Iced tea in the summer is one of the most relaxing and refreshing drinks. However, the fact that iced tea can lead to kidney stones makes it a slightly less enjoyable drink. Doctors have found that a chemical in oxalate that is found in iced tea is a key chemical that helps form kidney stones.
John Milner, an urologist at Loyola University Medical Center, said that people who drink a lot of iced tea are more in danger of developing kidney stones. However, being dehydrated also causes them. Men the age of 40 or older are four times more likely to develop kidney stones than women. A study was done on a 56 year old man who experienced kidney failure. After doctor’s found oxalate minerals, they found out the man was drinking about 16 glasses of iced tea per day. Although the doctor’s could not find the causation between the two, they know that they are correlated. As the amount of iced tea consumed increases, the higher the chance of developing kidney stones. Doctor’s tend to put kidney stone patients on diets with low-oxalate consumption. In her article on Health Day, Kathleen Doheny states, “the recommended intake of oxalate per day is 40-50 milligrams, yet Americans tend to intake 50-100 milligrams.” Americans that are in more danger of kidney stones should drink less iced tea and consume less oxalate.
Even though hot tea contains oxalate as well, it does not cause stones as quickly as regular iced tea. However, it is still smart to only drink a little bit each day. Iced tea may be a refreshing drink, but humans should be careful because all the oxalate consumed builds up and causes a very painful situation.
Great post! My family has a history of kidney stones, so I have done a bit of research in the past. I saw that staying hydrated helps, but I never saw anything about iced tea. That’s very interesting, and I’ll be sure to limit the amount of iced tea that I drink!
I don’t have as big of a problem with this considering I only occasionally drink hot tea, and I don’t even like iced tea. However, I just read that possibly chocolate can cause kidney stones, which is a big problem for me considering I love chocolate. Maybe now I’ll be able to prevent myself from eating it so often.
Mehmet, the article I read said that iced tea is drank more often and at larger amounts than hot tea. I guess people usually only drink hot tea once or twice a day, but people have multiple glasses of iced tea in one day.
Wow, i never would have thought that the two could have been connected. Is there a reason why iced too has a higher chance of causing kidney stones compared to hot tee? Because its just basically the change in temperature and in some cases the adding of sugar.
This is very interesting. To further up your claim I think it would be good to add some other drinks that either help prevent kidney stones, or make them increase the chance of having one. I didn’t know iced tea was a factor in the development in kidney stones. Also it would be interesting to find out what exactly oxalate does to ones body and what other drinks contain it. This website does a great job of explaining what oxalate is and showing what exactly someone can do to keep a low oxalate diet: http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/what-is-a-low-oxalate-diet.
Wow, science is amazing isn’t it. I needs to seriously read though our posts and consider adjusting my eating habits a little bit. Iced tea is one of my favorite drinks of all times. I thought this is a great replacement of sodas since I knew that soda is not good for our health and one of my best friends suffered from it by drinking too much of them. I never thought iced tea could be bad for our health, never… Thanks for your contribution and I’m planning to say no to iced tea in the future.
Very alarming read for me considering iced tea is one of my favorite drinks! I must fill my glass in the dining hall with it at least one meal a day. Also, I had never previously heard of iced tea causing kidney stones, rather any type of complications. Hot tea was always offered to me when I was sick, so i figured iced tea must be harmless, if not beneficial. To read into this post and learn that oxolate causes kidney stones will make me look into the other foods and drinks i consume to make sure i have no complications later on down the line.
Hello, I really appreciate this piece of blog. I think it mentioned a part that iced tea can actually causes kidney stones. I had done a research years before that mainly focused on which beverage is the best seller and the iced tea was on the list. It will be a serious question if evidences clearly show that iced tea increases the possibility of getting kidney stones. So we should pay more attention about what we are having everyday for energies for something is killing us softly!