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Comment by ucaetano | Hacker News Reader

Keep in mind that you'd need to drink about 1 gallon of green tea every day (which would cause nausea and pain) to have an increase in the EGCG levels in your blood of less than 60%.

http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/9/9/3312.long

So it seems unlikely that drinking green tea would be a viable treatment.

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>Keep in mind that you'd need to drink about 1 gallon of green tea every day (which would cause nausea and pain)

I might not drink a gallon but I get close. If you find you get nauseous after a couple of cups of tea (green tea especially) your probably brewing the tea too hot or for too long. Overdoing ether will let tasty bitter tasting ND nauseating componds to leach. 170F deg is about perfect for most green teas. Higher for blacks.

The nausea and pain is mostly due to the caffeine intake. After you're addicted, that largely goes away.

Actually your statement is false. I drank a gallon of green tea for years before switching to a gallon of white tea every day. I've never been nauseated or had pain from that. Ever. I pee every 20 minutes but it's never made me sick.

Is this serious? If so, any particular reason why you did?

I started this well over a decade ago, perhaps 20 years? The average person does not get NEARLY enough water per day. That was one reason, but the main reason was I knew about the anti-cancer affects of green tea as well as other healthy effects. And over the years I had nurses and medical doctors in my family tell me white tea was healthier for you that green tea. Lower caffeine, more of the same compounds and benefits green tea had. So I switched over to white tea. I am still drinking a gallon each day. Will I still get cancer? Maybe. But it won't be from a lack of doing everything I can to prevent it.

> But it won't be from a lack of doing everything I can to prevent it.

You eat a large quantity of red meat and processed red meat.

That increases your risk of cancer.

Wat? How do you know OP's protein preferences?

[EDIT:] ...wow. Just, wow. Do you use a spreadsheet to track the dietary preferences of various HN commentators, or do you have a frighteningly effective memory?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11947340#11948143

> Ive been an atkins follower for... 20 years. I eat mostly meat.

Actually I don't I don't know why you assume I do. I never have processed anything. I cook my own food. And of the red meat I do have in my diet it's ~80% grass fed bison which is very high in CLA and the other ~20% is wild. Wild boar, elk, venison, dove, quail, pheasant, and turkey.

As well as 3000mg of wild sockeye salmon oil daily.

You said you ate mostly bacon. Bacon is a processed red meat.

If you buy it store bought. If you make it you control what's in it.

> The average person does not get NEARLY enough water per day.

this is false. The old "8 glasses of water a day" advice has no scientific backing. And, while there is evidence that mild dehydration can have bad health effects, this can be completely avoided by simply drinking when you feel thirsty. There is absolutely no need to make yourself consume enough water, your body will tell you when you need to drink.

Most people aren't in tune with their body, hence a recommendation with a number, you know, as a guideline

Not OP, but I drink about 2 gallons of green tea per day because I like it. (About one box of this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083COLAM which is supposed to make 6 pitchers.)

You might want to read up on this...

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-man-w...

I'm familiar with that story. However, I agree with Helen Keller that life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (It's not clear that she was talking about green tea, but the point is good.)

You're consuming ~$20 per day in Green Tea? ~$620/month on green tea?

That's a 4-pack, so it's more like $5/day.

The symptoms are listed in the study.

Also, your point is anecdotal and irrelevant, people have different sensibilities to different compounds. Also, the effects are largely caused by the caffeine in the tea, so you're probably addicted and adapted to caffeine.

Obviously those symptoms in this "study" do not apply to everyone.

It's as anecdotal and irrelevant as you claiming anyone drinking a gallon of green tea gets sick. Which is a falsehood.

White tea has an incredibly low amount of caffeine. So I am not sure why you are claiming I am addicted to caffeine. If I run out of tea and take 4 or 5 days to order more I don't get headaches or have side effects. So again I don't know what you are basing your statements on.

I think the more important information is how it affects most people, not specifically how it affects you. For all we know, you have some sort of genetic mutation that allows you to drink that much green tea without any side effects. Maybe you're part of (e.g.) 10% of the population with said mutation. If so, then your situation is the one that doesn't apply to everyone.

It depends on the amount of tea you're using per L of water. One could steep 1 g of tea in 4 L of water, which is essentially drinking water.

"1 gallon of tea" provides very little information on the amount of tea used.

White tea has around 20mg of caffeine per cup, compared to 30mg for green tea and 95mg/cup for coffee.

