The unexpected harm of milk tea

According to Dr. Truong Hong Son, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Applied Medicine, regular milk tea consists of three main ingredients: tea, milk, and pearls.

The basic types of tea commonly used in milk tea include black tea, green tea, white tea, and oolong tea. If you use good quality tea, it contains many antioxidants that have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects. However, many shops often add flavorings (jasmine, lotus) to the tea to make it more attractive.

If you do not use the right type of tea or food flavorings with clear origins, the above flavors may contain toxic chemicals (jasmine flavoring chemicals come from penzylacetate, lotus flavoring chemicals come from P - dimethoxy penzin, both are toxic organic substances).

Regarding the milk content in a cup of milk tea, except for famous brands that use fresh milk and condensed milk, most small brands use heavy cream (not milk). This type of heavy cream is very low in calcium, vitamin A, D, and protein compared to milk.

This creamer contains a lot of hydrogenated vegetable oil, which can have negative health effects such as clogging blood vessels, increasing bad cholesterol, and decreasing good cholesterol.

The third ingredient in milk tea is tapioca pearls, which are mainly tapioca starch or tapioca starch (about 80%), concentrated sugar, food flavorings and only less than 1% of the pearls are fiber and protein.

Because the main ingredient is starch, although these pearls look small, they are high in energy. Each pearl contains 5-14 kcal. Normally, a cup of milk tea is often added with 2 spoons of pearls, which can provide up to 100 kcal. However, basically, pearls lack many vitamins and minerals, and have almost no nutritional value.

A cup of pearl milk tea can contain up to 50g of sugar (providing 200 kcal calories). That's not to mention the calories that milk and pearls provide.

Nowadays, milk tea ingredients not only include pearls but also many other types of toppings (often called toppings), such as egg pudding, cream cheese, jelly... Depending on the type, the amount of calories in each type will increase or decrease. Compared to pearls, cream cheese may contain more energy, jelly may contain less energy.

If you drink fruit-flavored milk tea, the shops also add fruit syrup. This is also a source of calories for the body. In total, a cup of pearl milk tea can provide up to 335 kcal.

School age is the age when we need to accumulate nutrients, so drinking too much milk tea can cause nutritional deficiencies and affect development.

Besides the risk of excess energy, milk tea also has health risks if the ingredients in this drink do not ensure food safety. Some pearl milk tea shops, for the sake of profit, do not use natural tea powder but make it from colored powder. The flavor is no different from natural tea but it is created from chemical synthetic substances.

If the tea essence in milk tea does not exceed the standard and is used in moderation, it will not cause much harm to health. However, if used regularly for a long time, it will damage the function of the liver and kidneys.

The main ingredient of milk tea is hydrogenated vegetable oil, a type of trans fatty acid. This type of acid will reduce male hormone levels, controlling sperm vitality.

Many people love milk tea but are afraid of its uncertain origin, so they buy ingredients to make it themselves. Milk combined with tea incorrectly will eliminate the benefits of tea. The casein protein in milk will reduce the compounds in tea that protect the body against cardiovascular diseases.

In addition, this drink also poses a risk of food poisoning if the ingredients and materials do not have a clear origin.

In addition to the risk of excess energy, causing liver and kidney damage and infertility, milk tea produced without ensuring food safety and hygiene can cause poisoning to users. This problem does not come from milk tea but from the production and origin of the ingredients that create this drink.

Experts recommend that to drink milk tea that is still good for our health, we should choose milk tea that meets the criteria such as being processed at reputable stores, using ingredients with clear origin, using low-sugar or sugar-free types, using fresh milk to make milk tea, not condensed milk or cream.