Tea is the second most dangerous and worst drink of all (after carbonated drinks); although it is full of antioxidants, it is a bad drink that causes constipation and acid reflux and thereby problems in the rest of the body.

Original statement

وتاني اخطر مشروب واسواقهم على الاطلاق الشاي الشاي اللي ملان انتي اوكسنت ده مشروب سيء يساوي امساك يساوي ارتجاع مريق دغري يساوي مشاكل بقيه الجسم

verbatim according to source. Translation by the project; the Arabic wording is authoritative.

Translation

Tea is the second most dangerous and worst drink of all (after carbonated drinks); although it is full of antioxidants, it is a bad drink that causes constipation and acid reflux and thereby problems in the rest of the body.

Origin

Source status

Video transcript (own words)

Attribution

Elawady (machine transcript)

Video

الجن . آلام العمود الفقري . الحقيقه والسراب (Open source)

Published

26 November 2025

Timestamp

0:42:42 (location in the original video’s automatic YouTube caption track; confirms where the words occur, not who speaks)

Attribution uncertainty

Archive transcript (YouTube CC or AI-generated); no timestamps; wording may contain speech-recognition errors; speaker turns are not marked, the excerpt was judged to be Elawady's own speech from context.

Claimed mechanism

Not stated; he acknowledges that tea contains flavonoids and antioxidants.

Claimed health effect

Constipation, acid reflux and downstream 'problems in the rest of the body'.

Population concerned

Tea drinkers in general.

Geographic restriction by Elawady

none found

Diverging source versions

Scientific assessment

Mostly false – Essential parts of the statement are not supported by the evidence or are strongly exaggerated.

Certainty of evidence: moderate – Further research may still affect the assessment.

1. What was claimed?

Tea is the second most dangerous drink and causes constipation and reflux, despite its antioxidants.

2. What is demonstrably correct?

Tea does have a real downside he does not mention: tannins in tea taken with meals inhibit the absorption of plant (non-haem) iron (I-INTA-04), which matters for people with iron deficiency or plant-based diets. Very hot tea (above 55-60 °C) is associated with oesophageal and gastric cancer (I-INTA-03). In East Asian studies tea drinking was associated with higher odds of reflux disease (OR 1.27, 1.07-1.51; I-INTA-01). He correctly notes that tea contains flavonoids and antioxidants.

3. What is wrong or exaggerated?

Calling tea one of the most dangerous drinks is contradicted by large cohort data: highest versus lowest tea intake was associated with 10% lower all-cause mortality (0.90, 0.86-0.95) and 14% lower cardiovascular mortality (0.86, 0.79-0.94) in nearly 2 million people (I-INTA-02), and an umbrella review of 96 meta-analyses found more benefit than harm at usual intake (I-INTA-03). Overall, tea was not significantly associated with reflux disease (OR 1.12, 0.98-1.27), and in Middle Asian studies it was associated with lower odds (I-INTA-01).

4. What remains unclear?

We found no human study showing that tea causes constipation at usual intake (PubMed search 'tea consumption constipation', 2026-10-25, returned mainly animal or unrelated studies). The observational design of the mortality studies cannot prove that tea itself lowers risk. Indirectly, caffeine intake was not associated with constipation in 13,941 US adults (I-SRC-122).

5. Which studies support it?

I-INTA-04 (iron absorption), I-INTA-03 (very hot tea), regional subgroup in I-INTA-01.

6. Which studies contradict it?

I-INTA-02, I-INTA-03, I-INTA-01 (overall). I-SRC-122 (caffeine and constipation), I-SRC-123 (tea and lower reflux prevalence in Taiwan), I-SRC-124 (tea/coffee not a reflux risk factor in Saudi studies).

7. What applies to Germany and Europe?

Tea is not restricted in European dietary guidance; no specific guideline was fetched for this review.

8. What is known about Egypt?

Tea is a very common drink in Egypt; no Egypt-specific outcome data were found. Drinking tea with or right after meals may matter for iron status where iron deficiency is common. In the closest regional data (Saudi Arabia), frequent tea or coffee drinking was not a risk factor for reflux (31.6% vs 31.3%; I-SRC-124).

