That's a very dangerous assumption.Maneki Neko wrote:But at least the fluor in tea is natural and probably kinda bonded to the other substances in the tea.
Because of its ionic nature, the fluoride ion is extremely soluble in water.
I haven't found a good explanation for why tea plants absorb fluoride in the first place. Everybody just says that the tea plant "readily absorbs" it from the soil, or "easily bioaccumulates" -- great, that's doesn't help. For example, why doesn't this happen with other plants?
This article makes mention of aluminum-fluoride complexes which can bind up the fluoride. They talk about it in reference to finding better ways to measure the total fluoride content (bound and unbound) in tea. Although it makes me wonder what happens to Al-F complexes in your body (do they stay in tact, or break apart).
Also, this toxicology information makes similar statements about aluminum and fluoride (though again, no reason why tea plants).
If tea plants make some special use of aluminum, then I suppose I could see why fluoride gets caught up in the process. I'll hunt more when I get off of work...