Most People Don't Know Tea Leaves can steep out heavy metals! Your cup of Tea is Saving Your Life

Most of us start our life with a cup of tea. At times, people would say, don’t take too much tea; it might harm your health. Here is some great news for all the tea lovers- if you love to drink brewing tea, your body is filtering heavy metals out of the body. Earlier, people believed brewed tea could only uplift mood as we all believed or uttermost can have anti-inflammatory properties, but now the news has surprised all tea lovers. We never knew how lead, cadmium or other heavy metals get filtered with the tea. 

A journal of ACS Food Science & Technology revealed a lot about metal remediating benefits of tea preparation. Mr Vinayak P Dravid mentioned that he was nowhere governing that every person should add tea leaves in their daily life to remove heavy metals from the water. He further quoted that several experiments function simultaneously in the scientific world to fight against contaminants. 

Later, he added more to the study of brewing tea, where he mentioned that heavy metals get absorbed in it. In this, the molecules or ions of the liquid get attached to the surface of the container and remain attached to it. These things easily get trapped in the tea leaves and remain at the bottom.  

Dravid further claimed that the whole intention behind this research was to know if chai (tea) could absorb heavy metals, and they indeed succeeded. Tea has in-depth potential of which most of us are unaware! Tea is actually helping mass by controlling heavy metal exposure worldwide. 

Researchers from Northwestern did intense research on how the process of heavy metal absorption acts on various teas, brewing methods and those bags of magic (tea bags). 

The research started on all types of teas, including green tea, loose leaf, black tea, oolong and more. Even herbal teas were there in the row. Teas packed in different materials were also tried to determine the results. 

Water solutions were added with lead and other heavy metals, including copper, zinc and more. The temperature was kept below boiling point, and the tea leaves were slowly added. Various teas were kept in the water for different time spans. Researchers read the metal levels in the liquid before and after adding the tea leaves. All the recordings were recorded. 

The recent claim that brewed tea can remove 15% of the lead in the water is true which one consumes while drinking water normally. This process requires approx 200 ml of water and one bag of tea to be brewed for somewhat five minutes or less. 

The longer the steeping duration, the better the effect. If one decides to brew tea for a longer time, like 24 hours or less, like in the case of iced tea, one can expect the complete removal of the heavy metals from the liquid. 

Cellulose bags are the first preference for better results if compared to nylon or cotton bags for the absorption of heavy metals. Several reasons can justify this fact:

• Cellulose comes with a great surface area 

• They are derived from wood pulp

Hence, they provide a high surface area and absorb better. On the other hand, other materials are not so effective. Nylon bags are a big no as they are known to release microplastics.

Many of us have labelled tea as our first love or companion of every mood, and now its role in filtering metals makes it more attractive. People can avail of similar lead-free liquid after rows of experiments, but nothing will be as simple as making tea. Practically, no one is walking an extra mile to obtain this result here. 

In many places, people are facing several health hazards due to the consumption of such heavy leads, and an extra cup of tea might control the illness caused by it. Somewhere, it explains why people who consume more tea suffer less from heart disease. Though more research is yet to take place, this is what Northeastern researchers are concluding for now.