On Fri, 21 May 2004 22:40:53 -0700, KeemunBLK wrote:



> First item: Dealing w/green tea and health - my sister went to give
> blood and they found her iron count to be lower than normal. The first
> thing they asked her was if she drank green tea on a regular basis. They
> said that it apparently interferes with iron uptake. Anyone else heard
> about this?

Yes, I've heard this too.

I like to use an iron tea pot when I can (in the hope that getting extra
iron during tea time will help), and I often separate my tea times from my
meal times, in the hope that the tannins in the tea won't bind with the
iron in my meals that way.

Also, using iron cookware is supposed to help (iron pans, whatever).

Vitamin supplements are probably worthwhile - if she gets one intended for
women, it'll likely have more iron than a "generic" one.

Red meat is supposed to have easy to absorb iron. I seem to do
fine on my vegetarian diet though (green leafy vegetables tend to have
iron, but not as easy to absorb, and some have oxylates, like spinach and
the chards, which makes it very hard to absorb). Oh, and having something
containing vitamin C at the same time as your iron-containing food is
supposed to double iron absorption, and eating dairy products at the same
time is supposed to halve it.

Also, if your body is getting low on iron, it tends to realize that and
start absorbing more iron on its own. Nice, eh?

> Second item: Matcha is essentially ground up green tea, right? I can't
> seem to find it in my area (USA - Virginia). Would grinding up normal
> loose green tea and then passing it through a fine strainer to get out
> the veins, stems, and misc. junk create a suitable analogue? Also, about
> green tea, one of the best I ever had was called Mt. Wen Baojong. It was
> bulk, and sold by the (now defunct?) Water and Leaves company. Is there
> a similar tea to this and can I get it in my neck of the woods?

Not sure about grinding your own, but you can probably get matcha by mail
order.