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Drinking Tea on an Empty Stomach is a Bad Idea


At least for me anyway.

It’s lunchtime. I just finished a plate of mediocre Thai food. I thought eating would help. It didn’t.

I had a few sips of tea this morning, about 1/2 a cup. Nearly immediately, I felt nauseous. I tried to ride it out, but it wouldn’t go away. It hasn’t gone away. I still feel like I’m going to throw up at any moment. I should have known better. This happens about 80% of the time.

Whenever I drink tea, especially on an empty stomach, I start to feel very sick. I don’t know why. A Google search didn’t bring up many answers though it revealed that lots and lots of people experience this too. It’s not the caffeine. I can drink coffee (usually), Coke or an energy drink and be fine. But there’s something about tea that makes me ill. It’s not a specific type of tea either; it can be green tea, black tea, or a blend. By the way, I’m talking about real tea, made from tea leaves, not herbal teas which usually don’t contain tea leaves and are actually a blend of dried herbs, fruits and flowers.

Well, it’s been a couple hours since I drank half a cup of tea and I don’t feel any better. Ugh. When will I learn? I guess I was hoping that this would be the 20% of the time it doesn’t happen. To make matters worse, I had forgotten about my cup and my tea bag had been steeping for nearly 2 hours! Why did I still drink it anyway? I’m sure the extended soaking time contributes to me getting sick, though I do get nauseous after just a normal cup.

Bleck.

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Posted Monday, December 15, 2008 under: Food & Cooking | Rant. Get comments feed. Add a comment or trackback.














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  • ssbourbon
    I brew my iced tea using decaffeinated tea with a Mr. Coffee iced tea maker.  So I know it's not caffeine, but something makes me sick when I drink iced tea on an empty stomach.  I don't experience any nausea when I drink iced tea after I've eaten.  I have never been a coffee drinker, and while I like a glass of orange juice in the morning, there are more calories in a glass of orange juice than in my iced tea that doesn't contain sugar.  I do use a non-calorie sweetener in my tea, though.  I also get nausea if I have hot tea on an empty stomach.  Weird.
  • Gfife
    I am so glad that i looked up this information on the net!  I love green tea and drink a lot of it especially hot tea in the mornings.  I have finally learned "do not drink green tea on an empty stomach", it will make you sick.  I really thought there was something weird going on with me when it happened for the first time.  I have to have a good full stomach before i drink it.  Yesterday morning i ate some yogurt and thought i would be ok---well, guess what?  I got so nauseated that i almost threw up.  I immediately grabbed some bread and a piece of lunch meat and swiftly gobbled it down.  After about 20 minutes i felt fine.  Lord knows i am never going to drink green tea on an empty stomach or partial full stomach in the mornings again.  That is the only time in the morings that it bothers me! You would think how could something good for you could make you sick!
  • Isn't it crazy how super sick we get? It's not even "ugh, I feel a bit icky" but actually like "ohgawd I'm gonna puke!!" After my last incident, I've stayed away from tea in the mornings (I usually don't eat breakfast) but I'm okay with drinking tea at night since I'm full with food from the day.
  • It literally just happened to me 5 minutes ago when I took a drink without realizing I hadn't eaten yet today and I started searching for others online. It's happened several times and I know that if I drink tea (specifically black tea) too quickly without food in my stomach I will get nauseous and will never forget the one time I learned how fantastic tea would be for a bulimic person. I just drank about 4 ounces of iced tea that was strongly brewed Lipton. Within 60 seconds I had that feeling I so fondly remember. I ran to the fridge, chugged a small glass of milk. It always helps. If you're not a milk person, try a handful almonds or orange juice, or just a plain piece of bread followed by water, but eat/drink it quickly before the nausea has time to sink in. THe milk killed the nausea after another minute and I was fine right away.

    It rarely happens with green tea, or expensive teas (actual teas, I don't think it happens with herbals). But it DEFINITELY happens anytime I consume even a tiny amount of black tea (specifically Lipton or cheaper brands). I know the tannins and acid cause problems, but think about it from an alcoholic point of view. Do you get a worse headache from over-consuming the same amount of  premium vodka or cheap crappy Skol vodka? Do you get a worse headache from cheap red wine that contains excess sulfates  or wine that has been decanted. It's possible one is worse.

