Is Your Tea Loaded with Toxic Fluoride?

An increasing percentage of the population has been getting smart about the dangers of drinking cola and other kinds of soda pop, and they’re abandoning it in droves. So as an alternative to soda, individuals are choosing boxed and bottled tea as a primary substitute beverage. This is no surprise because tea has a list of health benefits that can’t be ignored. But unless you know which teas to choose, you may be simply trading evils and consuming toxic fluoride.

For those of you who haven’t really read about fluoride before, Fluoride is a toxic industrial waste chemical put into many communities municipal water supplies. While most of Europe rejects water fluoridation and many communities in the U.S. choose to end fluoridation due to activism, most communities still choose to fluoridate their water despite the known health dangers this toxin can have on the human body.

Study Finds Teas to Contain High Levels of Fluoride

One study found that some inexpensive tea bags contain concerningly-high levels of the toxic substance known as fluoride. While many health experts and governments continue to assert that fluoride is purposefully added to water supplies to protect us, some experts are now calling for fluoride levels to be stated on packages – a move that would greatly help those of us trying to reduce exposure to fluoride.

The study, which analyzed inexpensive tea bags from supermarkets including Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, found that drinking the tea could push a person’s fluoride intake over the ‘daily recommended level’ (there should be no recommended level for a toxic substance), and put them at a higher risk of bone and dental disease. The teas provided anywhere from 75-120% of the recommended daily intake.

It is recommended that an adult does not consume more than 3-4mg of fluoride each day, but on average, a litre of inexpensive supermarket tea contained 6mg of fluoride.

Related Read: Holy Basil Removes Fluoride from Water and Supports Pineal Gland

Here are the basic results:

Dry tea

• Dry teas contained an average of 103-839 milligrams (mg) per kilogram (kg) of fluoride.
• Economy blends had the highest fluoride concentrations on average, at about 580mg per kg.
• Green teas averaged at about 397mg per kg while pure blends contained the lowest concentrations on average of 132mg per kg.

Tea Infusions

• Fluoride levels in the infusions ranged from 0.43 to 8.85g per kg overall.
• Fluoride levels differed slightly between the 2 and 10 minute infusions and the 10 and 30 minute infusions. But there was an “extremely significant” difference between the 2 and 30 minute infusions, with infusion time increasing fluoride levels.
• Economy blends (Asda Smart Price, Sainsbury’s basics, Morrisons and Tesco) contained the most fluoride, with an average of 6mg per litre in a two minute infusion.
• Pu’er and oolong tea infusions had the lowest levels of fluoride, followed by pure blends, black blends and green blends.

The study concluded with:

“We conclude that the culture of habitual tea drinking in the RoI indicates that the total cumulative dietary fluoride intake in the general population could readily exceed the levels known to cause chronic fluoride intoxication. Evidence suggests that excessive fluoride intake may be contributing to a wide range of adverse health effects. Therefore from a public health perspective, it would seem prudent and sensible that risk reduction measures be implemented to reduce the total body burden of fluoride in the population.”

More Research Fuels the Fluoride Fire

Another study focusing on black tea had this to say:

” Therefore, it is necessary to establish reliable fluoride surveillance in food and beverage commodities and conduct additional epidemiological research on fluoride hazards. In addition, it is urgent that governmental and international agencies adopt safe standards of fluoride content in tea commodities.”

All Tea may be at Some Level of Risk

All tea plants have an affinity for fluoride, so indiscriminate consumption of tea can lead to soaring levels of fluoride in the body, especially if it’s brewed it with fluoridated water. The result can be dental fluorosis, a badly damaging discoloration and mottling of tooth enamel.

This is one of the first signs of over-exposure to fluoride, and it can lead to skeletal fluorosis, a painful and debilitating bone disease that rivals the damage done by to the skeleton by drinking highly acidic cola drinks over time. And like cola’s dissolving of bone, skeletal fluorosis comes on insidiously, and can be mistaken for several other bone and joint diseases.

Susceptibility to fluorosis varies throughout the population, and whether it manifests or not depends on the dose and duration of fluoride intake. Heavy tea drinkers and those with kidney impairment are the most likely to come up with this disease.

Tea drinking can cause “lose cartilage (a form of collagen), that cushy connective tissue between bones, discs in the spine, in the elbows, and hips — basically all those places that hurt,” says Doctor of Naturopathy Donna Voetee, also known as Granny Good Food, a more seasoned version of the Food Babe. “In fact, your ‘arthritis’ may not be arthritis at all, but merely an overindulgence in the brown brew.” She notes that tea drinking may be behind much of the parabolic rise in hypothyroidism too.

There’s no doubt that tea has a high level of fluoride, but the polyphenols in the best teas are able to mitigate some of this. Polyphenols are powerful anti-oxidants that have given tea the reputation of a healer through its ability to counteract oxidative stress in the body. Experts have reported that one of the ways fluoride causes damage to cells is through oxidative stress. This means the high antioxidant status of top quality teas can stop some of the impact of fluoride.

Are You Drinking Tea with Lower Levels of Fluoride?

The teas that produce the highest levels of fluoride are those that contain the lowest antioxidant levels. The reason is that antioxidant level is lowest in teas made with old leaves, and this is also when fluoride level is highest. Conversely, antioxidant level is highest in teas made with young leaves, and this is also when fluoride level is lowest. This makes the fluoride level of a tea its indicator of quality.

If you are interested in reducing exposure to fluoride and the harm that may come with it, choose white tea, the tea that is made from young leaves. This does not mean you can avoid fluoride in tea by drinking white tea, only that your fluoride exposure may be less than with other types of tea.

Black tea is made from the oldest leaves and the widely researched green tea also has a high content of fluoride. White tea confers almost all of the same health benefits as are found in green tea, and it has a milder, more pleasant flavor.

Why Fluoride is Dangerous

Published in the journal Food Research International, the study is a positive one in that it may actually be a stepping stone in the eventual labeling of fluoride on food products. While fluoride is touted as safe, the fluoride added to water supplies around the nation has actually been linked to heart disease, cancer, and is even known for reducing IQ. Research has even found fluoride to provide little or no benefit for teeth, which is one of its primary ‘purposes.’

You can simply type “fluoride” in the search bar here at NaturalSociety to learn more about the dangers, but also know that there are numerous ways to force fluoride out of your body. Here are 4 things to include in your fluoride detox.