Tannin Sensitivity (Sensitivity to Tannins)
Here's the ungarnished truth about tannins and tannin sensitivity. As you probably know, tannins are astringent polymers that naturally occur in coffee, tea, red wine and chocolate (among the most popular dietary sources).
Effects of Tannins:
Tannins may cause migraines, joint pain that mimics artheritis, tiredness, depression, bowel problems, problems with vision when focussing, digestion problems, thin brittle skin, perhaps hair loss and slow hair growth, and myriad other symptoms, both subtle and severe.
For years I suffered a series of symptoms that I had pinned on coffee, uncertain about tea, and pretty sure were tied to red wine - no problem with chocolate.
These symptoms were such diverse elements as - lethargy, tiredness, depression, joint pain in hips, shoulders and fingers, thin brittle skin, hair loss, slowed hair growth, slowed metabolism and even acid reflux and heartburn and diminished ability to focus closely, requiring reading glasses.
I tried experiments by going off all these items and found that in a few days the joint pains went away. In about a week my vision returned to normal, and in about a month my skin improved. So, I assumed that one of those drinks was the cause - perhaps some sort of allergy. I was sure it wasn't caffiene because even decafe coffee and tea caused the same problems.
After years of searching for information that would help me undestand the cause of all these maladies, I've finaly done an exhaustive intent research of everything from wikipedia to manufacturers, heralists and personal blogs and determined that the cause is tannins (as suggested it might be by my partner Teresa).
While there was no single source on the internet that really had a grip on the big picture, I was able to piece together a clear outline of tannin sensitivity from these many disparate sources.
Here's the results of my research on tannin sensitivity:
Tannins in Tea:
Tannins leach out of tea only after about two minutes of brewing. During the first two minutes, mostly caffiene leaches out. So, if you like tea and want to limit tannins, brew as quickly as possible.
Here's something I worked out on my own - just a theory, but sounds reasonable. Tannins are polymers. Polymers break down into different lenghts depending upon the temperature and the time. For example, when home-brewing beer, you actually cook the "wort" on the stove at different temperatures for different times to break down the polymers to the proper length for a porter, an ale, or a lager.
So, if you want fewer active tannins in your tea, brew at a lower heat for less time. Sun tea may be an exception since it doesn't get very hot. Perhaps even a long brew may not bring out the tannins.
Tannins in Coffee:
Apartently, in order to brew coffee beans, rather than tea leaves, it requires higher heat and longer exposure of the bean to the water. This makes it difficult to prevent tannins from getting in your drink.
I'm wondering if varying the grind from course to fine, or using paper or metal or French Press filtering has an affect. I'm not sure if decaffienating coffee changes the tannin level - no data on that I could find.
Tannins in Wine:
Red wine has lots, white wines not much. That's because red wines have the skins of the grapes included in the fermenting process and the skins and seeds of grapes are very high in tannins.
I have heard there are some wines that filter out the tannins, so I wonder if that could be applied to coffee and tea as well?
Tannins in Chocolate:
Chocolates are reasonably high in both caffiene and tannins. But I've never noted negative physical or mental effects from chocolate. I'm wondering if perhaps the low heat of preparing chocolate and that it is eaten usually and a lower temperature may prevent the tannins from being released or activated.
My Tannin Theory:
Overall, I get the sense that the tannin polymers just might be bound to other chemicals in the source. Brewing or fermenting breaks that bond and releases the tannins into the drink. Once free, the tannins are able to bond with chemicals in the body which has both physical and mental effects.
If so, then rather than filtering out or avoiding tannins, we might find a way to put an additive in drinks that would bond with the tannins and keep them from being free to bond in the body.
That way, coffee, tea and red wine might respond a lot more like choclate in the system.
Tannins - Both Good ANY Bad!
When reasearching tannin sensitivity I discovered there are two camps - those promoting the health benefits of tannins and those warning of tannins' detriments.
Here's how the Pros and Cons lines up:
Tannins act as antioxidents, which mop up free radicals in your system, thereby preventing cancer and preserving your DNA, hopefully slowing aging, but tannins are the stuff they use to tan leather (an astringent) and dries your skin and slows your metabolism.
