I hesitated to put this article on my food blog but since it relates to a very popular summer drink I decided to publish it.
An article in the April 2, 2015
issue of The New England Journal of Medicine entitled "A Case of
Iced-Tea Nephropathy" details the case of a man in Arkansas who suffer
kidney damage. Doctors determined after ruling out all other possible causes
that it was ice tea that had caused the renal failure.
The man who has not been identified
admitted to drinking 16 8 ounce glasses of iced tea a day. Black tea contains
oxalate. A biopsy showed oxalate crystals, interstitial inflammation with
eosinophils, and interstitial edema consistent with a diagnosis of oxalate
nephropathy according to Dr. Umbar Ghaffar of the University of Arkansas for
Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
His kidneys were excreting 99 mgs of
oxalate with the normal being anywhere from 3-44mgs. Oxalate is also present in
spinach, rhubarb and peanuts.
While no one is suggesting that we
stop drinking iced tea, moderation in all things is the lesson to be learned
from this article.
To read the article go to the New
England Journal of Medicine online.
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