    Maybe the cheaper the black tea, the more garbage that's in it and the worse stomach reaction. Still, it happens with most, just more intense problems when it's cheaper quality.

    Don't drink tea without food, sip it slow, or add stuff too it (milk or lemonade) and don't drink it too fast or too concentrated unless you have milk or bread on hand to stop nausea.
  • Jon_blaze
    Whoever mentioned about the tannins is correct.  Unless you have a strange hypersensitivity to caffeine or something (which is not in large quantity in tea compared to many other caffeinated beverages) this is the likely culprit.  I experienced the same thing once, so I did some experimenting on myself with things like straight black coffee, pure caffeine powder, etc... and it turned out only tea or green tea extract pills would upset my empty stomach.  I also noticed it more with teas that were more "astringent" (ie higher tannin content).  The advice about adding a little milk/cream works perfectly  or having some food, although milk in green tea is kindy nasty to me.  Good luck on enjoying your tea relaxingly.
  • Ashleychandel13
    I also get sick & throw up if I drink tea in the morning. I can drink coffee, cokes, etc without getting an upset stomach. I have no clue what it is. Help.
  • Mike
    My mother boiled Lipton tea and poured it in a large pitcher.  After a day in the fridge I came home from work, drank two glasses of tea with sugar and twenty minutes later threw up the tea and part of my lunch from two hours ago.  This is not the first time I have become sick from regular tea.  I use to be able to drink tea but now I stay far away.  So much for my dream of tea and scones with the Queen.

    Mike
  • Susangzales
    Oh dear..you're not the only one experiencing those things about drinking tea on an empty stomach, we are on the same boat  waahhhhhhhh :-(
  • Ashleychandel13
    Any news or found out why? I do too.
  • John
    Thanks for this forum.  I just drank half a cup of fresh-brewed ice tea on the way to work on an empty stomach and had to vomit after about 20 minutes.  Now, about 30 minutes later, I am feeling better and eating a tiny bit of food to make sure the remaining tannins get diluted some.  It was definitely the tea... I NEVER drink tea in the morning except for today because I didn't have time to make coffee.
  • Chiaotzu
    Tea is meant be taken between two successive daily meals, usually in the middle of the afternoon between lunch and dinner, but I take it after breakfast. It is not usually had with a meal but as a standalone or with a snack. Tannins, which are nauseating on an empty stomach due to their astringency, can interfere with the absorption of iron if taken with a meal, so it is wise to drink your tea at least an hour after a meal and no more than four hours after. Hope that helps.
  • Bobbie
    So glad I am not alone in my inability to drink either Lipton Orange Pekoe or green teas on an empty stomach. Google search did not help me, either. I get VERY nauseated until I sneeze a couple of times, then immediately feel much better, although the wiped out feeling lasts 30 min to an hour. When I discovered it was tea, I had been getting sick when drinking iced tea while waiting for food to be served in restaurants. Then, I become VERY sick after drinking a large "to go" iced tea, and immediately knew it was the tea. Then I discovered that green tea does it to me, too. Like the rest of those who posted here, I am wondering whether to quit tea drinking altogether.
  • Jackblakesmith
    It happens to me as well.... tea + empty stomach = agony. Good news is that if you can get food into your stomach after your done vomiting you will be back to feeling normal in less then 30 minutes or so.
  • Bridget
    Yes, I've experienced the same thing for years too. It takes about 5-10 minutes for me for the nausea to take hold and lasts about 20-30 minutes. Without fail on an empty stomach and sometimes if I have too many cups close to each other. It can also make me feel very faint.
    I had a food sensitivity test done and tea showed up, so it was recommended that I try decaffinated tea. This made no difference whatsoever, and like you I can drink coke without any problem. Unfortunately I do not like coffee but really enjoy tea (apart from this).
    There are suggestions it is the tannin in the tea or the acidity of it without milk. Can anyone spread some more light on this?
  • Conan
    Haha...I could have written this article myself. I have searched Google in the past only to find no real information on this. I have always been sensitive to tea on an empty stomach since I was a kid some 30 years ago. I've never actually gotten sick from tea, but I do feel pretty awful for 30-45 mins. I've learned my lesson and don't do that anymore. I drinks lots of tea still, but not an empty stomach. I enjoy my coffee in the morning anyway. :)
  • Mikearmani
    You guys...I have this problem too. I am 100% sure it is the polyphenols or tannins (colorless tangy volatile substance). I can say for sure that darjeeling causes the most potent for of this problem and people know it for its astringent tannic properties. On the other hand, teas with very little tannin (cheap teas, lipton, assam, etc) do not cause this problem for me. I never have the problem with any other kind of caffeine. In pill form, green tea extract is probably bound to enough stuff that it is slow release, or make it partly through the stomach. Eitherway, who eats just a green tea extract pill without some kind of food?
  • lucy
    i drank 1/2 cup of chai tea on an empty stomach and started feeling queasy. so i drank some water. then i drank some seltzer. those liquids only helped propel some projectile vomit into the toilet. it was so alarming and gross.

