Hi everyone this is Monica Reinagle and you're listening to the nutrition

divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous thanks for

tuning in today I know that many of you saw the

headlines last week about the guy who went into kidney failure after drinking

too much ice tea. How do I know you saw them? Because I suddenly started getting emails from worried

listeners asking how much ice tea one can safely drink. The case, which was

reported in a letter to the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine,

involved a middle-aged man who went into the hospital

feeling poorly and eventually ended up on dialysis.

The doctors were initially perplexed about the cause of his kidney failure, but they eventually concluded that it was almost

certainly due to excessive consumption of Ice Tea.

Wow. So when it comes to ice tea, what's excessive?

Well, this guy reported drinking about a gallon of iced tea every day,

which is a considerable amount, but by no means unheard of.

Those of you who live in the southern United States, for example,

you know what I'm talking about.

If everyone who drank a gallon of ice tea a day

were to end up in kidney failure, there wouldn't be enough dialysis

machines in the northern hemisphere to handle the demand.

In fact, that's precisely why this case ended up in the New England Journal of Medicine. It was a surprising and

unusual event. Nonetheless, the doctors speculate that tea consumption could

be an under-recognized factor in kidney disease,

...