Tea Bags – Possible Dangers to Your Health. How to Replace Them

Mint, rooibos, forest fruits, valerian or chamomile – tea comes in so many colors and flavors. We enjoy a cup in the morning, to boost our energy, another one in the night, to sleep well and maybe throughout the day, we have another one, for a tasteful experience. Tea’s benefits are well-known, but modernity may have caused this drink to be potentially damaging for you. Let’s see why.

If we talk about the actual bags of tea that we infuse in hot water, they are of course, great for your health. But the method used for steeping them can have a negative impact on your body if you tend to use commercial tea bags.

We all know the two types of tea bags that big companies use to charm us: plastic bags and paper bags. It may come as a surprise, but both can have a negative action.

The Risks of Plastic Tea Bags

The trend nowadays in the tea industry is the  pyramid-shaped tea bags and these are very often composed of plastic. A presentation that catches the eye, but what are the dangers?

When you use a plastic bag, to prepare tea, you will infuse it in extremely hot water. This action will cause a great release of the chemicals found in the plastic. Thus, consuming this type of tea becomes quite risky.

Recent studies revealed that the majority of the plastic tea bags available on the market extract chemicals which contain estrogenic activity. The immediate effect of this process is endocrine disruption.

The Risks of Paper Tea Bags

If you think that plastic bags must be avoided and paper bags are the right choice, take another moment to reconsider. The paper bag itself does not imply any risk for the human body. The issue is that companies treat these bags with a chemical compound named epichlorohydrin, in order for them to become more adhesive.

This compound can lead to many side effects, if we are exposed to it, ranging from nausea, vomiting, inflammation of the lungs or labored breathing. News in the health field is supporting this kind of information, since the National Institute of Health has also declared epichlorohydrin as a possible human carcinogen.

Despite the fact that numerous companies use this chemical for their paper bags, there are quite a few who decided not to make use of it.

DIY Bag Tea

In order to avoid the mentioned disadvantages of both types of bags, you can create your own tea bag. It is fast. You will need:

• Coffee filters
• A piece of string
• A Stapler
• Loose leaf tea

Directions:

1. Cut the coffee filter so as to obtain the shape of a rectangle, but leave two round edges.
2. Place your tea right in the center.
3. Fold the sides evenly over the middle.
4. Set your finger in the center to be able to fold the two sides up.
5. Fold the top of the bag down and staple.
6. Place the string on before stapling.