Tannins inhibit tooth decay, but tea, coffee and wine stain your teeth.
Tannins leach nutriants from your system, especially iron, leading to anemia, but they aid in digestion. But, if you have tannin drinks between meals to avoid the leaching, tannins reduce your seratonin levels. This makes you more emotional because the dopamine remains normal, but also makes you more depressed because the dopamine wasn't raised, but seratonin was just lowered.
A final clue was that I don't particularly like cumin (a high source of tannins) but I DO like pomegranates (also high in tannins). This, I believe, supports my theory that the high temperatures of cooking when using cumin release the free tannins but the room temperature of pomegranates keeps the tannins bonded when they enter your system. In red wines it may be the fermenting process that unbinds the tannins.
Okay, so there you have it. It isn't a complete or scientific study of tannins, but it does provide an overall hyposthesis of how it all works and what might be done about it.
Effects of Tannins:
Tannins may cause migraines, joint pain that mimics artheritis, tiredness, depression, bowel problems, problems with vision when focussing, digestion problems, thin brittle skin, perhaps hair loss and slow hair growth, and myriad other symptoms, both subtle and severe.
For years I suffered a series of symptoms that I had pinned on coffee, uncertain about tea, and pretty sure were tied to red wine - no problem with chocolate.
These symptoms were such diverse elements as - lethargy, tiredness, depression, joint pain in hips, shoulders and fingers, thin brittle skin, hair loss, slowed hair growth, slowed metabolism and even acid reflux and heartburn and diminished ability to focus closely, requiring reading glasses.
I tried experiments by going off all these items and found that in a few days the joint pains went away. In about a week my vision returned to normal, and in about a month my skin improved. So, I assumed that one of those drinks was the cause - perhaps some sort of allergy. I was sure it wasn't caffiene because even decafe coffee and tea caused the same problems.
After years of searching for information that would help me undestand the cause of all these maladies, I've finaly done an exhaustive intent research of everything from wikipedia to manufacturers, heralists and personal blogs and determined that the cause is tannins (as suggested it might be by my partner Teresa).
While there was no single source on the internet that really had a grip on the big picture, I was able to piece together a clear outline of tannin sensitivity from these many disparate sources.
Here's the results of my research on tannin sensitivity:
Tannins in Tea:
Tannins leach out of tea only after about two minutes of brewing. During the first two minutes, mostly caffiene leaches out. So, if you like tea and want to limit tannins, brew as quickly as possible.
Here's something I worked out on my own - just a theory, but sounds reasonable. Tannins are polymers. Polymers break down into different lenghts depending upon the temperature and the time. For example, when home-brewing beer, you actually cook the "wort" on the stove at different temperatures for different times to break down the polymers to the proper length for a porter, an ale, or a lager.
So, if you want fewer active tannins in your tea, brew at a lower heat for less time. Sun tea may be an exception since it doesn't get very hot. Perhaps even a long brew may not bring out the tannins.
Tannins in Coffee:
Apartently, in order to brew coffee beans, rather than tea leaves, it requires higher heat and longer exposure of the bean to the water. This makes it difficult to prevent tannins from getting in your drink.
I'm wondering if varying the grind from course to fine, or using paper or metal or French Press filtering has an affect. I'm not sure if decaffienating coffee changes the tannin level - no data on that I could find.
Tannins in Wine:
Red wine has lots, white wines not much. That's because red wines have the skins of the grapes included in the fermenting process and the skins and seeds of grapes are very high in tannins.
I have heard there are some wines that filter out the tannins, so I wonder if that could be applied to coffee and tea as well?
Tannins in Chocolate:
Chocolates are reasonably high in both caffiene and tannins. But I've never noted negative physical or mental effects from chocolate. I'm wondering if perhaps the low heat of preparing chocolate and that it is eaten usually and a lower temperature may prevent the tannins from being released or activated.
My Tannin Theory:
Overall, I get the sense that the tannin polymers just might be bound to other chemicals in the source. Brewing or fermenting breaks that bond and releases the tannins into the drink. Once free, the tannins are able to bond with chemicals in the body which has both physical and mental effects.
