Tea - How Bad Is It?

fighterman

Howdy,

Would generally have a good diet - lots of fruit and veg , lean meat , lots of water etc.

Do have a weakness for tea with 1 or 2 sugars, however.

Just curious as to what harm sugary tea does - does it dehydrate rather than hydrate? Is it as bad as having a can of Coke for example?

This is regular tea I'm talking about

Thanks,

Antisocialiser

The caffeine in tea can act as a diuretic which will probably dehydrate your body by a small amount. I wouldn't be concerned about it if your water intake is where it should be.

The 1-2 sugars per cup are worth cutting out. Just stop putting them in your cup and after a week if you taste a sugary cuppa it will make you want to vom.

teacosy

The diuretic effect of tea is quite small, so a cup of tea will not dehydrate you -that is, you will not excrete more liquid than you've consumed.

seamus

Your main concerns really are the milk and sugar used. If you like a good drop of full fat milk and/or you drink a lot of cups, you could easily be drinking an extra half a litre of milk per day without even being aware of it.

The sugar will cause a small sugar rush and insulin surge and can cause you to crave something to eat after having had your cup of tea. 2 teaspoons of white sugar is about 35 calories. Nothing in isolation, but if you drink a lot of tea it all adds up.

Artificial sweetners like canderel are just as good without any calories in my experience, however you can end up falling off the wagon again and going back to normal sugar if the sweetner runs out.
As antisocialiser says, a week without sugar in your tea and then you'll find that sugary tea tastes like drinking syrup.

not even wrong

Antisocialiser wrote: »

The caffeine in tea can act as a diuretic which will probably dehydrate your body by a small amount.

This is not something to worry about, the water in tea more than compensates for the minor diuretic effect of the caffeine

Chancer3001

try switching to green tea with lemon.

give it a go and see if you like it.

i did that and i love green tea now.

Mellor

not even wrong wrote: »

This is not something to worry about, the water in tea more than compensates for the minor diuretic effect of the caffeine

Exactly.

The diuretics effect of tea, coffee, beer etc is made up for by all the water included.

If a cup of tea with sugar is the main problem with your diet then you should be in fantastic shape.

El_Dangeroso

Mellor wrote: »

If a cup of tea with sugar is the main problem with your diet then you should be in fantastic shape.

Agreed. If sugar in your tea is your only vice I really wouldn't stress about it.

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

S hall

Tea is not bad if you have 1-2 cups in a day. But the amount of sugar you take in tea can surely affect your health. Yes, some types can be as bad as a can of cola in terms of calories. So it is suggested that you have black tea and use natural zero-calorie sweeteners instead of sugar in your tea.

rubadub

Mellor wrote: »

The diuretics effect of tea, coffee, beer etc is made up for by all the water included.

I have heard this for tea & coffee, but I never heard it for beer. Though I am sure there is a certain % where it is true, like 2% or lower or something. But I would have thought it is not true for typical 4-5.5% beer people drink here.

I remember drinking 2% beer all day abroad and waking up grand, but here I am certainly dehydrated on typical %. I do try and have pints of water in pubs to counter it too. I was actually asking before for a natural "anti-diuretic" if there was such a thing.

all_smilz

as a nurse i have observed people who literally will ONLY drink tea (ie the elderly) and it has not caused them massive problems, we monitor their intake and output charts and they are only dehydrated if the Volume of what they drink is low.
theres always decaff and sweetener.

*personally i am one of those people who has given up and gone without sugar plenty and can easily go back on it. Even after several months!

bbam

Tea like everything else is perfectly fine as long as its taken sensibly and in some moderation.
Often the problem is what people take along with the tea. Personally I love tea but find it hard to take without something along with it, biscuit of some sort.

Tea is fine, milk in your tea is fine and even a little sugar won't do you any harm. Moderation is the key to all foods.

Mellor

rubadub wrote: »

The diuretics I have heard this for tea & coffee, but I never heard it for beer. Though I am sure there is a certain % where it is true, like 2% or lower or something. But I would have thought it is not true for typical 4-5.5% beer people drink here.

I remember drinking 2% beer all day abroad and waking up grand, but here I am certainly dehydrated on typical %. I do try and have pints of water in pubs to counter it too. I was actually asking before for a natural "anti-diuretic" if there was such a thing.

I was taking more about smaller amounts. One or two Beers having enough water to counter act the diuretic effect.
But over a session the effect of more and more alcohol is cumulative, where as we can only hold a limited amount of water and the excess is just passing through.