Why is tea harmful?

[Sol_y_Paz]

When you are pregnant, why is plain loose leaf black tea so bad for the baby in your belly? I know it contains caffeine, but so does chocolate.
Is moderation the key? Or is a total ban the only way?
Is green tea safer? I know some cultures drink green tea daily, I am guessing probably during pregnancy too.
What about herbal teas?
If you have decaf tea, is that really any safer since it is altered probably chemically and not the whole product?

[Hannah32]

I've been drinking a cup of tea most days and my doctor said it was perfectly fine, as long as I don't go nuts on caffeine. Usually, we use tea bags though, but not always. Who said it was bad?

[Jenica]

I never heard it was bad, just the caffeine part of it. I decaffeinate my tea because I'm a tea junkie and I can't do without it, or with only one cup. I steep it in a little water for 1 minute, dump out that water and pour in new boiling water and steep it for 10 minutes. The caffeine is one of the first things to be released from the leaves so by dumping off the water from the 1st minute of steeping you're removing about 85-95% of the caffeine.

[BlackSheepPDX]

I've never heard that there was anything particularly bad about black tea. General wisdom is that moderate amounts of caffeine are not harmful to the baby.

My personal take is that I don't think kids should be having caffeine (it's a delightful drug, but for use by consenting adults!) so why should I let my fetus have it. It's not really a matter of it being HARMFUL, IMHO.

[Sol_y_Paz]

That is interesting, thanks everyone for the input.
A relative who just had a baby this year said her doctor told her to avoid all caffeine during pregnancy and included tea on the list of "bad things" specifically.
I adore tea and consume over a liter per day of black tea 5 days a week, water only after 4:00pm, but also am TTC this year. I like green tea and herbal teas and were wondering what others who are currently pregnant have to say about this and what they have been told.

[MaerynPearl]

Some doctors are overly protective

and some ladies are overly sensitive to caffeine... it may have been that she was actually having issues with it... not something all women get but some certainly do!

[chai]

Originally Posted by Sol_y_Paz

I adore tea and consume over a liter per day of black tea 5 days a week, water only after 4:00pm, but also am TTC this year.

I drank black tea (about one cup per day) throughout my first trimester (started having dehydration problems later, so stopped to avoid caffeine because of that). I don't think it would cause any problems.

You can Google to find the maximum amount of caffeine that is safe in pregnancy. As long as you stay below that, I think you're safe. The studies I've seen only indicate a problem when you go over that threshold.

[shantiani]

One other consideration is that we tend towards anemia in pregnancy and black tea inhibits the absorption of iron. (So do coffee and calcium.) I don't know if that had anything to do with her docs advice though.

And if s/he was lumping all tea together, I suppose there are some herbal teas that might encourage early labor if you drank enough of them... but not black tea.

I drink tea regularly but I limit the amount of caffeine (mostly green or white, and occasionally black) and I try to consume all of my tea and dairy in the morning and then eat lots of iron later in the day so they don't interfere with each other.

[SeattleRain]

Originally Posted by Sol_y_Paz

That is interesting, thanks everyone for the input.
A relative who just had a baby this year said her doctor told her to avoid all caffeine during pregnancy and included tea on the list of "bad things" specifically.
I adore tea and consume over a liter per day of black tea 5 days a week, water only after 4:00pm, but also am TTC this year. I like green tea and herbal teas and were wondering what others who are currently pregnant have to say about this and what they have been told.

A liter is a lot of black tea. Caffeine is pretty harmful for fetuses and over 200 mg of caffeine per day can lead to an increase in miscarriage. According to this website (which lists the caffeine content of all teas: http://www.black-tea-benefits.com/ca...-black-tea.asp black tea has 40mg of caffeine per cup. 1 liter contains 4.25 cups of, equalling about 170mg of caffeine. That's a healthy amount of caffeine, but you'd have to be very careful about any other caffeine in your diet such as chocolate, coffee, or extra tea. I'm obviously not your doctor, but I'd suggest switching to green tea which has half as much caffeine.

When you're TTC, caffeine can actually dry up your cervical mucus which can prevent you from having the best shot of conceiving. Green tea on the other hand can actually increase your chances of concieving since many report a higher amount of cervical mucus.