If so, then rather than filtering out or avoiding tannins, we might find a way to put an additive in drinks that would bond with the tannins and keep them from being free to bond in the body.
That way, coffee, tea and red wine might respond a lot more like choclate in the system.
Tannins - Both Good ANY Bad!
When reasearching tannin sensitivity I discovered there are two camps - those promoting the health benefits of tannins and those warning of tannins' detriments.
Here's how the Pros and Cons lines up:
Tannins act as antioxidents, which mop up free radicals in your system, thereby preventing cancer and preserving your DNA, hopefully slowing aging, but tannins are the stuff they use to tan leather (an astringent) and dries your skin and slows your metabolism.
Tannins inhibit tooth decay, but tea, coffee and wine stain your teeth.
Tannins leach nutriants from your system, especially iron, leading to anemia, but they aid in digestion. But, if you have tannin drinks between meals to avoid the leaching, tannins reduce your seratonin levels. This makes you more emotional because the dopamine remains normal, but also makes you more depressed because the dopamine wasn't raised, but seratonin was just lowered.
A final clue was that I don't particularly like cumin (a high source of tannins) but I DO like pomegranates (also high in tannins). This, I believe, supports my theory that the high temperatures of cooking when using cumin release the free tannins but the room temperature of pomegranates keeps the tannins bonded when they enter your system. In red wines it may be the fermenting process that unbinds the tannins.
Okay, so there you have it. It isn't a complete or scientific study of tannins, but it does provide an overall hyposthesis of how it all works and what might be done about it.
Comments
I've noted that when I've given up coffee/tea/wine/chocolate my constipation has suddenly disappeared and, after three days of loose stools, I have normal bowel movements again.
Are tannins the reason for this?
Sorry for my English, I'm Italian.
Marco
How did you do it?
Pam Johnson
Clarkston, MI
http://schaerer.ca/pressure_brewed_coffee.htm
It makes sense to me that pressure brewed espresso or coffee would have a much lower tannin level - when I've had lattes, cappuccinos, or americanos the tannin effects aren't nearly as bad. Elsewhere on the website they claim that brewing coffee in those single "K-cup" machines results in a tannin level in between a conventional drip coffee maker and an espresso machine. Hope this helps!
It took me years to work out the tannin-related problem.
Try switching to Redbush (rooibos) tea. It's naturally tannin free and really good. Also outlets that use expresso method of making coffee are much better for me also, but only if they use arabica beans.
See link below re stuff with tannin in...
My personal list of problem stuff is: Harsh brewed coffee, tea, DARK chocolate, raisins, red wine ( very light red like beaujolais nouveau I can just about cope with)and vegetable stuff with red/red-brown skin like whole peanuts/walnuts/red beans etc)
its so good to find I'm not the only one...Although I wouldn't wish the pain, puzzlement and confusion on anyone!
(I also have an odd chemical sensitivity to just some perfumes and bleach in general... does anyone have the 2 issues together? I'm wondering if there's a link?.... just a thought)
C
http://www.widomaker.com/~jnavia/tannins/tannlist.htm
Can't be sure if the tannins or another component of the tea is the problem.
Now I drink lemon water or mint tea.
Just a tip!
I've abstained from coffee but I love it. That's helped a lot, and I've tried some teas. Peppermint tea was terrible, probably the worst for me. I had a can of iced tea earlier and I feel terrible now.
To suit my need for a hot beverage replacement, I've moved to milk and cocoa powder, no sugar. I have a Nespresso Aerochino that stirrs while it heats the milk. The non-sweet, slightly bitter flavour reminds me of coffee a bit.
I love red wine but can't drink it either. I did read that milk with tea / coffee causes milk proteins to bond to the tannins which then are too big to absorb. I'll have to try a milk before a glass of red wine.
Take care...
Thanks
Sean
In the UK we have always traditionally added milk to tea to counteract the bitter tannins and also to coffee as well. The milk takes the bitterness away but keeps the flavor. The tea should be a medium brown colour, something like copper. I drink lots of tea and have never had any problems....around 8 mugs a day.
