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A gallon. He was drinking a gallon of tea a day. I would hope any reasonably intelligent human being would not put a gallon daily of even a mild stimulant in

by x0x0 12y ago

A gallon. He was drinking a gallon of tea a day. I would hope any reasonably intelligent human being would not put a gallon daily of even a mild stimulant in his or her body for years on end and be surprised at bad things happening. It's like those idiots that get diabetes after drinking 4L of soda per day for years on end. Who could possibly have known that 1020 calories and 276g of sugar per 2L of soda -- or twice that if you drink 2x2L -- could be unhealthy?

jrockway 12y ago
But it wasn't the "mild stimulant" that was causing problems; he was fine drinking a gallon a day of tea without oil of bergamot. You then go off on some rant about soda; the effects of eating an extra 1000 calories a day are well known. They do not apply to black tea.
- x0x0 12y ago
  And how would you know? Virtually nobody has studied the effects of long term high level black tea dosing, at last in part because (I believe) society has an assumption that most people aren't that stupid. A cup or five a day is understood because people do it. Assuming a cup is ~8 fluid oz, he drank nearly 17/day. ps -- since you didn't read the article, he wasn't fine drinking the black tea Since this type of tea had given him occasional gastric pain, he changed to Earl Grey (Twinings & Company, London, UK), which he thought would be less harmful to his stomach.
  - ubernostrum 12y ago
    Virtually nobody has studied the effects of long term high level black tea dosing, at last in part because (I believe) society has an assumption that most people aren't that stupid. In the southern US, iced and often sweetened black tea is consumed in large quantities and has been for quite a long time, to the point that the state of Georgia once jokingly introduced a bill mandating the presence of sweet tea on restaurant drink menus.
natecavanaugh 12y ago
I regularly drink 1.5 gallons of iced tea per day, and 0.5 gallons of water, and have for a long time with no ill effects. Of course it's not 25 years, but it used to be 8 liters of diet coke per day, and the acid on the teeth alone was enough to quit. However, where I think there is some difference is that I'm 6'4, 240lbs and in quite good shape. I think size definitely has some impact on that threshold, and until I see an explicit reason for harm, I see no benefit in stopping. But I'm stubborn like that and my kidneys could implode tomorrow for all I know :/
- WoodenChair 12y ago
  Your BMI is 29.2; unless you're a body builder with a ton of muscle you're not in "quite good shape." No offense.
  - jrockway 12y ago
    BMI tends to not work that well as you get taller. From Wikipedia: "Because the BMI depends upon weight and the square of height, it ignores basic scaling laws whereby mass increases to the 3rd power of linear dimensions. Hence, larger individuals, even if they had exactly the same body shape and relative composition, always have a larger BMI."
    - SamReidHughes 12y ago
      Nah, 6'4" at 240 lbs is not good shape.
  - natecavanaugh 12y ago
    BMI doesn't work well for measuring much. At least it's always been completely useless in telling me anything about my health. My body fat percentage is around 13.8%. Do I have some fat to lose? Sure, but it's still pretty good. And I do have a bit more muscle than the average guy. I wouldn't say I'm a "body builder", but I do workout 5 days a week, and measure out my food. Trying to judge someone's health from just to factors like weight and height seems flawed.
electromagnetic 12y ago
I really don't see your point. I have a small amount of whole milk in my black tea, mainly to aid in the cooling of it. In 4 litres, I'd probably be getting close to a cup of milk. So I would drink approximately 150 calories extra in a day, 13g of which would be carbohydrates consumed in a near balance with fats and proteins and due to the vast dilution would produce the minimalist of insulin responses. So I really don't get your point. By drinking 4L of tea in a day, I would be consuming less than half the sugar of a can of soda. Also Tea is hardly a mild stimulant, it contains more caffeine per unit than soda does. Yet people easily drink a few cups of coffee a day, which can easily have three-fold more caffeine than tea (five cups in a day would be close to 4L of tea) and have no ill effects from the caffeine unless they're caffeine sensitive and those people respond to decaf drinks with a tenth the caffeine in them.

by x0x0 12y ago

jrockway 12y ago

But it wasn't the "mild stimulant" that was causing problems; he was fine drinking a gallon a day of tea without oil of bergamot. You then go off on some rant about soda; the effects of eating an extra 1000 calories a day are well known. They do not apply to black tea.

x0x0 12y ago
And how would you know? Virtually nobody has studied the effects of long term high level black tea dosing, at last in part because (I believe) society has an assumption that most people aren't that stupid. A cup or five a day is understood because people do it. Assuming a cup is ~8 fluid oz, he drank nearly 17/day. ps -- since you didn't read the article, he wasn't fine drinking the black tea Since this type of tea had given him occasional gastric pain, he changed to Earl Grey (Twinings & Company, London, UK), which he thought would be less harmful to his stomach.
- ubernostrum 12y ago
  Virtually nobody has studied the effects of long term high level black tea dosing, at last in part because (I believe) society has an assumption that most people aren't that stupid. In the southern US, iced and often sweetened black tea is consumed in large quantities and has been for quite a long time, to the point that the state of Georgia once jokingly introduced a bill mandating the presence of sweet tea on restaurant drink menus.

natecavanaugh 12y ago

I regularly drink 1.5 gallons of iced tea per day, and 0.5 gallons of water, and have for a long time with no ill effects. Of course it's not 25 years, but it used to be 8 liters of diet coke per day, and the acid on the teeth alone was enough to quit. However, where I think there is some difference is that I'm 6'4, 240lbs and in quite good shape. I think size definitely has some impact on that threshold, and until I see an explicit reason for harm, I see no benefit in stopping. But I'm stubborn like that and my kidneys could implode tomorrow for all I know :/

WoodenChair 12y ago
Your BMI is 29.2; unless you're a body builder with a ton of muscle you're not in "quite good shape." No offense.
- jrockway 12y ago
  BMI tends to not work that well as you get taller. From Wikipedia: "Because the BMI depends upon weight and the square of height, it ignores basic scaling laws whereby mass increases to the 3rd power of linear dimensions. Hence, larger individuals, even if they had exactly the same body shape and relative composition, always have a larger BMI."
  - SamReidHughes 12y ago
    Nah, 6'4" at 240 lbs is not good shape.
- natecavanaugh 12y ago
  BMI doesn't work well for measuring much. At least it's always been completely useless in telling me anything about my health. My body fat percentage is around 13.8%. Do I have some fat to lose? Sure, but it's still pretty good. And I do have a bit more muscle than the average guy. I wouldn't say I'm a "body builder", but I do workout 5 days a week, and measure out my food. Trying to judge someone's health from just to factors like weight and height seems flawed.

electromagnetic 12y ago

I really don't see your point. I have a small amount of whole milk in my black tea, mainly to aid in the cooling of it. In 4 litres, I'd probably be getting close to a cup of milk. So I would drink approximately 150 calories extra in a day, 13g of which would be carbohydrates consumed in a near balance with fats and proteins and due to the vast dilution would produce the minimalist of insulin responses. So I really don't get your point. By drinking 4L of tea in a day, I would be consuming less than half the sugar of a can of soda. Also Tea is hardly a mild stimulant, it contains more caffeine per unit than soda does. Yet people easily drink a few cups of coffee a day, which can easily have three-fold more caffeine than tea (five cups in a day would be close to 4L of tea) and have no ill effects from the caffeine unless they're caffeine sensitive and those people respond to decaf drinks with a tenth the caffeine in them.