Charles’ Blog

I have a confession to make.

I’m addicted to tea.

Don’t ask me why — I’m as clueless as you are — but it seems that from the time I come home from school (or wake up on weekends), I binge myself on unsugared, boiling hot black tea.

Apparently, too much tea can be detrimental to the kidneys and liver, and it can cause insomnia. It can also weaken your gums, and affects digestion, which in affect makes skin dry. Yes, I have suffered from some of the symptoms listed, but nothing in excess of simple insomnia. 

According to this lovely site that I found on the first page of Google search, there are several benefits to someone who drinks a decent amount of tea, which is defined here for an adult (that, I believe, is pregnant) a maximum of 7 cups of tea:

…there is about eight times the amount of ‘anti-oxidant power’ in three cups of tea than there is in one apple, and every time you brew up in a cup or a pot for upto one minute you about get 140mg of flavonoids.

Further studies are looking into how tea could help your heart. The results from trials so far show that flavonoids may prevent the oxidation of the so-called bad cholesterol in the blood that leads to the build up of plaque in artery walls, as well as helping to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system.

Both black and green teas contain fluoride and they appear to help control bacterial growth that can result in dental plaque.

On average, I used to drink around 6 cups of tea a day, but since then I only take about 4. So, I suppose I’ve improved quite alot, and considering I’m not yet (physiologically) an adult, I was going a little overboard. Nevertheless, I still sneak in those extras, which probably accounts for my insomnia! Just imagine: when I was in Japan, I was drinking green tea nearly every moment of the day!

I used to be similarly addicted to water, where I’d drink about 4L a day. Not good, my skin just failed on me, even though I felt really good. DON’T DO IT! Unless you do heavy exercise every day, I don’t think even a doctor would recommend it.

I wonder if addictions to the trivial things in life like water and tea are like getting addicted to a drug? I don’t EVER plan on trying drugs outside of medicinal use, but I guess I have some fraction of a feeling of how drug addicts feel when they try to “quit” Even at this fraction though, I think it’s easy to give up on something if you just have the mental strength to take you through it.