5 Reasons to Avoid Bagged Tea

 Let's be honest- tea bags are convenient and easy. So why should you even try to switch? Here are five reasons. 

1) Paper tea bags contain pesticides

Yeah. You heard me right. You could be drinking pesticides. Paper tea bags often contain Epichlorohydrin, a compound used as a pesticide. This pesticide is known to cause infertility and can harm your immune system. This pesticide also causes cancer in animals. So....why are we drinking tea made in little pesticide bags? 

2) Plastic tea bags can leak toxins 

There is a certain point where, if put in hot enough water, plastic tea bags will begin to break down. When this happens, toxins are released into the tea. Though one cup of bagged tea won't do any harm, consistently drinking this could cause health issues. The more you drink tea in plastic tea bags, the more chemicals you put in your body - especially if you choose to re-steep the same tea bag. 

3) Some tea bags are chlorine-bleached

Chlorine-bleached. That just sounds bad. Why would I drink something in a chlorine-bleached bag? Drinking tea in a chlorine-bleached bag causes us to be exposed to dioxin which can be a health risk. Like I said before, drinking tea in a chlorine-bleached bag once won't really do anything - but doing it consistently could cause health issues. Dioxin is especially harmful to fetuses and infants. Dioxin also causes cancer. 

4) Most tea is not washed before put into tea bags

Most tea is sprayed with pesticides. So if the tea wasn't washed, this means all the pesticides go directly into your cup of tea. Great. Pesticides in the tea bag AND pesticides on the actual tea. Unless you are buying an organic, pesticide-free bagged tea, you are essentially drinking a cup full of cancer causing pesticides. 

If you want to go more in depth here, check out this article: http://foodbabe.com/2013/08/21/do-you-know-whats-really-in-your-tea/

5) Tea bags alter the taste of your tea

It makes sense- if you put something in really hot water, it's going to break down. When a paper or plastic bag is put in hot tea, it breaks down and changes the flavor of the tea. After switching to loose leaf tea, I've realized how different bagged tea tastes. It ruins the freshness and purity of the tea. When tasting a bagged green tea next to a loose leaf green tea, I could swear I tasted the paper in the bagged one. 

Though it's fine to have a cup of bagged tea here and there, you should avoid having it on a daily basis.