They’ve change into as ubiquitous on British excessive streets as espresso retailers – bubble tea retailers providing their Instagram-worthy drinks in numerous flavour combos. The Taiwanese beverage, a mix of black tea, milk, sugar and chewy tapioca pearls, has gained world recognition since its origins within the Eighties. But latest findings counsel this fashionable drink could warrant nearer scrutiny.
A Consumer Reports investigation revealed excessive lead ranges in some bubble tea merchandise within the US, echoing earlier issues about cassava-based meals. (No equal UK testing has been printed.) The tapioca pearls – these signature “bubbles” – are created from cassava starch, and the foundation vegetable readily absorbs lead and different heavy metals from soil because it grows.
The tapioca pearls additionally pose different dangers past contamination. Their starchy composition implies that consuming massive portions can sluggish abdomen emptying – a situation referred to as gastroparesis – or, in some circumstances, result in full blockages.
Both may cause nausea, vomiting and belly ache, and signs might be notably extreme in individuals who have already got slow-moving digestion. Even guar gum – a thickener usually added to bubble tea and innocent in small quantities – can result in constipation in case you drink it usually.
The drink’s composition additionally impacts kidney well being. In 2023, Taiwanese docs eliminated over 300 kidney stones from a 20-year-old lady who’d been consuming bubble tea as a substitute of water. Certain elements, together with oxalate and elevated phosphate ranges, can contribute to stone formation. However, this excessive case in all probability displays exceptionally excessive consumption.
For youngsters, the dangers are extra quick. The pearls is usually a choking hazard – a threat that’s nicely documented by paediatricians. Adults usually are not proof against this threat. According to media studies in Singapore, a 19-year-old lady died after inhaling three pearls when sucking more durable on {a partially} blocked straw, whereas one other lady narrowly averted the identical destiny due to fast-acting bystanders.
The sugar drawback
The sugar content material raises longer-term well being issues. Most bubble teas comprise 20g-50g of sugar, similar to or exceeding a can of Coca-Cola (35g). Research in Taiwan discovered that by age 9, youngsters who usually consumed bubble tea have been 1.7 occasions extra doubtless to have cavities of their everlasting tooth.
In California, the drink is taken into account a contributing issue to the youth weight problems epidemic, but many younger adults stay unaware of those dangers. The excessive sugar and fats content material will increase the probability of creating sort 2 diabetes, weight problems and metabolic illness, whereas extended consumption could contribute to fatty liver illness – outcomes related to any high-sugar product that spikes blood glucose and promotes fats storage within the liver.
Perhaps most surprisingly, rising analysis suggests potential psychological well being implications. Studies of Chinese youngsters who incessantly devour bubble tea present an affiliation with elevated charges of tension and despair. Similar patterns seem in adults: analysis on Chinese nurses discovered that common bubble tea consumption was related to anxiousness, despair, fatigue, job burnout and decreased wellbeing, even after controlling for different elements. The identical examine linked decrease consumption to decreased ideas of suicide, although establishing causation stays complicated.
Strange scans
There’s even a curious medical phenomenon related to consuming bubble tea: tapioca pearls showing on scans of sufferers admitted for unrelated emergencies.
Doctors treating folks after automobile accidents or with appendicitis have discovered dozens of pearls seen in stomachs and digestive tracts. These can sometimes trigger diagnostic confusion, as they seem denser than the encircling tissues and have stone-like properties much like these seen with kidney- or gallstones.
This doesn’t imply bubble tea must be banned, but it surely does counsel we deal with it as an occasional indulgence as a substitute of a day by day behavior. And in case you do indulge, take into account skipping a straw. Drinking immediately from the cup offers you higher management, and permits your mouth’s sensory receptors to correctly put together for what’s coming.
Adam Taylor is Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University.
This article was first printed on The Conversation.
