We’ve all heard of herbal teas benefiting weight loss, headaches, and colds. But did you know that herbal tea can be the Best Tea for Digestion?
Herbal teas contain natural compounds that help with constipation, nausea, and bloating. These compounds provide some level of digestive relief and offer a natural remedy compared with taking prescriptive drugs.
As most herbal teas don’t contain caffeine, you can drink herbal teas feeling confident they won’t keep you awake at night. Plus you won’t be at risk of any side effects often associated with caffeinated teas such as nausea, headaches, and high blood pressure.
So what are some of the herbal best teas for digestion?
This post takes a look at 5 herbal teas you can drink to aid your digestion, along with some top tips to gain maximum benefits.
5 Best Teas for Digestion
Peppermint Tea
Peppermint tea is often used for headaches and nausea, but it also makes an excellent remedy for digestion.
Peppermint helps to relax your digestive system and has been suggested to even ease any pain within your gut.
A study analyzing the effects of peppermint extracts in 72 participants with IBS found that those who took the peppermint oil capsules for four weeks had a reduction of symptoms by 40%.
As peppermint oil is extracted from peppermint leaves, the same results could be suggested for drinking peppermint tea.
How to Prepare:
Peppermint tea is available either as fresh leaves or in a pre-prepared tea bag. Place up to 10 leaves or one tea bag in a cup and pour boiling water over the top. Allow it to steep to your taste preferences and then remove the tea bag or strain the leaves.
Ginger Tea
Ginger is a spice that has been used for over 5000 years to aid digestion and stomach-associated problems.
It contains 115 bioactive compounds which include antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. Some of these have a direct impact on your digestion.
Scientists believe that ginger tends to collect in the digestive tract, hence why it has such an impact upon your digestion and stomach. Specifically, ginger can help to relieve flatulence aka gas.
We know all too well that a build-up of gas can be extremely painful. Through drinking ginger tea, it helps to break up the gas and help it move through your intestines.
Ginger also appears to help your digestive tract to function and increases the number of enzymes such as trypsin and pancreatic lipase. This supports the movement of food through your digestive system, minimizing the risk of gas build-up and constipation.
How to Prepare:
If you would like to make ginger tea at home, again you can either use a pre-prepared tea bag or make your own by slicing fresh ginger root. Depending upon how strong you like your tea will depend on how long you leave the ginger steeping for.
Place your ginger into your cup, pour over boiling water, and leave to steep. After 6-10minutes, strain the ginger and enjoy your ginger tea.
Chamomile Tea
Chamomile looks very similar to daisies but actually comes from the Asteraceae plant family. It is most often used for its calming effect and support with sleep. But chamomile can also help with digestion.
Drinking chamomile tea can soothe your stomach by helping with nausea and a build-up of gas. Studies have shown that chamomile might protect against diarrhea and stomach ulcers. However, these studies used mice and rats as participants and more human-based research is needed to confirm these findings.
How to Prepare:
To make chamomile tea, you can either use pre-made tea bags or dry chamomile flowers. Place a tea bag or a handful of flowers into a cup. Pour over boiling water and let it steep for 5-7minutes. Remove the tea bag or flowers before consuming your tea.
Lavender Tea
Lavender is mostly known for its calming effect and soothing anti-inflammatory properties. However, lavender also has been shown to help with digestion.
Lavender can help to relieve swelling and flatulence. It has also been found to soothe diarrhea, nausea, and stomach cramps.
The smell of lavender is also suggested to prompt your body to produce bile. Bile helps break down foods more efficiently and hence by drinking lavender tea, should induce the same effect.
How to Prepare:
Lavender tea can be made directly from a teabag, or fresh using fresh lavender buds. Place a couple of teaspoons of fresh lavender buds into your cup, or a teabag. Pour hot water over the top. Allow it to steep for up to 10minutes and then remove the lavender before drinking.
Turmeric Tea
Turmeric contains a compound called curcumin, that provides numerous health benefits to you including supporting digestion.
Curcumin has been found to help manage IBS and decrease the amount of time it takes for food to empty your stomach.
This leads to less bloating and the build-up of gas inside your digestive system, providing relief and less chance of associated pain.
How to Prepare:
Turmeric is most often purchased in powder form. To make turmeric tea, pour boiling water into a cup and add a teaspoon of turmeric tea. Stir and let it steep for 5-10minutes. Finally, strain your tea before drinking.
Top Tips When Drinking Herbal Tea To Help Digestion
Here are a few top tips to consider before selecting a herbal tea for digestion:
Know Your Ailment
Certain flavored tea is more suited to soothing particular ailments. It is best to consider what digestive trouble you need support with first, and then select the right tea to help.
For example, if you are suffering from IBS, then I would recommend either drinking Peppermint or Turmeric tea to help alleviate your symptoms.
Whereas if you had a build-up of gas, then ginger would be a good herbal tea for you.
Drink Tea At Night
It is a well-known fact that fasting for at least 12 hours overnight can help our body. When our body does not have food to digest overnight, it helps it focus on turning fat into energy stores instead.
By drinking herbal tea at night can also support your digestion and overall health. As we have found, herbal teas offer numerous benefits to your digestion. But also due to their benefit in relaxing our bodies and supporting sleep, it helps our muscles to relax.
This includes the muscles in our stomach and can help ease any symptoms such as nausea, flatulence, or IBS.
Don’t Overconsume
Finally, ensure to only stick to 1-3 cups of herbal tea per day. Too much herbal tea can lead to side effects that although aren’t lethal, aren’t very pleasant. These side effects include drowsiness, heartburn, increased heart rate, and acid reflux.
If you are looking for herbal teas to support your digestion, this list of 5 herbal teas will help to soothe your symptoms.
From nausea to IBS, a build-up of gas to bloating, there is something for everyone. These herbal teas offer an excellent go-to list to help alleviate your pain with a natural remedy.
Herbal teas are healthy, natural, and do not contain added sugars or processed ingredients, especially if you are making your own tea from raw ingredients e.g. ginger root or lavender buds.
You can enjoy your tea without the need for a prescription or expensive ingredients from the comfort of your own home.
Which herbal tea will you choose to make at home? Share in the comments.
For more information on tea, take a look at some of our top tea guides:
- Beginners Guide to Chai Tea
- Beginner’s Guide to Herbal Tea
- Best Herbs and Teas for Immune System
- Beginner’s Guide to Black Tea
- 10 Best Teas for Allergies
