Want a flavorful beverage with a lot less lead? Try tea. According to a team of researchers from Northwestern University, tea leaves and bags adsorb lead, trapping lead ions on their surfaces and filtering them from drinking water during the process of tea brewing.
“For this study, our goal was to measure tea’s ability to adsorb heavy metals,” said Vinayak Dravid, a member of the research team and a Northwestern professor, according to a press release. “By quantifying this effect, our work highlights the unrecognized potential for tea consumption to passively contribute to reduced heavy metal exposure in populations worldwide.”
Limiting Exposure to Lead
Long-term exposure to lead and other heavy metals is tied to a variety of symptoms, including headaches, insomnia, and irritability, as well as to issues like heart disease and stroke. Though there are many ways to encounter these heavy metals, one is by drinking contaminated water.
