White Tea, my immune system & flouride...

It is that time of year again - tea time. For me when it starts to get colder outside I find myself guzzling teas all day in an attempt to keep my body temperature up. I love herbal blends but, my favourite all time hot thing to drink is White Tea. A lot of people drink green but I find it to be a little bitter for my taste.

White tea is made from immature tea leaves that are picked shortly before the buds have fully opened. The tea takes its name from the silver/white fuzz that still covers the buds, which turns white when the tea is dried. Tea leaves destined to be sold as white tea undergo less processing than any other type of tea (including green). Instead of air-drying, the unwithered leaves are merely steamed. Studies have indicated that White Tea is even better for you than Green. Because it is not processed heavily White Tea's health benefits are greater than any other type. Rich in antioxidants, white tea has proven greater cancer-fighting ability than even green tea. White teas are known to boost the immunes system, helping to fight viruses and infection-causing bacteria - BUT what a lot of people don't know is that White Tea does contain fluoride - which I try to avoid because I have had problems with my thyroid gland.

"The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, naturally absorbs fluoride from the environment more effectively than other plants. And as it ages, more fluoride is absorbed by the leaves, so the younger leaves have less fluoride than the older leaves. In practical terms, this means white tea (which is only very young leaves) has less fluoride than green, black or oolong teas, which include older leaves (Herbal teas do not contain any Camellia sinensis leaves and have almost no fluoride to speak of)."

If you are concerned a few things you can do to reduce the amount of fluoride in your tea...

• Buy good quality LOOSE leaf teas (a lot of fluoride is contained in "tea dust" in the bags of cheaper teas)
• Drink more White - which has the least amount of flouride - than green/oolong/black - or choose Herbal "teas" (which technically don't contain tea leaves so aren't tea but, you get my drift) which have no fluoride.
• Buy Japanese teas - which contain less flouride (absorbed into the teas from the soil - Japanese have less!)

There have been dozens of studies done on the health benefits of White/Green teas so I feel in moderation drinking White tea is beneficial even with the fluoride. I've posted a link to a terrific website which has loads of info.

http://www.heavenoftea.com/tag/studies/