9. What practical conclusion is appropriate?

Usual tea drinking is not dangerous for most people. It is reasonable to let tea cool before drinking, to avoid tea with meals when iron deficiency is a concern, and to cut down if tea clearly triggers personal reflux symptoms.

Assessment details

Rationale for certainty of evidence

Large prospective cohort meta-analyses and an umbrella review consistently associate usual tea intake with lower mortality and more benefit than harm; the reflux meta-analysis shows no significant overall association. Evidence is observational, and data on constipation are lacking, so certainty is moderate rather than high.

Source quality

Elawady's own words in an archive machine transcript (live stream); exact wording may contain recognition errors.

Regional transferability

Mostly transferable; Egypt-specific tea habits (strength, sugar, temperature, drinking with meals) were not studied in the sources read.

Individual exceptions

Some people notice reflux symptoms after tea or caffeine; people with iron deficiency or at risk of it may benefit from not drinking tea with meals.

Regional scope of the claim

general (biological/medical)

Last reviewed

26 October 2026 provisional

Scientific evidence in detail

Not supported by high-quality evidence – There is no good evidence for the claim; this alone does not prove it wrong.

Research question: Is usual tea drinking dangerous, and does it cause constipation and reflux?

Study results as reported by the authors. Our assessment follows below.

Open questions

Tea-specific constipation studies.

How deeply was this checked?

7 linked studies: 2 checked in full text (2 of them with a structured risk-of-bias assessment), 5 on the basis of the abstract, 0 bibliographically only. No formal assessment with two independent reviewers and no independent human expert review has taken place yet.

Last scientific review: 26 October 2026

In plain language

Dr. Elawady called tea the second most dangerous drink and said it causes constipation and heartburn. Studies of almost two million people found that tea drinkers had somewhat lower death rates, not higher. Across 30 studies, tea was not clearly linked to reflux overall. Tea does reduce iron absorption when drunk with meals, and very hot tea is linked to throat and stomach cancer. These are reasons to drink it cooler and between meals, not to call it dangerous.

Studies on this claim

Regional context

Germany / EU

Tea is not restricted in European dietary guidance; no specific guideline was fetched for this review.

Egypt

Tea is a very common drink in Egypt; no Egypt-specific outcome data were found. Drinking tea with or right after meals may matter for iron status where iron deficiency is common. In the closest regional data (Saudi Arabia), frequent tea or coffee drinking was not a risk factor for reflux (31.6% vs 31.3%; I-SRC-124).

What applies in my country?

General scientific assessment

Mostly false Tea is not a dangerous drink at usual intake; its real downsides (iron absorption, very hot temperature) differ from those he names.

This statement concerns biological or medical relationships. The scientific assessment above applies regardless of the country; country-specific food data do not change it.

References

1. The effect of tea on iron absorption.. Disler PB et al.. Gut 1975 · PMID 1168162 · DOI 10.1136/gut.16.3.193
2. Tea consumption and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality: a meta-analysis of thirty-eight prospective cohort data sets.. Kim Y et al.. Epidemiology and health 2024 · PMID 38938012 · DOI 10.4178/epih.e2024056
3. Tea Consumption and Health Outcomes: Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses of Observational Studies in Humans.. Yi M et al.. Molecular nutrition & food research 2019 · PMID 31216091 · DOI 10.1002/mnfr.201900389
4. Association Between Caffeine Intake and Stool Frequency- or Consistency-Defined Constipation: Data From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2010.. Li Y et al.. J Neurogastroenterol Motil 2025 · PMID 40205901 · DOI 10.5056/jnm23181
5. Habitual tea consumption is associated with a low prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease in a Taiwanese population study.. Kuo CM et al.. Int J Med Sci 2026 · PMID 42807308 · DOI 10.7150/ijms.139922
6. Prevalence and risk factors of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in Saudi Arabia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. Alhafid IA et al.. BMJ Open 2026 · PMID 42303406 · DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2026-118665
7. Association between tea consumption and gastroesophageal reflux disease: A meta-analysis.. Cao H et al.. Medicine 2019 · PMID 30681584 · DOI 10.1097/MD.0000000000014173