    thought i'd share.
  • Jen
    I'm so glad to have found this post and comments! I googled as well and found nothing that fit the description. I used to drink tea, any kind, without any ill effects at all. Then a few years ago, if I drank black tea in the morning, I'd throw up. About a year ago, I had iced green tea after work... and threw up. Since then, I've tried many different teas, both hot and iced, and I get sick about 80% of the time. This is such a HUGE bummer for me, as I lived off iced tea in the summer (I made all kinds of different flavored blends). I refuse to give up though! I keep trying (kinda like how I'm lactose intolerant and haven't entirely cut out dairy, just suffer the consequences).

    Like others, I have absolutely no problem drinking coffee or soda with caffeine. Also, I can drink bottled iced teas like Snapple or any other brand.

    It's just so weird.
  • Judy
    It's nice to know I'm not alone! It's not caffein for me either and tannins in red wine don't bother me. This is the first time I've read about polyphenol so they might be the culprit.

    I generally have a sensitive digestive system and avoid wheat and dairy because of reactions to gluten and casein.

    If I start a cup of tea and then feel nauseated I save it to make iced tea later. I assume that the dilution from the melting ice helps.

    What I'm really wondering is whether I should avoid tea entirely? Is it actually bad for me and the nausea is a warning sign?
  • Eleanor
    This happens to me too. Whenever I drink plain tea on an empty stomach I become so horribly nauseous I think I might pass out. It's not the caffeine for me either, so it must be the tannins, or polyphenols. They can cause nausea as well. And I suspect that some of us are particularly sensitive to them.

    The reason that milk in tea will make one less nauseous is because the proteins (casein) bind to the catechins and tannins. Unfortunately, many of the health benefits of tea are found precisely in the polyphenols and while adding a protein will lessen the gut-wrenching, well, gut wrenching, it may also lessen the health benefits. However, some claim that that unlike green tea, the health benefits of black tea are not attributable to the catechin content. Also, because soy protein is not casein, it apparently doesn't bind (which might make it less effective in preventing nausea as well.)

    Bleck.

    It is frustrating that no one has really written about the nausea effect of tea. Are you sensitive in other ways to foods with high tannin content-- like red wine headaches, etc? I wonder if there is a relationship. I'm not a chemist or nutritionist so it's difficult for me to decipher all of the polyphenol, catechin, tannin stuff (there are so many different kinds) but I suspect the culprit for me is thearubigin which happens when the epigallocatechin gallate in the tea leaf oxidizes in the fermentation process (I'm not so sensitive to green tea).

    Well, hope this helps and I still have plenty of "I should have known better" moments with black tea and not full enough stomach. Next time this happens to you immediately find some dairy to eat, this seem to help me.
  • John Black
    I cam across your entry as I am going through the same thing. Whenever I drink tea in the morning or on an empty stomach I get sick to the core. Normally if it's bad enough tea or I mix it with sugar or milk it's not so bad. On this particular morning I'm drinking a combination of mint and green herbal tea that is really potent. I haven't felt this bad in a while.
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