May 23rd, 2013
Would you like some lead with that?
Eek. We’ll get to the leaded truth in a minute, but first, let me explain where all this is coming from.
Independent testing site ConsumerLab.com recently tested bottled green teas and some loose green tea leaves, as well as green tea bags.
And guess what?
The some bottled green teas are pretty much just sugar water with few antioxidants, says The New York Times in their article on the findings from ConsumerLab.com.
Snapple Green Tea and Honest Tea’s Green Tea with Honey didn’t do so well in the antioxidant department. Learn more about the test results at The New York Times.
Also, while green tea in bags from Lipton and Bigelow contained a good number of antioxidants, the tea leaves also contained lead! The lead in the tea leaves may be the result of industrial pollution in China, reports The New York Times in their interview with Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com.
While most of the lead stays in the leaves instead of your cup, it would be a very bad idea indeed to eat the tea leaves contained in those bags! According to the testing, the Lipton and Bigelow green tea bags offer up 1.25 to 2.5 micrograms of lead per serving. Is that worth the savings over buying loose green tea from a source like Teavana?
Teavana’s Leaves are Lead Free
The better option, according to the testing, is to go with Teavana’s loose green tea. Those tea leaves come from Japan, and testers found no measurable lead in them. What they did find was many antioxidants — you know those healthy things that are supposed to be in the bottled green tea!
Plus, who needs all those bottles anyhow?
(image via flickr Charles Williams)
Filed under Healthy You | Comment (0)
