The Teabag Problem
Tea is great for you, especially green tea. Sadly, the way it's packaged may be harming your overall health.
Have you ever tried to do something healthy that ended up hurting you? Like maybe you got excited about pushing a weighted sled and wound up with plantar fasciitis? Or heard about the health benefits of a certain diet and ended up with chronic constipation?
Well, here's a new one: You start drinking green tea for its incredible health benefits, then find out you're also stuffing your body with billions of harmful microplastic particles. Unfortunately, that seems to be what's happening, and not just with green tea. Turns out, teabags release an alarming number of micro and nanoplastics.
The Study
This study focused on three common types of tea bags made from nylon-6, polypropylene, and cellulose. Using advanced techniques like scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and nanoparticle tracking analysis, the researchers found that brewing tea (steeping) released significant amounts of plastics. Specifically:
- Polypropylene tea bags released about 1.2 billion nanoparticles per milliliter.
- Cellulose tea bags released around 135 million nanoparticles per milliliter.
- Nylon-6 tea bags released approximately 8.18 million nanoparticles per milliliter.
The study then tested how these particles interact with human intestinal cells. Results showed that:
- Polypropylene nanoparticles were heavily absorbed by mucus-producing HT29-MTX cells.
- Cellulose nanoparticles were taken up by both HT29 and HT29-MTX cells.
- Nylon-6 nanoparticles were preferentially absorbed by Caco-2 cells.
Notably, some particles even reached the cell nucleus, raising concerns about potential health impacts.
Why Worry About Microplastics?
The long-term effects of these microscopic plastics are a bit of a mystery. We just don't know everything yet.
However, studies suggest they may cause inflammation, oxidative stress, or cell damage, especially if they penetrate organs or cells, as seen in lab research like the tea bag study. Microplastics can carry toxic additives (BPA, phthalates) or pollutants (heavy metals, pesticides) that might leach into the body, potentially disrupting hormones.
But I Want that Green Tea Goodness!
As you should. Green tea is packed with life-extending, disease-preventing, body-composition-improving EGCG. A not-so-easy solution is to switch to loose-leaf tea, but it can be a pain to make, especially since you need several cups daily to get enough EGCG.
Another option is to supplement with green tea extract. A properly made cup of green tea (long steep time, very hot water) contains about 50 mg of EGCG. Supplements like Biotest Superfood (Buy at Amazon) include 250 mg of green tea extract.
Superfood also contains 17 other health-boosting ingredients including coffee fruit extract, broccoli sprout, and wild yam.
Reference
- Banaei, et al. Teabag-derived micro/nanoplastics (true-to-life MNPLs) as a surrogate for real-life exposure scenarios, Chemosphere Volume 368, November 2024, 143736.
