In fact, from the point of view of our body, this question would have to be formulated differently - is it possible to drink tea during and after a meal? All the liquid that enters the stomach during meals and immediately after the meal has the same effect on metabolic processes. This influence can be avoided only if at least half an hour has passed between the meal and tea drinking. So, if there is no difference - during or immediately after - then what kind of influence are we talking about? Looking ahead, we will say that this decision has both positive and negative sides.
Can you drink tea with meals?
The reasons for refusing to combine tea drinking and eating also lie in the plane of the drink, as a liquid, and are determined directly by the characteristics of all varieties of tea due to their origin:
The more fluid, the worse. Dietitians and nutritionists in general advise against drinking any liquids with meals. The advice applies not only to tea, but also to water, coffee, juices, and milk. The more fluid enters the stomach with food, the lower the concentration of gastric juice in it. Which in the short term is fraught with digestive problems - heaviness, heartburn, belching can occur as a result of insufficient acidity or constant changes in the acidity parameter of gastric juice. In the long term, this can lead to infection with parasites, fungi, pathogenic bacteria. Gastric juice also has a barrier function: it must be concentrated enough so that all the listed comrades simply cannot withstand such a neighborhood and are destroyed on the way to the intestines.Tea antioxidants are less well absorbed. By getting too many nutrients at one time, the body may not fully absorb them due to a lack of digestive enzymes. But this parameter is also individual - it all depends on the quality of bile production, the natural metabolic rate, and the absence of inflammation in the intestines.Tannins + caffeine = goodbye iron. In fact, this tandem prevents the absorption of not only iron, but also many other vitamins and minerals. Once in the digestive tract, they enter into a chemical reaction with a number of minerals, bind them and form compounds that the human body, alas, is not able to absorb. Thus, deficiencies of a number of vitamins and minerals are formed.It would seem that such serious arguments that it is time to forever abandon the combination of tea drinking and meals. But the process also has several advantages.
Reasons to pour yourself a cup of tea during breakfast
In addition to the fact that drinking tea with food is corny tasty, it is also useful:
Go away, sugar. An important ability of any type of tea is to reduce the glycemic index of foods. In different varieties, this ability is expressed with different strengths, but any tea can really make even fast food more useful. This mechanism is most pronounced in green matcha, since it contains enough fiber, which works as a buffer. But not only she is able to exert such an influence. Therefore, if you eat a morning sandwich with white bread and drink it with tea, your blood sugar will be lower than without the drink.Appetite suppression. During extraction, the infusion is saturated not only with antioxidants and caffeine, but also with nutrients. For example, the tea leaf contains protein, carbohydrates, some natural sugars. And all of them begin to additionally nourish the body in combination with food, so you fill up faster with tea. And even without food, tea nourishes well due to the presence of all of the above in the leaf.Well, of course, tea is able to speed up metabolic processes. Thanks to this, it helps to digest food faster, relieves the feeling of heaviness if you had a chance to dine with something fatty, helps to get rid of excess weight, in particular, it accelerates lipid metabolism and forces the body to use already formed fat cells for energy.That the first, that the second list of reasons looks convincing and does not allow us to give an unambiguous answer to the question raised. It probably depends on the context. If a particular person has digestive problems or is not yet able to build a healthy diet, he may choose to drink tea with meals. If there are no such problems, but it is important to get the maximum nutrients from food, it is logical to dilute meals and tea drinking.
