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.

  • skillissuer
    3·
    10 hours ago

    cellulose bags do some absorbing too:

    The cellulose tea bag was found to have a higher binding affinity but a lower asymptotic limit compared with those of the tea itself. The different tea leaves had similar values for both Langmuir parameters, with the Lipton tea─which was finely ground, packaged tea─having slightly increased properties compared to those of the whole tea leaves. The higher values for the Lipton tea line up with subsequent experimentation on the effect of fineness