For several decades, tea has been considered as one of the most precious and favorite drinks of people in many parts of the world. The countries like Britain, India, China, have claimed that tea is their national drink. Tea creates a large profit for the countries where it can be grown up and it also provides tea drinkers with the utmost benefits. Therefore, tea is always welcomed in any place and time, except in a period of one of the former Indian leaders, Mahatma Gandhi. Why?
According to ”Mahatama Gandhi and his anti-tea campaign”, a cup of tea describes its obstacles for its consumers in Indian’s historical time. Before India becoming the world’s largest manufacturer of tea leaf in 2006, the Indian tea was prohibited by Mahatma Gandhi. It was thought by Gandhi that tannin compound caused bad effects to Indian tea drinkers. In addition, there was a belief that the skin darken was due to tea drinking. Gandhi who was keen on nutrition, suggested in his written book, to boil tea (also other kinds of diet) in order to stop a poison substance working inside a drinker’s body.
Although tea is consisted of caffeine, it has become a drink for health lovers until these days. Tea is one of their alternatives because of less caffeine compound than coffee. In my opinion, it depends on your beliefs on tea's benefits and the amount of tea drinking. The information from studies helps tea drinkers to make decisions and choose whatever they are going to take into their bodies. A theory which I held to remind me all the time is that I should not take food or drinks consecutively for a long period of time although it is so tasty. I personally disagree with drinking a large quantity of tea to get rid of a poison as we should make our body to be balance by giving a space for both a poison and an antioxidant to live together peacefully, perhaps we can live better with some types of poison.
Not being influenced by a powerful person, at the present day, consumers are convinced by many claims and testimonials in advertisements about the benefits of a tea drink. In Thailand, we have often seen a picture of Mr. Tan with tea field background on TV, internet, or a big signboard, he is not an actor or a superstar, but a business leader. He has promoted drinking of several kinds of tea such as green tea and herbal tea. Considering of the afore-mentioned leaders: Gandhi and Mr. Tan, both of them have delivered a good will, one to his Indian people; another to his customers and business. You can choose to believe in any one of them. For me, I believe in myself to drink or not to drink any kinds of tea. As drinking tea has the pros and cons, you have to ask yourself whether or not it has benefits for your physical health.
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References
Mahatama Gandhi and his anti-tea campaign. (2012, 6 May). BBC News. Retrieved May 7, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17905975
To my surprise, tea was prohibit by Indian leader. As far as I know, drinking tea is not only one of Chinese culture, but a good drink for decreasing oil, preventing some diseases, and maintain health. Although too much tannin compound in the tea, as we all know, is harmful to our body, especially the stomach, moderate amount tannin can help sterilizing and dissolving oil. I think the important point is that it depends on what kinds of tea you choose and how much tea you drink because the tea which has not been fermented totally has the most tannin, such as green tea, while black tea which is through the fermenting procedure completely with least tannin, from my knowledge. Therefore, I agree to Lek's theory that over-drinking or over-eating are indeed not good for health.
ReplyDeleteLike Rainbow Gaga, this news about Gandhi's opposition to tea drinking came as a surprise. At least he didn't go so far as to argue that it must be banned by government law because it's unhealthy, along with banning ice cream, chocolate and other foods that cause serious health problems for society and many people today.
DeleteI guess what this shows is that a person can be a great person in some ways and a perfect fool, or at least completely wrong, in others. A bit like doctors: they are very knowledgeable on health issues and medical science, but often incompetent and dangerous when they give advice on social policy, such as how to respond to a set of health statistics.
Thanks to P'Lek for a new and interesting knowledge for me, I've just know that tea has ever been banned in India by Gandhi. I agree with Rainbow Gaga that drinking tea will help reducing oil. However, I know it would cause some problems if you drink it too much, for example, it can be bad to your excreting system. When I go to my grandmother place, she always offer me some hot Chinese tea and I feel good and relieve everytime I drink it. So, I still believe that drinking tea has more benefits for your health than the bad effect if you consume it in appropriate amount.
DeleteAnd my thanks to Lek for publishing her informative and thoughtful post so promptly today.
ReplyDeleteI think drinking is a storng culture for Chinese.I have been to china for many times. Every time that i went, on the table there must be a kettle of tea. Most of chinese drink tea instead of water during having their meal time. If you look into the size of chinese people is thin. I've read research about "drinking tea also absorb fatty acid in your body". So if your have fatty acid less you seem to have small abdominal surface. Drinking tea in moderate amount is good for your health.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be their cultures that people in some countries always drink tea.I agree with P'Lek. I think tea is not good for our health because tea has caffeine. I just think that tea is like coffee and not really good for your health. But I get a new knowledge from your information that tea is a kind of the nutrition drink.I'm not sure drinking tea will be good or bad for your health.However,I agree with P'Lek about the theory that drinking tea a lot can be bad to your health.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for all comments. These surprise me that most of you have the same academic interest as I, and you know a lot about tea.
ReplyDeleteAnd Rainbow Gaga, drinking some types of tea doesn't help you to release your health problem we discussed after this morning class. That is because of the caffeine contamination.
Thanks for your warm reminder. I seldom drink tea when I feel not good. If I were under the weather, I would want nothing but hot soup. However, Pear Milk Tea is the most popular drink in Taiwan, it is also one of tea drink I often have because I like enjoy chewing the gummy black Pears. Next time when you travel to Taiwan, try it!!
Delete"I personally disagree with drinking a large quantity of tea to get rid of a poison as we should make our body to be balance by giving a space for both a poison and an antioxidant to live together peacefully, perhaps we can live better with some types of poison."
ReplyDeleteThis sentence is unclear for me. It says that drinking a large quantity of tea can get rid of a poison in the body while the previous paragraph says that drinking tea can the body poisonous. Don't you think they are contradict to each other?