Health experts tend to argue about which foods and beverages are healthy to consume but most people agree that tea is pretty healthy.
While it’s true that tea is low in calories, sugar and fat, can soothe body and soul and has some medicinal properties, it is also true that not all tea is made the same.
Tea Bags and Toxins
Choosing the highest quality teas can save you from consuming a significant amount of toxins over a lifetime. While tea is a relatively innocuous beverage, it can pose health risks that few people suspect.
Most tea is not washed before it is put into tea bags or jars. But what if they used pesticides to grow the tea plant? Unsuspecting consumers may end up drinking pesticides. Choosing organic tea is important but even organic teas contain some other damaging toxins. Especially lower quality teas.
Popular brands of tea bags such as Lipton, Allegro, Celestial Seasonings, Tazo, Teavana, Bigelow, Republic of Tea, Twinings, Yogi, Tea Forte, Mighty Leaf, Trader Joes and Tetley often contain toxins such as fluoride.
Fluoride in Tea
In some of the tea bags, the levels of fluoride can be dangerously high. A new study published in Food Research International found some cheaper brands have enough fluoride to cause bad side effects. This includes bone and tooth damage, kidney problems and even cancer. This is only if the toxins are allowed to build up to dangerously high levels in the body and is not detoxed out.
If not cleaned out of the body, fluoride accumulates into the bones and stays there for years.
Some brands of cheap tea contain nearly 7 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride. The acceptable levels are only 4 ppm. Drinking a cup of tea like this could be as harmful as eating junk food in terms of chemical exposure.
Food Research International also found that many citizens of the United Kingdom exceeded their dietary intake of fluoride and that overexposure came from consuming tea, which is an extremely popular beverage in the U.K.
So where does the fluoride come from?
Tea plants absorb fluoride from soil and accumulate it in their leaves as they grow. That means older leaves contain the most fluoride. Cheaper quality teas are often made from older tea leaves, which contain more fluoride and fewer antioxidants. For this reason, white tea will have the least fluoride because it’s made from the youngest leaves.
Also when tea bags’ labels have “natural flavors” listed as an ingredient, it’s not a good sign. These flavors are anything but natural. Some organic tea brands have recently been found to contain pesticides that are known carcinogens, in quantities above acceptable U.S and E.U. limits.
One of the best teas on the market to test clean and pesticide-free was Red Rose, Numi, and Rishi. The worst teas on the market in terms of toxins and pesticides were No Name, Uncle Lee’s Legends of China and King Cole.
For the cleanest tea choices, look for high-quality organic brands that are also non-GMO. Also, choose loose leaf tea over tea bags and don’t over brew your tea.
As far as detoxing fluoride from the body, the 21 Day Body Makeover will help clear fluoride from the body as well as other toxins. It will also open the body’s detox channels to help it clear toxins on its own.
