Tea does not contain any additives, and it is said to be the healthiest Drink. As the saying goes, “things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme.“. Naturally, tea should not be treated like water. If you drink more than the average amount of tea every day, it will cause specific harm to your body.

There are two reasons for tea’s impact on health. One is to drink too much; the other is to drink too much strong tea. The two points have the same meaning, just different forms of expression caused by Drinking too much tea.

If you drink too much tea, the following situations may occur:

6 Side Effects of Drinking Too Much Tea

1. Constipation
Excessive Caffeine can cause an upset stomach, and as a stimulant, caffeine can reduce blood flow to the digestive system, which affects digestion. Moreover, the caffeine in tea helps diuretics, which can cause a large loss of potassium ions in the body. Hypokalemia will make people’s bowel movements worse, causing constipation and fatigue. Theophylline in tea can also dehydrate the stool in the digestive tract, reduce lubrication, and cause constipation.

2. Reduce Iron Absorption
The tannins in tea have an antioxidant capacity, are beneficial to the cardiovascular and have antioxidant properties. Still, tannins will affect the absorption of plant-based iron sources, causing the precipitation of plant ferritin, making the body unable to absorb and utilize the iron quality, resulting in a linear decrease in iron concentration and hemoglobin content. Plant iron sources are more likely affected by tannins than animal iron sources. Vegetarians should pay special attention to the ratio of iron intake to tea, preferably at most 700 ml daily.

3. Poor Sleep
Caffeine is a well-known central nervous system stimulant. It is soluble in water and lipids and can easily cross the blood-brain barrier. It enhances cognition and uplifts the spirit. But it is also easy to interfere with the body’s biological clock operation and disrupt people’s sleep cycle. Some studies also suggest that caffeine suppresses melatonin, which can lead to poor sleep.

Everyone has a different metabolism rate for caffeine. You need to find the amount of caffeine suitable for you. If you can’t fall asleep at night after only drinking one cup, you should drink it carefully.

4. Nausea and Regurgitation
Drinking a lot of strong tea on an empty stomach can easily cause nausea. Tannin itself tastes astringent. Excessive tannins can irritate the digestive tissues and cause discomfort, causing nausea and stomach pain.

5. Acid Reflux
A large amount of caffeine will stimulate the secretion of gastric acid and affect the esophagus’s function, leading to the relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter and the contraction of the distal esophagus, resulting in the reflux of chyme into the esophagus and causing acid reflux.

6. Caffeine Dependence
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, and unlike other psychotropic drugs, it is one of the world’s most widely legally used drugs. Caffeine can relieve drowsiness, boost the spirit, produce a sense of well-being, and make people energetic.

However, taking a large amount of it for a long time will cause physical and mental dependence. If you don’t drink it for a day, you will have withdrawal symptoms, causing anxiety, headache, hypothyroidism, and chronic fatigue due to the long-term heavy use of caffeine to boost your spirit. 

So how much tea should I drink every day?

Professor Tu Youying of the Department of Tea Science at Zhejiang University suggests that the amount of tea for adults is usually 10-20g per day, and the amount of brewed tea soup is kept at 400ml to 1500ml.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare recommends that each person’s daily caffeine intake should preferably not exceed 300 mg. If the store has a labeled caffeine content, remember to drink at your discretion.

Tips for Safe Drinking

1: Do not drink strong tea
The tannic acid in tea will make the iron in the food form a precipitate that the body cannot absorb, and long-term drinking will cause iron deficiency anemia. In addition, strong tea contains a lot of caffeine, theophylline, etc., which is very irritating. Drinking strong tea can cause insomnia, headache, tinnitus, and dizziness, and it is not suitable for the stomach. Some people drink it will produce a sense of vomiting.

2: Do not drink tea immediately after meals
If you drink tea immediately after a meal, a lot of water will enter the stomach that is digesting food, dilute the digestive juice secreted by the stomach, and thus affect the digestion of food by the stomach.

Drinking tea after a meal will combine the undigested protein in the stomach with tannic acid to form a non-digestible coagulated substance, affecting the digestion and absorption of protein.

3: Do not drink tea on an empty stomach
Some people are used to drinking tea on an empty stomach just after waking up. In fact, tea contains a lot of caffeine, which has an excellent stimulating and invigorating effect on the human body, which will accelerate the heart rate leading to panic, and promote kidney urination, increasing the burden on the kidneys, and in severe cases will harm kidney function and affect health.

4: Do not drink newly harvested tea
Tea leaves that have just been picked for less than a month because they have not been stored for a long time, the beneficial substances such as polyphenols, alcohols, and aldehydes in them have not been wholly oxidized, which may lead to gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea and bloating and other adverse reactions after drinking.