High surface area of the tea leaves means they can adsorb toxic metals released by the boiling water.

Most nutrition studies focus on things like polyphenols, caffeine, or other chemicals released during brewing, but such research overlooks a unique aspect of tea: unlike most food and drink, tea leaves are not directly consumed, and the brewing process allows tea leaves to adsorb chemicals as well as release them—most notably heavy metal toxins like lead, arsenic, or cadmium. (Adsorption is when a substance adheres to the surface of something; absorption is when a material takes in a substance.)

Well, maybe I’ll start drinking tea.

  • @SpruceBringsteen
    13•7 hours ago

    Didn’t i just read an article on teabags leeching microplastics?

    • AFK BRB ChocolateEnglish
      4•2 hours ago

      From the article (emphasis mine):

      It turns out that the type of tea bag matters. The team found that cellulose tea bags work the best at adsorbing toxic metals from the water while cotton and nylon tea bags barely adsorbed any contaminants at all—and nylon bags also release contaminating microplastics to boot. Tea type and the grind level also played a part in adsorbing toxic metals, with finely ground black tea leaves performing the best on that score. This is because when those leaves are processed, they get wrinkled, which opens the pores, thereby adding more surface area. Grinding the tea further increases that surface area, with even more capacity for binding toxic metals.

    • @SynonymousStoat
      9•6 hours ago

      There is such thing as loose leaf tea where you don’t use tea bags when brewing.

      After a bit further reading of the article it looks like they also found that certain types of tea bags helped.

    • @[email protected]English
      7•6 hours ago

      Specific type of tea bag that’s made out of plastic most of the ones you find are not of the same material. It’s the plastic tea bags that are causing it.

      • @Nefara
        3•5 hours ago

        Even cellulose and paper bags were tested and had plastics in the glues and binders in the material. Unfortunately you need to look for manufacturers that explicitly say they’re plastic-free or buy loose leaf. I have a bunch of bagged tea I bought before I knew, and I’ve been ripping open the bags and dumping the tea in my infuser.