In the United States prominentAmerica, according to an article titled “6 Startling Facts about America”, more than 16.2 million children in the United States alone suffer from malnutrition. Furthermore, 3.1 children in the country die from malnutrition yearly. The previous facts might make one question what our country is doing to stop prominent American health issues. One factor that can be considered is what the average child consumes. In the eastern half of the world, tea consumption is much higher than that of the west. Most commonly, Americans drink water, soda, or lemonade. Drinking even one cup of tea a day can give children some of the nutrients they need such as iron, calcium, vitamin C, and other necessities for healthy child development. Therefore Americans specifically should consider giving their children 1-2 cups of tea a day to ensure their children are getting the nutrients they need.
As mentioned previously, tea is more commonly consumed in the eastern half of the world than in the west. It makes sense that tea is more heavily consumed in the eastern side considering that tea started and spread frominon China. Similar to the story of the first fire, it is believed that tea was first created by accident, and had no specific dating as to when it was first invented. In “Tea- A Brief History”, the author says, “. . . in 2737 BC, the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water when some leaves from the tree blew into the water”. The same author said Shen Nung was an herbalist, and therefore decided to try the drink his servant offered, unknowing that the leaf came from a tea tree called ‘camellia Sinensis. Due to tea not being popular for quite some time, scarce documentation can be found about tea during the time it became known. However, tombs have been found dating around the time tea was first documented with teacups buried along with the people in the tombs. Shortly after tea was documented in a book, Japan became the next country to introduce tea to its people. The article also states that Japan created the first tea ceremonies once it became popularized in the country. A monk from Japan had visited China and had heard of tea, deciding to bring some tea leaves back to his country. Even so, it took many years before it became common in Japan. Britain was one of the last countries known for tea-drinking today to make tea drinking common. The reasoning was that a Portuguese princess by the name of Catherine was a tea fanatic. She made tea fashionable to the rich; a sign of wealth that everyone attempted to get to show they were high class. Eventually, regardless of class, all could afford tea resulting in tea being popularized.
The United States, as one can guess, was one of the last places to introduce tea drinking. With the British coming to The Colonies came their love of tea. One might wonder, however, how this love for tea-drinking stopped. As already mentioned, the United States is not commonly associated with tea, yet it used to be extremely common. The answer to this strange change in custom is the Revolutionary War. With tea came taxation from England and with taxation came the Revolutionary War and the decline of tea drinking. As the popularity of tea sunk, the popularity of coffee jumped, even more so once it was near impossible to get tea in the Colonies. In addition to the difficulty of getting tea, an article titled “Why Americans Drink Coffee” brings to attention how John Adams single-handedly stopped most Americans from drinking tea until after the war. The author states so in the following passage:
In a letter from John Adams to his wife, he stated, ‘Tea must be universally renounced and I must be weaned, and the sooner the better.’ From this point on there was an unofficial boycott on tea in the (then) British Colonies. People united and vowed to only serve coffee in their homes. Soon, this show of solidarity spread throughout the Colonies, and people began to associate coffee with the Revolution. It even got to the point where people viewed drinking tea as a betrayal of the Colonies.
For ten years, Americans stopped drinking tea completely, and their love for coffee grew. After the war ended, though tea was available, coffee became a favorable drink, and it is noticeable how much Americans love coffee even today. One of the most common places to do homework or have a drink with friends is a coffee shop, Starbucks. To anyone, it is noticeable that eastern countries drink tea religiously, while Americans drink very little in comparison even today.
