Doctors talk.
Tea is considered one of the healthiest drinks in the world. However, there are many prejudices associated with it. One of them is that tea supposedly cannot be consumed immediately after a meal. And also right before. Only at extremely large intervals. To dispel all doubts, the Wday.ru portal turned to experts in the field of nutrition.
– Usually, as it happens: while waiting for lunch or dinner, they first bring you tea, coffee, water, and other drinks. You sip them in anticipation of the main course, what’s wrong with that? They write that supposedly it is impossible to use tea before mealsbecause it forms salivation. So, on the contrary, it is good if you are going to have a good meal right after, – says endocrinologist Alexey Kalinchev. – The only thing that is not worth replacing a full meal with tea. This kind of hunger strike will surely lead to gastritis, ulcers, pancreatitis sooner or later.
As for the reception tea after meal, then all the articles on the Internet calling not to do this or to do it in 1-3 hours are complete nonsense. Drink tea for health immediately after a meal – it does not carry any harm. I especially recommend green tea, it is the healthiest one. And black can have an unnecessary tonic effect, like coffee.
And then, according to global standards, we are supposed to drink about 2 liters of liquid per day, green tea is also equated to them. So when will we fulfill this norm if we deprive ourselves of taking tea before and after meals?
– The main argument in favor of the statement about the dangers of tea after meals is that drinks can dilute gastric juice and interfere with the digestion process. However, there are no serious studies confirming this theory, – also notes nutritionist Marina Bessonova. – In general, it is not at all easy to change the acidity of gastric juice, and this will require a sufficiently large volume of fluid.
Another question is that strong tea or coffee, due to the content of certain substances, can interfere with the absorption of important micro and macro elements from food. For example, tannins in strong black tea impair iron absorption.
Therefore, it is better to give preference to pure water, as well as herbal or green tea.
Elena Milchanovska, Daria Vertinskaya