Fruit Tea-gate!

The BBC has a lot to answer for! I almost fell off my branch when I heard their headline this morning – Fruit teas can wear away teeth!!

Now, being a sloth I don’t have many teeth to start with, but luckily mine continually grow and don’t have any enamel to erode either. However, Evil & Senile Techcnians sit around drinking fruit tea all day, so, never to take a dubious news article by its word, I decided to take matters into my own claws and investigate further.

It is the acid in drinks which destroys tooth enamel so I tested the pH of their teas throughout the day, using universal indicator paper. And, despite the BBCs claims, they were not all acidic. Here you can see my results. From left to right: Lemon & ginger - ph7 neutral, Raspberry & echinacea - pH 6, Blackcurrant & blueberry, Blueberry & apple - both acidic. I don't know who they get to test their drinks at the BBC but they clearly need a sloth on their team to either check their teas, or their choice of words. (The only times sloths use the word all in science is to say that all science is theoretical - feel free to correct me if this is wrong, English is a sloth's second language after all.)

They might also like to consider employing a sloth in their research department too, as, in reading BBC Newsround's report on the same subject, I have noticed another scientific error. At the end of their article they go on to list drinks which are not acidic. Here they have included sparkling water. Even I know the bubbles in sparkling water are made of carbon dioxide, and if you dissolve a non-metal oxide in water you get... yes, you've guessed it - an acidic solution.

So, it seems the other Technicians' teeth will be fine for a few years to come, although there is still a good chance they might just wear away with the gassing they've been doing lately. Don't they realise they have work to do!