When researching foods with high oxalate content, you may have stumbled across the fact that tea is on the list. You already calcium oxalate stones have to make many compromises with your diet due to your . You might be wondering if you need to give up tea as well. After all, it's just a bunch of dried leaves or herbs that are brewed with hot water.
How Much Oxalate Content Is In Tea?
There is on average approximately 4.5 to 5 mg/g of oxalate content in tea. The soluble oxalate content of black tea sold loose or in teabags ranges from 1.5 to 6.9 mg/g tea, while overall the mean oxalate content of tea sold in teabags is marginally lower than black tea sold loose (4.68 compared with 5.11 g/g tea). These values are comparable to the mean oxalate content of Japanese black tea (5.3 mg/g tea) reported by Kamiya et al.8 Twinings Jasmine Tea, which contained the lowest levels of soluble oxalate (1.5 mg/g tea), and Twinings Earl Grey (2.2 mg/g tea) are two black teas that are advertised to contain additives that improve taste (jasmine flowersand bergamot, respectively). The levels of oxalate in black tea are significantly higher than those found in green (mean 0.68 mg/g tea) or oolong teas (0.23 mg/g tea). In any case, this doesn't seem like too much oxalate but if you drink multiple cups of tea, then you could be consuming anywhere from 25 to 50 mg of oxalate content per day. The tea oxalates are a big issue if you tend to favor tea over regular water.
And since most people that do drink tea tend to drink it multiple days out of the week, the tea oxalates may contribute to calcium oxalate stones. But how much does drinking tea really affect the formation of stones?
Is There Proof Tea Drinkers Form More Stones?
There is some correlation between the consumption of teas and having higher rates of calcium oxalate stones. However, there are also studies that show that a very small amount of the oxalates in teas are bioavailable. This means your body ends up only absorbing a small amount. In fact, there was even a study that has shown that drinking tea decreased the risk of stones.
This doesn't mean you're clear of any tea oxalates kidney issues. Scientific studies only tell a portion of the story. At the end of the day, everybody is different. You may deal with tea oxalates kidney issues even if many people do not. And if you're already dealing with calcium oxalate stones, you want to definitely limit your consumption of oxalates.
Are There Certain Types of Teas That Are Better?
If you still want to drink tea, there are better choices that you can make. It was found that black tea had the highest amount of oxalate content. Other teas like green tea and oolong tea had lower amounts.
This is probably the reason why many people say ice tea is bad for you. Not only does it use black tea, but many bags of tea are also used to make ice tea. Of course, you can opt to use green or oolong tea and use fewer bags to make the popular drink.
How You Drink Tea Makes a Difference
How you drink tea can make a difference as well. Instead of using one tea bag for a single cup, you should opt to use one tea bag for a large tea kettle. This allows you to get the tea flavor while decreasing the high oxalate content per mg. Of course, you'd have to make sure you only drink a few cups, not the entire kettle.
Another great thing you can do is to mix milk with your tea. The oxalates bind with the calcium in the tea, so you end up ingesting less of the oxalates into your system. These simple solutions can make it possible to enjoy tea even if you are dealing with calcium oxalate stones.
