During Pregnancy – Is It Safe To Drink Iced Tea?
Monitoring everything you eat or drink during pregnancy is vital. Indiscriminate food consumption can harm the baby and also impact your health. So you should keep a close eye on what you are eating and drinking. Many foods and beverages must be avoided or at least moderately eaten during pregnancy. Iced tea is a beautiful refreshing beverage but it includes caffeine and sugar, so let’s check if it’s secure for pregnancy consumption.
You have to be very cautious about what you eat or drink once you’re pregnant. Without giving it a second thought, you can not indulge in anything. Your diet is changing a lot and you’re always being scrutinized for what you’re eating and drinking. That said, there are plenty of food and drinks to prevent during pregnancy. Is it iced tea? Is it safe during pregnancy to drink your much loved iced tea? Tea includes caffeine, whether it is warm or cold. Intake of caffeine during pregnancy is not encouraged. So the key here is moderation.
The content of caffeine differs with flavors and brands when it comes to iced tea. Usually, a glass of iced tea contains less than 20 mg of caffeine (normally between 12 and 18 mg). So as long as your daily consumption of caffeine does not exceed 200 mg, you should be all right. As far as caffeine is concerned, tea is usually better than coffee, as tea contains less caffeine than coffee, so you can happily indulge a bit more.
Is It Safe During Pregnancy To Drink Iced Tea?
If you’re a fan of iced tea, pregnancy may boost your desire to have it more often. It is not advised to drink packaged or bottled iced tea during pregnancy as it includes a high sugar content. On the other side, having a few cups of homemade iced tea (with less sugar or you can add honey rather than sugar) will not damage your pregnancy or child.
Benefits Of Iced Tea During Pregnancy
Tea is one of the healthiest beverages out there. Why?
1.Instant Refreshment:
It’s not simple to be pregnant with the heat bothering you during the summer, not to mention the morning sickness. A glass of iced tea will help you beat the heat and keep sickness at bay in the morning. You’ll also get an immediate energy boost thanks to the caffeine in the beverage.
2. Contains antioxidants:
Tea, whether warm or iced, includes a decent amount of antioxidant in it so it helps to keep away the free radicals in your body that may increase as a result of many hormonal modifications taking place in your body when you are pregnant. It also helps to prevent damage to DNA
3. Keeps the brain active:
During pregnancy, one tends to get clumsy and forgetful, and these are prevalent symptoms. Drinking iced tea keeps the brain alert and active through these daytime drowsiness periods.
4. Prevents cavities
Isn’t it surprised?? Your oral health may go for a toss while you’re pregnant. Iced teas can, therefore, assist avoid cavities
5. Manages gestational diabetes
If you have gestational diabetes, tea may be better than coffee because unlike coffee, tea during pregnancy does not boost the danger of gestational diabetes. But make sure you only have homemade iced tea as store brought iced teas are loaded with sugar and may not be suitable for you.
So, because of its many advantages, you can appreciate your iced tea cup during pregnancy but have it in moderation because, like everything, there are side effects if you have plenty of iced tea.
Problems With Drinking Iced Tea During Pregnancy
Loaded with caffeine, tea can also harm your health and the baby’s health. Here are some of the damaging impacts you should understand about drinking iced tea during pregnancy.
1. Miscarriage
If you eat elevated amounts of iced tea during pregnancy, it may boost your likelihood of miscarriage as more tea consumption implies excessive consumption of caffeine. During pregnancy, caffeine is known to cause miscarriage.
2 Increase The Possibility of Neural Tube Defects
In iced tea, caffeine may interfere with folic acid intake, resulting in neural tube defects such as spina bifida.
3. Lead to low birth weight
Limit your intake of iced tea because it contains caffeine and excessive intake of caffeine can cause babies to have a low birth weight.
4.Triggers Anaemia
During this period, pregnant women need high quantities of iron and drinking tea often causes iron deficiency. An unnecessary quantity of tea with a meal decreases the quantity of iron in the body that creates anemia in the pregnant female. Alternatively, to provide the iron you need, you can include meat and poultry in your diet.
5. Cause stillbirth
One of the causes of stillbirth may be excessive consumption of drinks and beverages containing caffeine. Although the desire will be high, when you are pregnant, make sure that you do not eat iced tea beyond the prescribed limit.
6. Cause dehydration
You will realize that after you drink tea, the rate of urination rises as it acts as a diuretic. It triggers dehydration, and during pregnancy, you may lose vital salts and minerals that the body requires.
For pregnancy, is Iced Lemon Tea Good?
Variants of iced tea are accessible in different flavors and among iced tea enthusiasts, lemon is a common one. Although there is no perceived harm in mild amounts of drinking lemon iced tea, it can be dangerous due to the elevated sugar content in bottled iced teas. Lemon tea can increase your body’s antioxidants and flavones, but it can be largely negated by the presence of sugar. Instead, at home, you can brew decaffeinated tea and squeeze into it a slice of lemon to quench your desire.
So we can safely say that iced tea can’t do much damage if you exercise moderation and resist the urge to eat iced tea in big quantities. Although a refreshing iced tea glass can do wonders to your fluctuating moods, don’t overdo it.
Practicing moderation is therefore best. It’s fine to have one or two glasses of iced tea during pregnancy without any damage and it’s certainly a better choice than coffee. So, go ahead and indulge in a refreshing iced tea glass.
Also Read: Is Drinking Coke During Pregnancy Safe?
