I wanna make a case for unsweetened tea

If I first tell you that I’m an expat Brit, it will probably come as no surprise if I also share with you that I enjoy a cup of tea. A few shots of strong espresso in a bowl of hot milk is my morning drink, but tea is on the menu for most of the rest of the day. Perhaps less easy to fit into the ethnic stereotyping is the way I prefer my tea made. That preference is not hot with milk and sugar, but black with lemon, cold and unsweetened. And if we want to assume another level of stereotyping, you might ask yourself how I developed a taste for a drink that is a favorite in the Southern States but difficult to find most any place else, especially where I live in rural Canada.

By the way, the answer to the question above would be scuba diving. I like to drink unsweet tea anytime I can lay hands on it, but in particular I like to drink it when I am diving. Now I should also explain that I drink a lot of water when diving or otherwise. On a normal day, my water intake is around two to two and a half litres. When I am diving, I throw down at least that much. However, I also like to drink tea… probably a litre or more of it given the chance. My guess is that I “caught” the habit hanging out in North Florida’s Cave Country.

Now just in case you are reading this and saying quietly to yourself: “Guy’s an idiot. Tea is a serious diuretic and divers should steer away from it,” give me a couple more minutes.

And by the way, if you ARE thinking that, you’re not alone. I was recently on a dive boat (an excellent live-aboard working out of the Florida Keys). Always open for suggestions and customer feedback, one of the owners asked what I would change about their operations. I suggested their soda gun have a button for unsweetened tea added. She looked at me with a smile and explained that tea being “the most powerful diuretic known” I would not be seeing it on the menu for her divers anytime soon.

I resisted the temptation to argue. For example, I resisted the temptation to point out the boat’s soda offerings included: cola, and root beer; both of which have serious dietary side-effects from ingredients not to be found in tea. I also chose to not point out that there was a huge canteen of coffee on the galley counter below decks… surely if tea is diuretic, that must be too. Right? And thankfully, and most of all, I resisted the temptation to cry: “Bullshit.” Because bullshit it is.

Here are some facts about tea.

Tea is, at worst, mildly diuretic; with the emphasis on mildly. While you may poo-poo the veracity and question the bias of any study I care to cite here, data – and not some bullshit hearsay from a dubiously researched diving manual – indicates that everyday consumption of tea (hot or otherwise) does not produce a negative diuretic effect unless the amount of tea consumed at one sitting contains more than 300mg of caffeine. Since the average cuppa contains around 50mg, you’d have to drink about 1.5 litres of tea in one sitting to ingest this level of caffeine. That, my friends, would take some serious guzzling.

It may be worth noting that the British Dietetic Association has suggested tea can be used to supplement normal water consumption! Nothing there about tea being counter-indicated for good hydration… the opposite in fact. The BDA report went on to state that “the style of tea and coffee and the amounts we drink in the UK are unlikely to have a negative effect [on hydration]”. I think we are safe to apply the same logic anywhere else in the world.

A clinical study published by the British Tea Advisory Panel (admittedly a potentially biased source) stated that a cup of tea can be just as good as a glass of water at keeping your body hydrated. It explained that four to eight cups of tea consumed throughout the day, is thirst quenching “without any diuretic side-effects.” Now, I am willing to squint a little at one or two of those assumptions without adding some provisos but it’s interesting nevertheless.

In addition, the Harvard School of Public Health rates tea as one of the healthiest beverages. Tea contains essential nutrients that are being studied for their value in possibly preventing heart disease and diabetes. For instance, brewed tea is rich in free-radical fighting antioxidants.

Unsweetened ice tea is also naturally low in calories. A 16-ounce glass of unsweetened ice tea (that’s a little less than half a litre) will deliver about three calories. The same volume of cola contains about 180 calories all of which come from sugar.

Now you are free to drink whatever you want. And if I am on your boat, I will follow your rules and allow you to live by whatever odd dietary foibles you may have. But, please get something straight, unsweetened iced tea is NOT a serious diuretic and in fact may encourage divers who have an issue drinking a healthy dose of water to actually better hydrate.

Thanks for your time!

Anyone for a cuppa?

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