Though tea dates back further than documented, the different types of tea have not changed. One may think drinking tea gets boring as there are only a few types, however, numerous combinations can be made just from the seven. The seven different types of tea are as listed: white, green, black, oolong, Putoare-erh, herbal, and rooibos (“How to Brew Tea”). Each tea requires its own steeping time and temperature in order to be brewed properly. Even how the tea is prepared before being contained is specific depending on the type of tea. According to Larousse Gastronomique, “The principal difference in teas lies in the treatment of the leaves. Black tea comes from leaves that, partly dried, are piled up to ferment before being toasted. Green tea comes from leaves that have been fired immediately after harvesting and is unfermented. Oolong tea is semi-fermented”. While most teas come in small bags or loose leavePuPusleave pupsCamellia, pu-erh tea is special as it comes in the shape of a cake; some are given as heirlooms or sold at high prices as antiques. In a podcast by an interviewer named Francis Lam, the interviewer talks briefly about his family history, and how he was passed down a pu-erh tea cake by his grandfather. The person being interviewed, Tim Hsu, informs the interviewer and audience of the special properties opurebyf puPuof -erh tea cake as well as how to properly appreciate tea such as studying the smell, taste, and color. All teas are appreciated similarly to how Tim Tsu discusses, using white teacupsto and plates in order to see the original color of the tea, and wafting the tea to smell it before and after brewing. Every tea is classified based on its oxidation, fermentation, color, and aroma. Along with the different physical traits, all teas have benefits to drinking them.
According to an academic journal written by Naghma Khan and Hasan Mukhtar, green tea is believed to have the most benefits. The authors go on to state, “Various studies suggest that polyphenolic compounds present in green and black tea are associated with beneficial effects in prevention of cardiovascular diseases, particularly of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease”. Teas in general have also been known to contain antioxidants, help with weight loss, and contain many of the needed nutrients for healthy growth such as calcium, iron, and vitamin C. The same source mentions studies that have been done in the east pointing to tea decreasing toin fatchancesthe chance the othe certain cancers. The authors go on to state that tea drinking has correlated with lower risk of getting diabetes. The authors state, “In a large cohort of U.S. middle-aged and older women . . . women who consumed more than or equal to 4 cups/day of tea had a 30% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than did those who did not consume tea. In . . . Japanese adults, adults who consumed more than or equal to 6 cups/day of green tea lowered their risk of diabetes by 33%, while no association with diabetes risk was found for oolong or black teas”. Many studies have found a long list of benefits to drinking tea, and although correlation does not prove causation, the results of such studies stay consistent. According to the same citing, green tea and black tea show the most benefits, but all teas have been shown to withhold some benefit, specifically with vitamins.
In order toT research what children eat while also volunteering in my community, I decided to volunteer at Gumdrops. During my time volunteering, I helped make packaged meals that would go to children in need of lunches. Volunteers would go around tables filling Styrofoam boxes with food that would then be taken to the schools for children in need of lunch. While packaging the food into the boxes, I took note of what specifically I was putting into each box. What I took note of was that although the food was filling, most of what was given was unhealthy or had no nutritional benefit to the child. Children require all of the basic necessities that adults seek in food except even more of it since they still go through growth spurts. Though children need to keep their stomachs full, they can still have health problems if the food is not beneficial to their growth and development. The snack box consisted of quite a few items: Chef Boyardee, fig newton, Slim Jim, a brownie, ramen, popcorn, peanut butter crackers, and a CLIF bar. Though one may argue some of these items contain protein, one must also consider they include sugar and carbs as well. The rest of the items, though filling, hold little to no nutritional value.
After volunteering, I began to think about all of the nutrients most children lack in their diet. Unhealthy eating at a young age can cause malnutrition, stunted growth, and other issues. Due to the previous observation, I began to consider how children could gain the nutrients they need if not from the food regardless of their family’s economic status. My suggestion was an increase infat-soluble tea consumption. As once mentioned, tea is a unique drink due to its ability to give an enormous amount of benefits, even if a person only consumes one cup of tea a day. By encouraging children to drink tea, it is possible their health can improve in more ways than one. Vitamins, however, are the main health benefit of tea drinking. A book titled Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems by Van Alfen discusses the nutritional needs of children. In the book, the author states, “There are 13 essential vitamins, 4 fat soluble and 9 wawaterwastewatersoluble-solublter soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins include vitamins A, D, K, and E” in tea, both vitamin A and D can be found. According to the same citation, around vitamin, A deficiency can lead to blindness and vitamin D deficiency can lead to rickets. Though milk also contains vitamin D, some are lactose intolerant and thus cannot drink milk. Therefore, by drinking tea, children can gain the vitamins they need for a healthy life.
