Tea and Coffee | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 23, 1877

Tea and Coffee.

WHY THEIR USE IS UNHEALTHFUL.

(Continued.)

PHYSICAL EFFECTS.

When a person drinks a cup of tea or coffee, he takes into his system from one-half of a grain to three or four grains of theine, the poison to which we have already frequently referred. Now what does this poison do? Does it nourish the body? No respectable authority makes any such claim. On the contrary, there is the best of reasons for believing that it does nothing at all. There is something done, however; but the vital organism is the actor, not the poison.

How does the system behave toward the active element of the tea or the coffee? Instead of attempting to assimilate it, or utilize it in any manner, it recognizes its true character as a dangerous poison, an article unfit to remain within its domain, and immediately sets its servants, the various depurating organs, at work to get it out of the body as soon as possible. If the resulting commotion is only slight, there is merely a gentle increase of the activity of all the various organs of the body consequent upon the accelerated motion of the blood. In this case, the individual feels exhilarated. He is stimulated, and feels cheerful and contented; and although he may have been, previously, quite weary, he now feels refreshed and strengthened.

If the dose taken had been a little larger, the person would have been more excited, and would probably have been very loquacious. Increase the dose somewhat, and a state of complete insensibility results. The last result is not often seen; but the first and second are very common.

In addition to these effects of the theine, the tannic acid irritates the membranes of the stomach and intestines, inducing constipation, and the long train of ills which are attributable to this morbid condition.

These are the immediate effects; now what do we see as the more remote results? The various organs which have been at work in eliminating the poison have been excited to unnatural, unusual exertion in view of impending danger from the presence of something abnormal and unusable. After the work of expulsion is accomplished, they are no longer goaded on by the foreign substance, and so they quickly relapse into a condition as much below their normal standard of healthful activity as they have been stimulated above it by the tea or coffee. Then the feeling of comfort and exhilaration gives place to one of exhaustion, faintness, and restlessness. This is the reason why every tea-drinker becomes so dependent upon his cup for the maintenance of his ordinary good feelings.

But let us look a little deeper into the condition of the system after the use of tea or coffee. The organs which have been engaged in the work of casting out of the body the poison sipped from the steaming cup, are the liver, lungs, kidneys, perspiratory glands of the skin, and mucous membrane of the intestines. In doing this work, they have been obliged to perform an extra amount of labor, while they have been not only unfurnished with a commensurate amount of additional nutriment, but have been, by overwork, deprived of the opportunity of obtaining even their ordinary supply. Under these circumstances, it is very evident that a greater or lesser amount of injury must be done the vital organs, the amount of actual damage being proportionate to the amount of poison received. If this injury were wrought only in a single instance, nature would soon repair the damage, and restore the organs to their wonted health and tone; but, when it is inflicted every day, and perhaps several times a day, the vital powers are unable to restore the wasted, overworked organs, and gradually, but surely, they are weakened and deteriorated until they become wholly diseased and unfitted for the performance of their proper functions. Then every tissue in the body becomes affected.

(To be continued.)