Side Effects Of Green Tea During Pregnancy

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

Pregnant women will act wisely if they limit the intake of green tea and all its ingredients. It is rich in antioxidants and is a provider of many health benefits related to teeth, blood sugar levels, cholesterol and weight loss.

However, researchers have found that its active ingredient, called epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG for short, can affect the way the body uses folic acid. Folate is very important for a pregnant woman as it protects the baby's neural tube from defects.

The problem with green tea during pregnancy is that EGCG molecules are structurally similar to a compound called methotrexate, which can kill cancer cells when it is linked to an enzyme called dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Healthy people also have this enzyme. It is part of the so-called foil pathway, which is the way the body transforms nutrients, such as folate, into something that can be used to maintain the body's normal functions.

However, this chemical similarity means that the EGCG in green tea binds to the enzyme DHFR, and when this happens, the enzyme becomes inactive. The body's ability to use folic acid is impaired. It is not clear exactly how much green tea can be drunk, but it is believed that two cups a day stops the growth of cancer cells (which is what methotrexate is).

The good news for pregnant women about caffeinated beverages, such as coffee and tea, is that moderate amounts can be safely taken. Two studies - one conducted by Danish researchers who interviewed more than 88,000 pregnant women and the other at Yale University of Medicine - gave roughly the same results.

The concern about caffeine lies in the fact that it will lead to the birth of low birth weight babies, or to miscarriage. This has been proven in terms of high amounts of caffeine.

The Yale team has found that drinking about 600 mg of coffee a day, which is equivalent to about 6 cups of tea, will reduce the weight of the newborn to limits that are clinically significant. The limit for weight loss is in the ratio of 28 g to 100 mg, or 1 cup of coffee per day. But this does not matter with moderate caffeine consumption.

Danish studies have found that drinking 8 cups of coffee a day or more (equivalent to approximately 16 cups of tea) will increase the risk of miscarriage or stillbirth by about 60% compared to women who do not drink coffee.. However, they also found that moderate consumption of tea and coffee did not lead to consequences.

For those who drink between half and three cups of coffee, the risk increases by only 3%, and for those who drink between 4 and 7 cups it reaches 33%. One cup of coffee equals approximately 2 cups of tea in terms of caffeine levels. The recommended dose is up to 3 cups of coffee and up to 6 cups of tea a day, advised by the British Food Agency.