So your "1 gallon/day" of white tea gets you about the same caffeine content as 1L of black coffee per day, with a total intake of ~320mg of caffeine per day. About 100mg per day of caffeine can cause addiction.

So the odds are that you're a caffeine addict. On the other hand, you might be immune to caffeine or have low sensitivity.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/research/bpru/doc...

Yeah, I drink 1.5L of black tea a day. Around 300mg of caffeine.

Can confirm, I am definitely a caffeine addict. In fact, I switched to tea mostly because I was consuming a ridiculous amount of unneeded calories in sugar and cream in energy drinks and coffee when I mostly just wanted tasty caffeine.

Many of us are caffeine addicts.

with or without milk/sugar?

Without. I think sweet tea is unnatural :) And I don't "get" milk in tea. Odd.

You reminded me of this article...

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-man-w...

4 liters of tea per day? That's a 250ml cup every hour over a 16 hour day! I like tea but that seems excessive especially if you have to urinate every 20 minutes. Half of every hour of every day you're either drinking or urinating.

I've grown to have a normal rate of urination, every hour or two, over the 5ish years I've been drinking green tea in large quantities.

How much does that cost per month?

Not the OP, but as a starting point:

A 100-pack of organic white tea is $7.99 at my local whole foods, and a bit cheaper online - looks like ~$6.50 on amazon. (Green tea is about the same price).

  ~$0.065 per teabag
  1 cup is a serving (1 teabag)
  16 cups in a gallon
  ~$1.04/day, ~$31.20/month

There are probably cheaper brands and suppliers to be found.

Edit: misplaced decimal

So about 7-8 of these per day:

https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Green-Extract-400mg/dp/B001...

For the nootropic and supplement crowd adding something like this would be trivial to swallow and manufacturers will probably start selling more potent pills if the market demands it.

Its also interesting to know the the 'miracle' supplement theanine is also a green tea derivative. Every stack I've seen on nootropic forums seem to contain it, especially as it cancels out the overly stimulating effects of caffeine, but leaves the focus effects in. I wonder what more secrets green tea leaves hold and if they're more than partly responsible for Japan's impressive longevity.

This is sort of the reason we invented pills.

Exactly! But sadly, a lot of people will read the headlines as "if I drink green tea, I'm preventing bone-marrow diseases".

Pills packaging powdered remains of fruits sell very well, I'm sure people will be fine.

I wouldn't be so sure: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/fda-confirms-toxicit...

"After investigating reports that more than 400 babies were sickened and 10 died in connection with homeopathic teething products, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed Friday that it had indeed found elevated levels of the toxic substance, belladonna, in the products."

KIDNEY STONES if they contain the tea leaf. Now green and white teas have catechins which may help break down kidney stones but those are break down when exposed to oxygen or sunlight.

How are these compounds prevented from sunlight induced breakdown if they occur in the leaf of a plant?

They're part of a living system that actively repairs, (re)generates the compounds. Same type of thing that prevents you from decomposing while you're still alive.

And there are at least 60 cases of liver damage, including many fatalities, caused by Green Tea extract:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/green-tea-extract-diet-cbc-mar...

What about Tumeric extract and also intravenous vitamin-C?

Consider co-supplementation with quercetin, which increases the bioavailability of green tea catechins.

https://examine.com/supplements/green-tea-catechins/?PageSpe...

I too drink 1-2 gallons of green tea per day. I drink looseleaf exclusively, with a supplier who's checked on fluoride levels for me, and find I stay hydrated and happy much better on this specific (tamaryokucha) green tea than on any other caffeine source.

I find your mention of fluoride interesting...

I have always wondered (just because I am curious) how one could actually avoid intake of any fluoride given the many types of fluids humans can drink; are all beer crafters using fluoridated waters? Wine makers? Soda? Every bottled water? Juices?

What drinks can be verifiably lacking fluoridation?

A used Milli-Q system (makes ultra-pure deionized water for scientific research) is only a few hundred bucks on ebay.

Mind you, drinking water deionized to such levels will actually accelerate teeth decay, and has been shown to give organ damage and other unpleasant side effects in mice who were given it for long term consumption.

Though I suppose you could go through the hassle of deionizing the water, and then adding back just the ions you trust (Ca, Na, Mg, Cl, etc.).

For a more pragmatic approach, you could just limit yourself to bottled water, beer and wine imported from Europe; >99% of all European drinking water is non-fluoridated.

It depends, many water sources are naturally flurodated to levels equal to treated systems. At least 3 cities I know of in the USA regularly add no additional fluoride to meet standard levels.

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