Plants - You Are What You Drink

September 6, 2018
Lori Tausta and Phil Parda from Savvy Tea Gourmet (Madison, CT) led us through the fluoride chemistry of what we consume, from plant to tea! We began by talking about nutrient and ion movement in plants, and how those components are distributed throughout the plant. Lori then told us about fluoride behavior, and we discussed fluoride prevalence in everyday life, as well as permissible amounts of fluoride in our bodies’ systems (don’t eat the toothpaste!). Phil then gave us an overview of different tea types, as well as characteristics associated with teas grown in different locations. The group then sampled several types of tea from Savvy Tea Gourmet, and after each tasting we measuring the concentration of fluoride to get a sense of the relative amounts of the chemical in each type of tea. To watch the presentation and learn about the chemicals that we consume, visit our YouTube channel, “The Green Café at Yale.”