cron-web.org

[A1CR]

[posted on behalf of MR]

[ca. 2001-02-14] A CRONie mentioned:

> Oooh. MR, talking about green tea.
> Is it a bad idea to steep it for long?

Unfortunately, yes. First, per Walford, _BT120YD_, pg. 179, "steeping tea for
three to four minutes minutes [sic] is enough to to get all the
antioxidants in the beverage. Prolonged steeping releases oxalates, a
component in three quarters of kidney stones" -- and a Ca-binder, of
course. Another CRONie drinks his tea with meals.

On top of that, it would appear that at least some varieties of tea
continue to release more Flouride (F) and Al from the leaves for a steeping time of
up to an hour. I'm sure that everyone already appreciates that extra Al
is a bad thing; at the risk of being thought a nut, I will state my
semi-educated opinion that fluoride is an unmitigated goddamned toxin,
for which there is no PROVEN biological need, and which should never be
INTENTIONALLY added to the body of anyone but Jesse Helms. And taking
both Al &F together synergistically (I use the term precisely)
increases the toxicity of each.

Here is a fully-referenced position paper by the EPA's HQ Union of
Scientists on this:

http://www.fluoridation.com/epa2.htm

... whose conclusion was:

"Thus, we took the stand that a policy which makes the public water
supply a vehicle for disseminating this toxic and prophylactically
useless (via ingestion, at any rate) substance is wrong."

"We have also taken a direct step to protect the employees we represent
from the risks of drinking fluoridated water. We applied EPA's risk
control methodology, the Reference Dose, to the recent neurotoxicity
data. ... Application of this methodology to the Varner et al.4 data
leads to a Reference Dose for fluoride of 0.000007 mg/kg-day [0.000049
mg for a 70 kg AL adult]. Persons who drink about one quart of
fluoridated water from the public drinking water supply of the District
of Columbia while at work receive about 0.01mg/kg-day [0.7 mg for an AL
adult: remember this number]from that source alone. This amount of
fluoride is more than 100 times the Reference Dose. On the basis of
these results the union filed a grievance, asking that EPA provide
un-fluoridated drinking water to its employees."

"The implication for the general public of these calculations is clear.
Recent, peer-reviewed toxicity data, when applied to EPA's standard
method for controlling risks from toxic chemicals, require an immediate
halt to the use of the nation's drinking water reservoirs as disposal
sites for the toxic waste of the phosphate fertilizer industry.24"

As to tea:

Nutrition 1989 Jul-Aug;5(4):237-40

Concentration of fluoride and selected other elements in teas.

Wei SH, Hattab FN, Mellberg JR

Department of Children's Dentistry and Orthodontics, University of Hong Kong.

Infusions made from 15 Chinese, 11 Ceylon/Indian and 6 herb teas (1
g/100 ml
deionized water at 85 degrees C) were analyzed for F, P, Ca, Al, Mg, Mn
and Zn.


--->Chinese teas continued to release F throughout the first hour of infusion,
whereas release of F from Ceylon/Indian teas was essentially completed
after 5
minutes.

After a 15-minute infusion, the mean F concentration in Chinese teas
was 1.73 ppm, and in Ceylon/Indian teas it was 1.24 ppm.

Herb teas contained a negligible amount of F (0.02-0.05 ppm)...

---> A high correlation (r = 0.81) was found between the released F and
Al.

The total F content in tea leaves ranged from 82 to 371 ppm. The
addition of milk to tea
infusions did not appreciably reduce the F concentration. The estimated
daily F
intake from tea infusion made with fluoridated water at 0.7 ppm is 1.05
mg [remember that 0.7 mg number from the EPA HQ scientific union?].

PMID: 2520298

Sci Total Environ 1993 Sep 30;138(1-3):213-21

Studies on the leaching of fluoride in tea infusions.

Gulati P, Singh V, Gupta MK, Vaidya V, Dass S, Prakash S

... Four most prevalent methods for the preparation
of tea with various contact times (2,4,6,8 and 10 min) of tea leaves
with water
show that: ...(b) leaching of fluoride reaches a maximum after a contact
of about 6 min [out of a 10 min max investigated, NB; and the brands
were all bought in India; see above]; ... (d) ingestion of fluoride per
cup of tea ranged from 1.55 mg/l to 3.21 mg/l amounting to an intake per
day per person of fluoride between 0.3 to 1.9 mg.

PMID: 8259489

The site recently linked by Loren also LOOKED good, tho' (a) I've not
read it in detail or double-chekced it, (b) mercola.com is often full of
it, &(c) it's presently "down":

http://www.mercola.com/2000/sept/10/green_tea_fluoride_thyroid.htm

> (Says she who casually steeps for hours...)

Heh. Until recently, also steeped for hours -- & not casually! I was
doing it with conscious intent, storing the stuff in thermoses to keep
it hot while (I reasoned) it liberated more & more EgCG, wringing
polyphenols from the leaves with all the furious (albeit infinitely more
passive) intent of a desperate smoker trying to squeeze the last few
drags from a butt.

You bet your ass I'm kicking myself . I still drink green tea -- but I
steep for 3 minutes, drain off the leaves, and drink it with mild
wariness. Actually, haven written the above, I'm thinking of switching
to capsules, if I can find someone who can assure me it's not in their product...