A question about tea

There are many who claim that historically tea has been of great benefit to certain nations since it increased practices such as boiling water. The rise Britain and Song China are often cited as examples, but on real terms and figures how much of an advantage did tea give these countries? and what would be the effect of some how introducing tea in say medieval Europe or Ancient Rome?
 
How does tea give an advantage? Boiling water incidentally killing off microbes seems like the most likely way it could help. It would reduce the risk of waterborne pathogens, though not completely since the British still had a bunch of problems with cholera. Generally, if there was a significant chance of getting sick from drinking water, cultures would either develop a better immune system or find some other alternatives besides tea. The Irish, for instance, used to drink a pure whiskey diet because their water was so mucky.

That's not to comment on the economic effects of tea, but that could be replaced by coffee/cocoa beans/alcohol.
 
It's a silly statement with no basis in reality. Cholera epidemics where widespread throughout tea drinking countries and it's not like universal things like beer didn't also involve the boiling of water. Frankly I think this is just people fishing for "fun facts" about history to put in trivia books.
 
I've read about some localized instances of tea-drinking lowering the risks of cholera and dysentery, for instance among Chinese railroad workers in the United States (http://www.vvchc.net/marker/Vinegarroon%20narrative.html). But I don't know whether tea has antiseptic properties. Alcohol, on the other hand, has definite antiseptic properties. So drinking small beer and diluted wine would confer a greater advantage than tea or pre-boiled water. As for the Greeks and Romans, they were already drinking vinegared beverages like posca and xidonero, which are quite effective in killing bacteria.
 
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