I have had problems with too much coffee upsetting my stomach and causing irregular heartbeats(especially instant coffee which I no longer drink). It is a lot more acid than tea, not necessarily to do with tannin but caused by the roasting of the beans. Highly roasted malt barley used for stouts is also is quite acid for the same reason.
As for chocolate, I can get a headache if I eat too much of the very dark high cocoa type with no added milk in it. I received a present once of a bar of dark 99% cocoa chocolate and ate the whole lot and got a nasty headache next day. This may or may not be connected with tannin. If you eat milk chocolate it does not seem to happen....again milk cancels out the bitter taste and possibly netralises the tannins, also supplying extra calcium to counteract the chelating effect of the tannin. In fact in chelating the calcium in the milk, the acid of the tannin may be effectively neutralised.
RE red wine: I adore dry tannic red wine, the dryer the better and have never had any problems with its effects. I have worked in the wine industry and tasted my way through very many types of wine. Though red wine can be high in tannin, it need not be that high in acidity. Classic French Bordeaux wines are traditionally high in tannin but with no sourness, just astringency balanced by sweet fruit flavors. Just because a drink is high in tannin does not mean it has high acidity.but it will have astringency or bitterness.
General points...Tannins are powerful antioxidants and tea, coffee, cocoa, red wine and red grapes etc are supposed to be healthy because of this. Tannins are precursors of anthocyanins, the purple pigments in red wine and blueberries. Red grapes, coffee and cocoa are sky high in anthocyanins as well as tannins. They are claimed to benefit heart health. Blueberries and other berries are very high in tannins...do you want to give them up? No of course not....the tannins are balanced by the sugars in the fruit. When sugars combine with tannins you get compounds forming like anthocyanins, Tannins are basically(Dont quote me!)flavanol molecules bonded together in 2s,3s,4s,5s or more as dimers, trimers, etc up to polymers. Anthocyanins are basically (Don't quote!)flavanol molecules with sugars attached. So sugars can change tannins. Nuts(with skins on) and berries are very high in tannins, but I have not heard of any problems with them. The theory therefore needs some qualification. Maybe we need to add milk and sugar to coffee and tea again, eat milk chocolate or drink cocoa with milk and sugar. Personally I can't stand sugar in tea and coffee anymore though I do add milk.
All the best to you Melanie and thank you to all other contributors.
Tannic acid is a specific type of tannin (plant polyphenol), the two terms are sometimes (incorrectly) used interchangeably. The long standing misuse of the terms, and its inclusion in scholarly articles has compounded the confusion. This is particularly widespread in relation to green tea and black tea, both of which contain tannin but NOT tannic acid.[1]
Brendon
This is a great idea to blog for a better understanding and to read about other people and their tannin experience. I would like to share mine in hopes it will help others, as the doctors have no response to my findings about the tannin reaction I have.
In July 2009, I was thought to be having appendicitis. After many tests, and a co-pay grand total to BCBS well over $2500, my results were inconclusive. The items ruled out were in this order, appendicitis, ovarian cysts, colon issues, gall bladder issues, & any cancers.
After intermittent pain for years, this pain presented itself severely enough that it seemed an obvious appendicitis. Well, nothing came of the testing.
In 2012, I was happy that the pain had not been there in a while. I chalked it up to past stress. My lifestyle-diet changed and I was basically eating more foods I liked. Until the day I had a handful of Raw Almonds - the next morning I could barely get across the room. The severe pain was back with a vengeance.
I immediately raced through my brain for what I had eaten. I then searched the internet for almond allergy and found a blogger, widowmaker, mentioned by one of your bloggers above.
From this blog, I realized that when I was living with my husband, just about ALL of our diet was a high tannin diet. All the foods and drinks he kept telling me to eat to feel better were actually the foods that were making me sick.
I did further reading, trying to stay on valid research sources via the internet. I found that tannins cause an intestinal inflammation according to one and then according to another post, tannins healing for intestinal inflammation. This is very confusing to a layman like me. I am going to give the links to some good research items for you and others needing more information. The food lists on the aforementioned widowmaker-blog has inaccuracies, but remember the blogger is saying, “This is what works for me.” Not this is a low-tannin food list.