[DeChRi]

I heard that (on MDC at some point) green tea inhibits folic acid absorbtion. I keep meaning to research this as I would like to sub in for one of my cups of coffee.

[Sol_y_Paz]

Originally Posted by SeattleRain

A liter is a lot of black tea. Caffeine is pretty harmful for fetuses and over 200 mg of caffeine per day can lead to an increase in miscarriage. According to this website (which lists the caffeine content of all teas: http://www.black-tea-benefits.com/ca...-black-tea.asp black tea has 40mg of caffeine per cup. 1 liter contains 4.25 cups of, equalling about 170mg of caffeine. That's a healthy amount of caffeine, but you'd have to be very careful about any other caffeine in your diet such as chocolate, coffee, or extra tea. I'm obviously not your doctor, but I'd suggest switching to green tea which has half as much caffeine.

When you're TTC, caffeine can actually dry up your cervical mucus which can prevent you from having the best shot of conceiving. Green tea on the other hand can actually increase your chances of concieving since many report a higher amount of cervical mucus.

Thank you for taking the time to write this.

[GuavaGirl]

It inhibits the absorption of things you need (like iron, folate...probably other things too) I also believe it's a diuretic, which is dehydrating and hydration can be a pretty big deal when pregnant. It's a stimulant, which is taxing on your body. Over four cups of black tea for 5 days per week might be pushing it. 40 mg of caffeine is the average amount per cup of black tea and depending on how you make it, it could be more....so you're getting at least 160-200 mg per day.
http://www.stashtea.com/caffeine.htm

Since you mentioned chocolate, in comparison, 1 cup of hershey's chocolate milk has 3-4 mg of caffeine. Dark chocolate has the most, but an entire Hershey's dark chocolate candy bar has 31 mg of caffeine. See the difference?
http://www.hersheys.com/nutrition/caffeine.asp

[Sol_y_Paz]

Thank you ladies for all the help! I don't like coffee, soda, or chocolate, a tall glass of cold iced black loose leaf tea is my favorite beverage.
My common sense leans towards moderation with this is better.

[sheriwx]

Ditto Guavagirl, it's the AMOUNT of caffeine present in black tea, not the mere presence of caffeine that is a problem.

[JTA Mom]

What about switching to decaf?

Lipton makes a decaf that's decaffinated using water, so no nasty chemicals.

Ami

[gcgirl]

Just to clarify (and maybe put some moms at ease), chocolate does not contain caffeine:

http://www.xocoatl.org/caffeine.htm

[claddaghmom]

Hey why not switch to Red Raspberry Leaf tea? Great for TTC and awesome for pregnancy! I'm drinking some right now with alfalfa and peppermint. I love it.

[SeattleRain]

Originally Posted by claddaghmom

Hey why not switch to Red Raspberry Leaf tea? Great for TTC and awesome for pregnancy! I'm drinking some right now with alfalfa and peppermint. I love it.

It's a good idea, I often drink it iced, but it's not a substitute for the richness of black tea. Just like tea is no substitute to coffee drinkers, herbal tea is no substitute for black tea for most tea lovers.

OP, I'm a big tea lover myself, I've looked this up several times which is why I wanted to give you the information I'd found. During pregnancy, you have to learn a certain amount of moderation with certain foods that can be harmful in excess. Caffeine is one of them. I'd recommend trying to wean yourself down from the caffeine now, while you're still TTC. A lot of women struggle with caffeine withdrawl once they're pregnant and are forced to cut back and wish they would have cut back before they got pregnant.

If you're really worried about the role that green tea (also the case with black tea, btw) plays in the absorption of folic acid, avoid it during the 7 weeks of pregnancy since that's the point at which the neural tube closes.

[Annie Mac]

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-24-2006-87222.asp

This is an article I found recently discussing the harmful effects of GREEN tea, specifically, during pregnancy.

[SeattleRain]

Originally Posted by Annie Mac

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-24-2006-87222.asp

This is an article I found recently discussing the harmful effects of GREEN tea, specifically, during pregnancy.

Thanks for finding the article, but it doesn't list where it gets its empirical evidence. I have yet to find any really large studies on the effect of green tea during pregnancy.