Tea After Meal Side Effects: There are many people around us whose meal is not complete until they drink a cup of tea or coffee after eating. Tea with breakfast, tea with lunch, and sometimes even tea with dinner. It is a habit, which gives a feeling of satisfaction.

But research to nutrition shows that this habit can affect the body’s ability to absorb certain nutrients, especially iron. However, it depends on the type of tea and the time of drinking it.

Let us know, what happens inside the body when tea and food mix and how can the harm be reduced by making small changes?

What happens when you drink tea with food?

Tea, especially black and green tea, contains compounds called polyphenols, which include tannins, catechins, and theaflavins. These are the same antioxidants that make tea healthy. These compounds combine with certain minerals in the digestive system. It has a greater effect on iron, especially non-heme iron obtained from plants.

Effect on non-heme iron

Several studies show that drinking tea with meals reduces the body’s absorption of non-heme iron, which is found in pulses, beans, spinach, millets, nuts and fortified cereals. The polyphenols present in tea combine with iron in the intestine to form insoluble compounds, preventing the body from absorbing the iron.

Tea (Photo.Social Media)

effect on heme iron

Tea does not have much effect on heme iron, which is found in meat, fish and poultry. That is why the effect of tea on vegetarian people and people who mainly take plant-based diet is more than that on non-veg eaters. Tea slightly reduces the absorption of zinc and calcium.

Does the quantity and time of tea also have an effect?

Iron mainly enters the upper part of the small intestine shortly after eating. If tea is consumed with food or within an hour of it, polyphenols are present during this time, which hinders iron absorption. If you drink tea one or two hours after eating food, the effect reduces considerably.

Is tea with only milk harmful?

• Black tea contains the highest amount of tannin and has the greatest effect on the absorption of iron.
• Green tea also interferes with the absorption of non-heme iron, although to a lesser extent.
• The effect of oolong tea is somewhere between these two.
• White tea undergoes very little processing, so its effects may be less, although data on this is limited.
• Herbal teas such as ginger, chamomile, peppermint, and rooibos generally do not interfere with iron absorption.
• Exceptions may be hibiscus and some berry-based teas.
• Milk tea reduces polyphenol activity slightly because the milk proteins bind with some of the tannins, but this reduction is not complete.
• Lemon tea can reduce the obstruction in iron absorption to a great extent because it contains Vitamin C in abundance.

Coffee (Photo.Social Media)

You can also drink tea by adopting these methods

But if you want to drink tea without harming your health, then you just need to make some small changes.

• Drink tea one to two hours after eating food.
• If you want, you can take herbal or lemon tea with food.
• Eat iron-rich foods along with fruits or vegetables containing vitamin C.
• Do not drink tea with iron supplements.
• Drink in limited quantities.