It looks like my dad's cancer may be returning. His ND has instructed him to consume green tea for the antioxidants. He's been given the choice between making the tea or going with the green tea extracts. I'm a bit concerned about the aluminum and fluoride that I've read can be found in tea (both black and green). I *think* I remember seeing a discussion about this before as it relates to brewing tea for kombucha.

Anyone know if the aluminum and fluoride levels in tea are less in organic teas? It'd be a shame to drink the tea for the antioxidant properties while also potentially creating other issues with the aluminum and fluoride.

Any thoughts on where I can look for this kind of information? I'm doing some searches online, but thought someone might have an idea. TIA!

Through my own research and my ND, I learned that its too much flouride that's the problem and what is in tea occurs naturally in small amounts. I think it poses a problem when people drink flouridated water, use flouride mouthwash and toothpaste that toxicity occurs. I did not know that there was alluminum in green tea, crazy. In my favorite book, The Ultimate Healing System by Donald Lepore, N.D. he says, "Tea was not meant for human consumption. It contains tannic acid which is used to remove hair from hides in the leather industry. Because of its toxic effect, it becomes a diuretic for potassium." There are so many antioxidants out there that I don't see why green tea should be used. Does he have a juicer? He should eat alot of organic blueberries. They are one of the highest in antioxidants. At my work, I've read through the book, The Cure for All Cancers (can't remember the author) and she had sooooo much info.

I forget the source now, but I read about a study a few years ago that apparently found organic tea did contain less fluoride, and I think the speculation was that much of the fluoride taken up by the tea plant (which it seems to do quite readily) was coming from fertilizers. How accurate that is, I don't know. Maybe you could find it if you googled around. Even organic tea does have fluoride in it, just from the soil. Personally, I drink organic tea in moderation and don't worry about it (water not fluoridated, rarely drink any prepared drinks that might be made with fluoridated water).

As an aside, I heard this woman interviewed recently http://www.susanhmoss.com/ , and so much of what she said made sense to me given my observations of watching my own mother die of cancer (or as it seemed, die of chemotherapy), as well as the causes of her cancer. I want to read her books now, and just thought I'd mention it in case it could be helpful. She sounded different than most of the people I've heard or read talking about natural cancer therapy.

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Ok, this thread is scary. I drink like a liter of green tea per day! It's organic, and I never worried about it. I never even thought it could have fluoride or aluminum in it. I love my green tea, too ... I don't want to give it up.

In fact, whenever my partner and/or I are sick, we up the amount of green tea we drink. It seems to help us get better faster.

Fluoride and Aluminum are naturally occurring elements in soil. Aluminum, especially, is the third most common element in the earth's crust. . (DH studies aluminum toxicity to plants; in acid clay soils, naturally occurring aluminum is not locked up, ionically, and thus is a problem for plant roots).

Tea, meanwhile, is an aluminum hyperaccumulator. It tends to grow in the kinds of soils with a lot of aluminum in them. It evolved as a hyperaccumulator, it has always been a hyperaccumulator. How it is grown really isn't going to change that.

Where it is grown might make a difference, but organic farming does not require seeking out low-aluminum soils. Again, since it is naturally occurring globally, that really doesn't make sense, nor would it be possible.

I'm not as up on the flouride discussion, but it, too, occurs naturally in soils.

So if you look at cultures that drank a lot of tea - do you see problems in them coming from that level of aluminum consumption? Not generally.

I'd feel safe consuming tea at about the level that it has historically been consumed by the cultures that domesticated it and made it a part of their diet. I'm always dubious about things like "tea extract," or concentrations of things done because "if some is good, concentrated must be 10X as good!" So I wouldn't do those, myself.

I know that natural fluoride (I'm not touching the topic of fertilizer, I know nothing about it) is healthy for us to consume. Other herbs like nettle and lambsquarter have it as well. So hearing it has fluoride in it, doesn't worry me right way.

But are we, in our modern day environment exposed to more aluminum than those traditional culutures. My issue isn't per se the existence of aluminum or fluoride in the tea, but rather the overall load of those particular elements one is exposed to. Granted my dad doesn't have workplace aluminum exposure which would certainly make the green tea addition a possible concern, but on the other hand it seems that our society sees less of an issue with longer term, lower dose exposures. (ditto the same for fluoride which competes with iodine in the body - not something that would be wise for someone who really needs the iodine)

I too, would tend towards the whole leaf preparation since I think it's entirely likely that there are other constituents within the tea leaf that are also beneficial (which is why isolation certain compounds from herbs isn't a wise idea), but if the green tea extracts had less aluminum/fluoride than the tea that might be slightly attractive.

The fluoride/pesticide connection would make sense. They have well water so that would certainly cut down on the fluoride exposure.

I'll have to check out the website and her book. So far most of the books that we've read (and especially the one from the ND) have left much to be desired.

That particular book is by Hulda Clark. I've heard of it and had some limited exposure to Hulda's theories through one of the local WAPF chapters. I must say I'm a bit skeptical of the parasite-cancer connection.

Hi,

 

I found this thread through Googling (I'm not a mother, not even a father), and also found something else, a blog post on this issue, which might help others: http://hanswuhealth.blogspot.com/2011/04/green-tea-fluoride-and-aluminum-dont.html

 

Yes, the thread is old, but still relevant I think.

 

Thanks.