Why are we so obsessed with this Taiwanese milk tea?

A teenager addicted to bubble tea was left in agony after drinking too much of the flavoured East Asian milk drink.

Her obsession led to her hospitalisation, and doctors were stunned to find more than 100 bubble tea “pearls” accumulated inside her and stuck to her digestive tract.

Like many people around the world, the 14-year-old girl, known as Xiao Shen, loves a sweet, milky bubble tea.

But the Chinese teen’s love of the popular East Asian drink caused her more trouble than it was worth, leaving her in an emergency department bed surrounded by stunned physicians.

Bubble tea comes in many different flavours and is usually filled with a large spoonful of tapioca balls called “pearls” or “boba”.

These black, chewy pearls are made from the cassava plant and are often used as a food thickener.

A report by Chinese media outlet Shaoxing News claimed Xiao Shen complained to her parents of extreme stomach pains late last month.

The teen — who was showing signs of severe bloating — also revealed she hadn’t experienced a bowel movement for five days and was struggling to eat.

Her concerned parents raced her to the emergency department of the Zhuji People’s Hospital in Zhejiang Province.

According to the report, Xiao Shen’s doctor, Zhang Louzhen, ordered urgent CT scans of her abdomen, and what he found left him completely speechless.

The physician discovered more than 100 tiny “granular shadows” dotted throughout the teenager’s digestive tract — from her stomach, through her intestines and down to her anus.

Dr Zhang also noticed his patient had a “bulging” stomach and asked her what she had been eating recently.

A very sheepish Xiao Shen claimed she drank a bubble tea “five days earlier”, but Dr Zhang concluded this significant mass of pearls stuck inside of her was the result of prolonged consumption of bubble tea.

Xiao Shen was prescribed a strong laxative and was able to pass the pearls.

Dr Zhang urged the public not to consume bubble tea pearls as they can be extremely difficult to digest.

He claimed many pearls contain “food additives, thickeners and preservatives”, making them toxic for consumers.

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