Just like any other food allergy, tea allergy, though uncommon can occur in a hypersensitive individual.
The allergy can be due to any variety of tea such as green tea or black tea. The most common allergens are the content present in tea. Caffeine and tannin are usually to be blamed to produce tea allergy. The other substances present in tea are theobromine, theophylline, catechins, and volatile oils. A person can be allergic to any of this ingredients present in tea.
Tea Allergy Symptoms
Occupational allergy can occur in people working in tea industry with the inhaled tea dust.
It was found in one study that there were 5.6 % of employees having IgE immunoglobulin antibody allergic reaction to black tea or chamomile tea.
Green tea is made from the fresh leaves camellia sinesis plant.
Allergic Reactions To Green Tea
Symptoms of allergy reaction can occur as soon as the tea is consumed or as late as one or two days.
- Eye irritation.
- Redness of both the eyes.
- Watering of eyes.
- Runny nose.
- Swelling in the throat.
- Sneezing.
- Skin irritation.
- Asthma like symptoms.
Black tea is favored by many individuals, after the fermentation process its color changes from green to black.
Black tea allergy symptoms are similar to green tea allergy symptoms. Black tea also contains caffeine and tannin.
Black Tea Allergy Problems
Symptoms of black tea allergy include:
- Running nose.
- Headache.
- Diarrhea and gastric upset.
- Tingling in mouth.
- Tingling and rarely swelling in the throat.
- Asthma.
Once you know you are allergic to tea, you can soothe tea allergy by keeping away from tea.
If tea allergy occurs for the first time, the symptoms can be controlled with antihistamine medications.
This is very helpful. I gave up coffee and started drinking black tea instead and my nose started running within a few minutes of drinking the tea. On the mornings that I did not drink
tea, I did not have any nasal symptoms.
I drank tea and after sometime I had a headache, joint pain and water retention. When I was a child I had this problem to a lesser extent but now I am in my 40’s and sensitive to lot of foods. I had a sort of metallic taste and tasted the tannin for a few days. I am back to colas now. I had bottled tea and suffered from high BP for five hours. Then my BP dropped to my normal 120/70 and pulse 73.