In addition to the abdominal pain, I do have joint pain that comes and goes no doubt caused by something dietary and stress. Doctor’s are very quick to call this fibromyalgia because they do not know what it is. Personally, I dismiss this diagnosis completely. I have read that improper absorption of nutrients will create joint pain. This seems logical.
It appears that there are two types of tannins. 1- Hydrolyzed Tannins and 2- Condensed Tannins. They have a correlation to how they bind with proteins to digest and absorb nutrients, as well as the effectiveness of salivary enzymes and the different tannins. There is information in these two links related to this topic, as well as scientific explanations that are over my pay grade.
http://naturalmedicinejournal.net/pdf/nmj_nov09to_clinton.pdf
http://cro.sagepub.com/content/13/2/184.full#sec-9
Very interesting post. I too am sensitive to tannins. And if you like
to drink green tea like i do, it sure is a challenge to find one without so many tannins.
What i have found out regarding green and black tea, is that the aminoacid Thenanine is the precoursor to tannins in the tea plant. During photosynthesis (the sun shining on the plant), Theanine turns into tannins. You can buy tea, that has been grown in the shade, hence, has a low tannin content and high Theanine content (the compound in some teas that relaxes you).
Sometimes when i take a sip of something with tannnins in, don't swallow it but I spit it out, I still feel ill. I read somewhere that receptors on the tounge, effects the Vagus nerve (and some other nerve I can't remenber the name of). If you look at pictures of the Vagus nerve, you can see that it goes from the side of the next, the whole way down to the stomac.
When I read this some weeks ago, it suddently made sense to me, why my stomac twisted and turned and i got nausea, from just having the liquid in in my mouth, without swallowing.
Tommmy
I still don't understand why I can drink hot coffee , hot black tea, or eat or drink chocolate (hot or cold) without a problem. Maybe there are mild symptoms that I am not aware of. It does explain why I get headache right away when I drink alcohol though.
The first:
"I was sure it wasn't caffiene because even decafe coffee and tea caused the same problems"
-Decaf coffee and tea still contain caffeine. You'd be surprised how much they contain. If you were sensitive to caffeine, even these small amounts would have negative effects.
Second:
"exhaustive intent research of everything from wikipedia to manufacturers, heralists and personal blogs"
These are all either biased sources, or contain nothing but conjecture and anecdotes. For real research, you would ideally be reading peer reviewed scientific papers.
That being said, I can take something away from this article. I have the same symptoms as you and am going through the same process of elimination to try and figure out what the hell is causing this! I'm going to try and eliminate tannins from my diet and see if that helps! (Quit caffeine completely (not even decaf)a few months ago)
So thanks for giving me a new lead to follow!
PS. Just realised how old this article is, and curious to know how you got on!
I just discovered after years of stomach burning that tannins are the culprit. It started years ago when I was a tea drinker and was immediately obvious. A friend told me that it was probably the tannins. I changed to coffee and had no other problems.
Just yesterday, I found that raw nuts were burning my stomach which led me to a search that uncovered the tannin problem and your blog.
You covered the issue of the release of tannins being the problem with over brewed tea and coffee but what would happen if coffee or tea was consumed without brewing at all. I'm having a huge reaction to uncooked raw nuts. So it has nothing to do with releasing through heat. I know that espresso,(very little brewing) doesn't bother my stomach. So what I'm trying to get at is, a lot of foods have tannins but exactly what is the 1) raw, 2) shorter heating and 3) cooking states do to help or hurt the effects of the tannins?
I just want to say that I have recently found out that I have an allergy to Tannin's. The only thing that has worked for me is to cut out tea completely (heartbreak) I will have one or two every week as we all need a caffeine kick sometimes.
I struggled with a really fuzzy tongue, throat swelling, extreme bloating, uncomfortable bowl, bad moods, depression and the list goes on. For years the doctors told me I needed to do an elimination process with foods but that is unrealistic if you have no idea what it is that is causing the problems. Also, I have a hue fear of needles so I could never have a blood test to see what was wrong. Research like this has helped me massively and to be honest this is the only thing I have read which i can completely relate to, so thank you for that!