Women… To alleviate your health problems, drink a cup of tea.
According to a new study, including folate or vitamin B12 into tea may help to reduce the high incidence of anemia and neural tube abnormalities linked with widespread nutritional inadequacies in Indian women. The findings were reported in the online journal ‘BMJ Nutrition Prevention and Health.’ Women of reproductive age in India consume an unbalanced diet, resulting in chronic folate and vitamin B12 insufficiency. Several countries have successfully enriched grain with folate to prevent neural tube abnormalities, but logistical constraints make this approach challenging in India.
Approximately 70% of the population lives in rural areas, where cereal grain is typically harvested, refined, and purchased locally. Diets differ significantly based on cultural, religious, and ethnic variances and beliefs. Tea is the most popular beverage in India, second only to water. It is inexpensive and farmed and processed primarily in the highlands of four states: Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The researchers reasoned that these water-soluble vitamins may be augmented in a single daily cup.
The researchers divided 43 young women (average age 20) from the Maharashtra town of Sangli into three groups. Groups 1 (19 women) and 2 (19 women) received therapeutic amounts of folate plus 0.1 mg or 0.5 mg vitamin B12, respectively, while group 0 (five women) got unfortified teabags for the duration of the trial. The subjects’ serum vitamin and hemoglobin levels were compared at the start and end of the trial.
At the start of the trial, the majority of the women had anaemia and low to normal serum folate and vitamin B12 levels. Serum folate levels increased considerably in groups 1 and 2 by 8.37 and 6.69 ng/ml, respectively, compared to a rise of 1.26 ng/ml in group 0. Serum vitamin B12 levels in more than half of the women in Group 1 and two-thirds of the women in Group 2 exceeded 300 pg/ml. Average haemoglobin levels increased by 1.45 g/dl in Group 1 and 0.79 g/dl in Group 2.
Because this is feasibility research with a small number of participants, the study authors believe that bigger comparison investigations are needed before any definite conclusions can be formed. They did, however, recommend that fortified tea might be used as a therapeutic dose of folate and vitamin B12 for people with borderline or low levels, as well as a lower (maintenance) dose for those with nutritionally deficient diets.
Tea has the potential to help reduce haematological and neurological issues associated with poor dietary consumption or absorption of folate and vitamin B12 as a vehicle for fortifying tea with folate and vitamin B12 in India.
