake is linked to increased kidney stones in those that have a history of kidney stones.
Based on a lack of evidence, I have to believe that 10 cups of tea/day is perfectly fine for the average person (so long as the caffeine doesn't do you in).0 -
I'm only aware of renal failure in the case where it's 100 or more tea bags a day in a gallon of sweet tea. I would think like any it is dependent on dose, and as of now there is no max dose recommended for tea consumption.0
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Alatariel75 wrote: »I probably drink that, but with the same tea bag beginning to end. I wonder how long it takes to leech all the good bits out of the bag?
god god man... 1 tea bag for more than 2 cups of tea? I can barely do 2... I can't imagine using the same bag all day. That hurts my feelings!0 -
Heck, too much *water* can kill you. It takes a *lot* of water - more than any of us is likely to ever drink on our own - but it *does* happen. (There was an infamous radio contest in California in which a contestant consumed an excess volume, and there are guidelines for people who live in places with a high heat index and engage in strenuous physical activity.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
From the article:
Under normal circumstances, accidentally consuming too much water is exceptionally rare. Nearly all deaths related to water intoxication in normal individuals have resulted either from water drinking contests in which individuals attempt to consume large amounts of water, or from long bouts of exercise during which excessive amounts of fluid were consumed. (Citations to specific incidents omitted.)
As for tea, I found this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-man-who-almost-died-from-drinking-tea/389706/
The incident in the above article is from May 2014, and the patient indicated he had been drinking on the order of 16 (8 oz) glasses (one gallon) per day (but the article does not indicate for how extended a period).
My (limited) takeaway from an article on a more recent case (April 2015) was that 2 liters/day of tea was likely to be safe, and other (extremely limited) research suggested mitigating the problem by drinking water to dilute/flush the oxalates.0 -
EmmaFitzwilliam wrote: »Heck, too much *water* can kill you. It takes a *lot* of water - more than any of us is likely to ever drink on our own - but it *does* happen. (There was an infamous radio contest in California in which a contestant consumed an excess volume, and there are guidelines for people who live in places with a high heat index and engage in strenuous physical activity.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
From the article:
Under normal circumstances, accidentally consuming too much water is exceptionally rare. Nearly all deaths related to water intoxication in normal individuals have resulted either from water drinking contests in which individuals attempt to consume large amounts of water, or from long bouts of exercise during which excessive amounts of fluid were consumed. (Citations to specific incidents omitted.)
As for tea, I found this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-man-who-almost-died-from-drinking-tea/389706/
The incident in the above article is from May 2014, and the patient indicated he had been drinking on the order of 16 (8 oz) glasses (one gallon) per day (but the article does not indicate for how extended a period).
My (limited) takeaway from an article on a more recent case (April 2015) was that 2 liters/day of tea was likely to be safe, and other (extremely limited) research suggested mitigating the problem by drinking water to dilute/flush the oxalates.
The situation with too much water is very different though. You have to drink a lot of water in a short period of time. With tea, is more about concentration and amount over time. I guess you could get the same water intoxication from tea, or any liquid, but it's a really different scenario.0 -
christinev297 wrote: »Oh ffs, I drink around 5-10 cups of tea everyday. The normal bushels teabag type, with milk. Please don't take this away from me
Uh-oh.....big tea drinker myself.
I can polish off a half gallon of ice tea easy.0 -
Interesting post, as I was just researching a blood test known as CA19-9 this morning. Usually used as a tumor marker, I came across this study- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1773667/ .0
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christinev297 wrote: »Oh ffs, I drink around 5-10 cups of tea everyday. The normal bushels teabag type, with milk. Please don't take this away from me
Uh-oh.....big tea drinker myself.
I can polish off a half gallon of ice tea easy.
wot
I can have like... 1 mug of tea a day. 2 is a push.0 -
Well that's bad news because tea is pretty much all I drink aside from coffee and a few forced glasses of water.0
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EmmaFitzwilliam wrote: »As for tea, I found this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-man-who-almost-died-from-drinking-tea/389706/
The incident in the above article is from May 2014, and the patient indicated he had been drinking on the order of 16 (8 oz) glasses (one gallon) per day (but the article does not indicate for how extended a period).
