If there is one beverage that has a wide acceptance in most parts of the world, then it has to be tea. First discovered in China eons ago, the most basic recipe of tea includes boiling of certain leaves known as tea leaves, which coincidentally happens to be the way it was discovered in the first place. Today, tea is one of the cheapest and readily available beverages, consumed by millions of people in different forms.
In this article:
Is It Safe for Pregnant Women?
As with other foods and cuisines, tea, over the years, has undergone tremendous changes. There are countless variations of both hot and iced teas available across the world. In fact, the culinary world has seen the invention of numerous drinks which just have tea as a base, while other flavours and ingredients are added to it, thus transforming them into completely different beverages altogether. Today, you can go to any random cafe and find an array of options, when it comes to tea. One such option is bubble tea.
Bubble tea is basically a tea based drink that has its origins in the tea shops of Taichung, Taiwan in the 1980s. As of now, it is one of the most cherished drinks. In this article, we will find out what exactly this drink is and how it affects pregnant women.
A Guide for Bubble Tea During Pregnancy
What is bubble tea?
Bubble tea was originally created as a tea-based drink that was invented in the 1980s in tea shops in taichung, taiwan, as mentioned in the above paragraph. As in the name, most bubble tea drinks contain a tea base mixed with fruit flavor or milk. Ice-blended versions are usually mixed with more ice, resulting in a slushy consistency. The fun of bubble tea comes from the small chewy tapioca balls, also known as the ‘pearls’, ‘boba’, ‘zhen zhu’, or ‘the chew balls’.
The drink is made in a variety of ways and has evolved over the decades. There are many different recipes that each tea shop holds that makes them stand out from the rest. These include different ingredients, like milk, cream, ice cream, shaved ice, fresh fruit, syrup, flavored powders, soy milk, black tea, and/or green jasmine tea.
Pros and cons of bubble tea
Although tea itself is healthy, providing antioxidants and other nutrients that may help lower your risk for heart disease, cancer and other diseases, bubble tea isn’t very nutritious. The ‘bubbles’ in these teas consist of tapioca pearls. Tapioca balls are a product that comes from tapioca, a starch which is in turn extracted from the cassava root. They are also known as boba (a transliteration of the word ‘bubble’) or ‘pearls’ in bubble tea. Some boba are five-to-ten-millimeter starch balls, consisting of sweet potato powder, potato powder, or jelly. The tea is often sweetened with sugar and sometimes sweetened condensed milk as well. These additional ingredients make it higher in calories and sugar and harder to fit into a healthy diet.
So, to conclude, while tea is definitely healthy within certain boundaries, bubble tea isn’t that healthy. There might be some benefits of tea in it, but certainly not all of them.
Is it safe for pregnant women?
So the main question that arrives after the discussion of pros and cons of having bubble tea is this: is it really safe for pregnant women?
It is quite obvious that a warm cup of aromatic tea is a great way to help you relax and unwind. When you are expecting, you will have some reservations about what drinks to consume. Most women consciously keep away from coffee as it contains high amounts of caffeine. But these reservations dilute in a comforting cup of tea that can ease the morning sickness and uplift your mood. Tea offers multiple health benefits and can ease physical discomfort and mental stress during pregnancy. Yes, it is considered safe and even beneficial to drink certain teas during pregnancy. Tea contains polyphenols that protect your heart. Packed with antioxidants, it boosts your immunity and lowers risk of certain cancers. However, pregnant women must exercise moderation and stay away from some teas that can be unsafe at this time. Bubble tea unfortunately, happens to be one of them.
If you have read the paragraph carefully, where the constituents of bubble tea are discussed, then you will notice that sugar is the major component of this drink. Be it the bubbles in the tea, or the extra flavors added to it, all of it contains sugar. While a certain amount of sugar is necessary for the healthy growth of the fetus as well as for your overall health, please note that excessive sugar might result in gestational diabetes, which is extremely harmful for your baby. Thus, in case you really have a strong craving for bubble tea, try and limit it to just once or twice a month. Remember, your health and your baby comes first.