A major argument against children drinking tea is the caffeine that can be found in tea. No parent wants their child bouncing off the walls because they are drinking tea instead of water or milk. Though the argument is understandable, one must consider how much caffeine can even be found in tea. One article titled “How Much Caffeine is in Tea,fifty-five” says that as tea is fermented and cooked longer, the caffeine level rises as white tea has the lowest caffeine level and black tea has the highest. Though the levels of caffeine in black tea are about equivalent to that of a coffee, one must consider what type of tea a child would drink.
Any tea drinker knows that the longer the fermentation, oxidation, and brewing, the more bitter the tea. Therefore, one can conclude most children would be repulsed by black tea anyways. White tea and green tea would be more favorable as they are the least cooked, therefore the least bitter, and also have the least caffeine. The same citing informs the reader that coffee has roughly one hundred milligrams of caffeine while white tea can range from thirty to fifty five milligrams of caffeine. The previous information means that white tea can be almost a third less than black tea and coffee. Furthermore, the article also brings to attention that tea can come without caffeine. The process of decaffeination leaves roughly two to three milligrams of caffeine left, far less than that of any other caffeinated beverage.
In addition to tea having less caffeine than realized, many let their children have diet soda without realizing they contain heavy amounts of caffeine. Diet Coke and diet Pepsi specifically have roughly the same amount of caffeine as McDonald’s purely coffee fat teacups. One must also consider many do not drink twelve ounces of soda in one sitting; it tends to be far more. Containers of soda from places such as McDonalds and gas stations can get as big as children’s-two ounces meaning a person might drink over six hundred milligrams of caffeine in one sitting. Compared to such large drinks, the amount of caffeine in tea is nothing. Unlike regular and diet soda, tea also has no sugar. Though most add sugar after brewing, the amount of sugar added is minimal compared to the average soda. In addition to tea having less sugar added, one could substitute pure sugar for any sweetener of their choosing. Many tea drinkers turn to honey, or for those who cannot have any sugar, artificial sweeteners are an option.
As once stated, there are only a few types of tea, yet the combinations are endless. In addition to a large variety, tea has health benefits and is affordable for all. Though people have debated over children increasing their consumption of tea, the arguments are easily rebuttable. Malnutrition is a difficult problem to solve, but getting one’s vitamins through drinks is one of the many ways we can try to combat this issue. Therefore, to, keep children healthy, children in the western part of the world should increase their consumption of tea.
Bibliography
- Alfen, Van Neal. Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2014.
- ‘A History of Tea.’ A History of Tea, accessed September 19, 2018.
- Blonigen, Sterling. Interview by Sterling Blonigen. Interview Type. Carbondale, IL, October 2, 2018.
- Carroll, Linda. ’10 Ways Drinking Tea Can Improve Your Health.’ March 18, 2016. Accessed October 09, 2018. https://www.today.com/series/one-small-thing/top-10-health-benefits-drinking-tea-t81111.
- Dupere, Katie. ‘6 Startling Facts about Child Hunger in the U.S. — and How You Can Help.’ Mashable. July 14, 2016. Accessed November 2, 2018.
- ‘Francis Lam Tastes His Family Heirloom Tea for the First Time.’ Interview. The Splendid Table (audio blog), September 20, 2018. Accessed September 23, 2018. https://www.splendidtable.org/story/francis-lam-tastes-his-family-heirloom-tea-for-the-first-time.
- ‘How to Brew Tea.’ Stash Tea, accessed September 22, 2018.
- Kahn, Naghma, and Hasan Mukhtar. ‘Tea and Health: Studies in Humans.’ Current Pharmaceutical Design19, no. 34 (2013): 6141-147, accessed September 23, 2018. doi:10.2174/1381612811319340008.
- ‘Major Components and Health Benefits of Tea.’ Accessed October 09, 2018. http://www.itoen-global.com/allabout_greentea/components_benefit.html.
- Montagné, Prosper, Nina Froud, and Charlotte Snyder Turgeon. Larousse Gastronomique: The Encyclopedia of Food, Wine & Cookery. London: Hamlyn, 1961.
- Seattle, WA DEI Creative in. ‘Caffeine Questions – How Much Caffeine Is in Tea?’ Choice Organic Teas. September 12, 2018. Accessed November 09, 2018. https://www.choiceorganicteas.com/much-caffeine-tea/.
- ‘Why Most Americans Drink Coffee Not Tea.’ Golden Moon Tea. Accessed November 2, 2018.
