A bit of a safer controversy

Is tea healthier than water?

12 Comments

  1. Martha
    Posted August 26, 2006 at 10:59 am | Permalink

    Interesting. How long will it last? Until they decide it is bad for something else? What kind of tea? All tea? Green tea? Louisiana Sweet tea?

  2. Posted August 26, 2006 at 5:35 pm | Permalink

    I think it’s mostly just saying that tea has all the benefits of drinking water plus some more (antioxidants, fluoride, etc.).

    I thought one of the interesting parts of the article was about the caffeine issue / myth:

    She said it was an urban myth that tea is dehydrating.

    “Studies on caffeine have found very high doses dehydrate and everyone assumes that caffeine-containing beverages dehydrate. But even if you had a really, really strong cup of tea or coffee, which is quite hard to make, you would still have a net gain of fluid.

  3. Martha
    Posted August 26, 2006 at 9:34 pm | Permalink

    I saw that, but it is a diuretic. Maybe not as potent as once thought?

  4. JaredB
    Posted August 27, 2006 at 1:34 am | Permalink

    I’m not sure whether they’re counting that when they say that you still end up gaining fluid, but even if they’re not, you could take the approach of those weird “cleansing” health type people and say that that’s probably good for you too.

    I wonder whether Starbucks serves regular tea… maybe I’ll check next time I’m there. I know they have those green tea frap things, which taste good but are definitely not good for you.

    Anyway, I do like those Diet Green Tea Sobe drinks, so it’s good to know that those probably aren’t bad for you.

  5. Kristi
    Posted August 27, 2006 at 9:27 pm | Permalink

    Starbucks does have regular Tazo tea like Green, Earl Grey, and English Breakfast.

    I always wondered what the consensus was on tea, because in the hospital setting, when we are doing our inputs and outputs of what the patient drank and peed during our shift, it never matters whether or not the patient had coffee or water. It all counted as the same type of input. I’m with martha though- it is a diuretic.Proven to be. The tea council (who sponsored the story) should atleast know that.

    I guess it all comes back to moderation. One cup or two won’t diurese or dehydrate anyone. It will give fluids though. Just like one or two cups of tea won’t hurt anyone’s heart (but may be beneficial) but if you start drinking cup after cup after cup, the heart rate does increase and that could develop into a problem later on after years of use like that.

  6. Posted August 27, 2006 at 10:02 pm | Permalink

    Water will always be healthier then any other fluid.

    Let alone the limitation of teas on some people. It may help in instances but water is pure and will always be the health of everyone. I think water never gets enough credit and because we love pimping out everything we consume we’ve turned dried tea leaves into our spinning rims and sugar into money.

    Maybe health is just relative though.

  7. Dave Z
    Posted August 28, 2006 at 10:01 am | Permalink

    After drinking green tea for a week, my skin improves.

    I read that flouride’s main benefit for teeth ends in childhood.

  8. Kristi
    Posted August 28, 2006 at 2:09 pm | Permalink

    Not true about the flouride, Dave. Keep drinkin that good ol’ mineral laden Ventura tap water! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM good!

  9. Posted August 28, 2006 at 10:58 pm | Permalink

    If I remember correctly, I don’t think that the article was suggesting that caffeine isn’t a diuretic, just that it still gives you a net gain in fluids.

    Dan: that was a pretty funky comment - were you sober when you wrote that? :)
    But seriously, I’m not sure you can say that “water will always be healthier than any other fluid”. Tea (along with most other drinks) is primarily water, and as long as what is added to the water brings additional health benefits while not losing any or adding anything negative, I think one could make a pretty good case for it being “healthier”, in that sense. I guess it is a semantic issue, to some degree.

    If you *only* drank tea *instead of* water, of course that would probably be bad because then you could be overdoing it with the extra things that aren’t bad for you in moderation. I guess that is where the argument for water is probably the strongest, in that you don’t really have to be worried much about moderation when it comes to water, short of drowning.

    But basically I think they just chose to give the article that slightly controversial title to draw in more readers, and I’m sure it probably worked for them.

  10. Dave Z
    Posted August 29, 2006 at 2:02 pm | Permalink

    Kristi, you are right, link shows benefit into adulthood.
    http://www.fluoridedebate.com/question08.html

    Hardly ever drink Ventura water straight out of tap. RO filtered most of the time.

  11. Kristi
    Posted August 29, 2006 at 2:47 pm | Permalink

    Ventura water tastes like morning breath smells.

  12. Kristi
    Posted August 29, 2006 at 2:47 pm | Permalink

    sorry randy.

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