That is the same case that Need2Exerc1se linked, and the same one I found myself (and didn't link, and misquoted the quantity at 10 cups instead of 16).
Basically, there is only 1 case ever documented, and I suspect the whole story wasn't given to the ER doctors who wrote the paper.
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Does this mean tea is the new food boogeyman?
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nordlead2005 wrote: »EmmaFitzwilliam wrote: »As for tea, I found this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-man-who-almost-died-from-drinking-tea/389706/
The incident in the above article is from May 2014, and the patient indicated he had been drinking on the order of 16 (8 oz) glasses (one gallon) per day (but the article does not indicate for how extended a period).
That is the same case that Need2Exerc1se linked, and the same one I found myself (and didn't link, and misquoted the quantity at 10 cups instead of 16).
Basically, there is only 1 case ever documented, and I suspect the whole story wasn't given to the ER doctors who wrote the paper.
Excerpt from above link (from June 2003) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1773667/
"To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of markedly raised levels of CA19.9 associated with heavy tea consumption. The mechanism of this relation remains unclear. In addition, the epithelial tissue target involved in CA19.9 secretion by tea overuse is unknown. Individual susceptibility to abnormal CA19.9 secretion triggered by tea overconsumption could not be excluded."
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kendecane06 wrote: »CurlyCockney wrote: »I'm British, therefore there is no such thing as "too much tea" ;-)
I too come from a British family so this would be hard for me to swallow.
I see what you did there. XD
I drink a lot of tea with Equal, so apparently I'm getting double poison! Seriously, though, I've never had issues with my kidney since I switched over from soda. Hell, I haven't even had a UTI since then, and I used to get them all the time! So it's probably something you don't need to worry about unless you have previous issues with kidney stones, IMO.0 -
nordlead2005 wrote: »EmmaFitzwilliam wrote: »As for tea, I found this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-man-who-almost-died-from-drinking-tea/389706/
The incident in the above article is from May 2014, and the patient indicated he had been drinking on the order of 16 (8 oz) glasses (one gallon) per day (but the article does not indicate for how extended a period).
That is the same case that Need2Exerc1se linked, and the same one I found myself (and didn't link, and misquoted the quantity at 10 cups instead of 16).
Basically, there is only 1 case ever documented, and I suspect the whole story wasn't given to the ER doctors who wrote the paper.
I'm not sure you finding only once case on a short internet search is the same as only one case ever documented. I read about too much tea being bad for our kidneys long before 2014. I actually thought it was not uncommon knowledge. I've also read/heard many times that lemon is good for your kidneys, so it seems to reason that drinking tea with lemon is the way to go. ::drinker::0 -
StrengthIsBeautiful wrote: »Interesting post, as I was just researching a blood test known as CA19-9 this morning. Usually used as a tumor marker, I came across this study- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1773667/ .
Bless the doctor who made the connection. The next question I'd have is does the marker increase with all heavy tea drinkers, or is it only in a few. What is the etiology that caused the epigastric pain? It looks like this is the only known case that has been observed. 1.5-2liters/day does not seem an unusual amount. It is a lot, but I imagine many people world wide consume this amount in tea/day.
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Alatariel75 wrote: »I probably drink that, but with the same tea bag beginning to end. I wonder how long it takes to leech all the good bits out of the bag?
60 seconds for caffeine according to a conference I went to0 -
I do this too! Same bag alll dayAlatariel75 wrote: »I probably drink that, but with the same tea bag beginning to end. I wonder how long it takes to leech all the good bits out of the bag?
SOMETIMES splurge and use two haha
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I do this too! Same bag alll dayAlatariel75 wrote: »I probably drink that, but with the same tea bag beginning to end. I wonder how long it takes to leech all the good bits out of the bag?
SOMETIMES splurge and use two haha
I can't imagine it. I put two in one mug! Though technically one isn't tea (Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice).0
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