Milk tea has long become one of the indispensable drinks for young people today. Walking in the streets and alleys, you can always see a few young people holding various kinds of milk teas. They have different genders, different ages, and different occupations, but their loyalty to milk tea is extremely similar, and many people even break out the mantra of "relying on milk tea to survive".
Although we understand that everyone likes to drink milk tea, in the face of health, we have to consider a realistic question: can milk tea and health be both?
Milk tea, as the name suggests, is composed of "milk" and "tea". But whether "milk" is real milk or not is another matter. Dietitian Tian Xue once wrote an article on the "Lilac Doctor" platform, which mentioned that the silky taste of milk tea is mainly derived from evaporated milk, and evaporated milk is obtained after milk evaporates water [1].
Although evaporated milk is more concentrated, but the production process is more cumbersome, the cost is relatively high, out of the cost considerations, merchants began to add vegetable fat powder to milk tea. Although the milk tea obtained in this way and the milk tea made with milk are very close in taste, this is extremely unhealthy.
In the article "When Milk Tea Meets Health", the author mentioned that the biggest hidden danger of plant fat powder to human health is trans fatty acids. Although the content of trans fatty acids in milk tea has been reduced with the advancement of the process, this ingredient still increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia, and even affects the development of the nervous system in children.
A new study by the French National Institute of Health and Medicine shows that trans fatty acids can effectively prevent the decline in cholesterol levels of heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases. In addition, trans fatty acids will also increase the viscosity and cohesion of human blood, which can easily lead to the formation of blood clots. This is more harmful for the elderly with fragile blood vessel walls.
In terms of cognitive impairment, many studies have shown that people with poor eating habits in young adults have a greater proportion of Alzheimer's disease in old age. Trans fatty acids have a countervailing effect on a type of cholesterol that can boost human memory.
In addition to these hazards, the most obvious harm brought by milk tea is probably obesity. I believe that many people who lose weight should know that trans fatty acids are not only not easily digested by the human body, but are more likely to accumulate in the abdomen, resulting in obesity. People who like to eat fried snacks such as fries must be well aware of it, because these fried foods also have a lot of trans fatty acids.
Of course, the harm caused by milk tea is not limited to the trans fatty acids. In 2019, the Shenzhen Guangming District Consumer Committee also commissioned the Shenzhen Quality Consumption Research Institute to conduct a comparative test of 10 commercially available brands of bubble tea [2]. Although the tested milk tea did not detect trans fatty acids, sweeteners, etc., it all detected caffeine that excited the central system, with an average content of 258 mg/kg.
To know that the caffeine content of a cup of American coffee is only about 108 mg, if consumers consume too much of this milk tea, it is very likely to produce palpitations, insomnia and other adverse effects.
Although there are more and more milk tea shops and the taste of milk tea is endless, I still hope that everyone can understand how milk tea will affect our bodies. Here is also a reminder that if you can quit, it is best to quit, if not, please be sure to drink less.
bibliography:
Peng Dani, Qiu Guangyu. When Milk Tea Meets Health[J]. Food Industry, 2021(3):4.
ZHANG Xu. Beware of the Health "Trap" in Milk Tea[J]. Traditional Chinese Medicine Health and Wellness, 2020, 6(2):3.