The tea section of the grocery store sometimes feels more like a pharmacy.
And then there are the teas being marketed on social media for slimming your belly or energizing your day.
Can tea really do all of that?
These products are all different, so lets dig into each category.
(They would call a non-tea-leaf drink atisane.)
For example, chamomile flowers are used to make chamomile tea.
Most herbs used this way do not contain caffeine, so herbal teas are almost always caffeine-free.
They also found that most studies on herbal tea did not report adverse effects at all.
Herbal tea preparations may not belikelyto cause serious problems, but that doesnt mean the possibility should be ignored.
The Poison Control Center notes thatginseng,foxglove, andarnicateas have been associated with health problems.
They caution not to make your own herbal teas andnever to give herbal tea to infants.
Herbal preparations, on the other hand, are more of a guess.
Theres no way to know.
One category of tea is marketed as helping people lose weight or sculpt their bodies.
But often, these teas are made with laxatives.
ThisFlatbelly Teacontains senna, a laxative, and dandelion leaf, which is a diuretic.
Excessive use of laxatives for weight losscan causedehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and occasionally more serious side effects.
Another category of beverage is the loaded or boosted tea.
There may or may not be tea in the mix.
Anarticle in U.S. Pharmacistwarns that the caffeine content is high enough to be potentially dangerous for children and teens.
The benefits and downsides are better understood, but there still isnt a ton of conclusive research about them.
These studies are observational, though.
Tea drinkers may have differed from their non-tea-drinking peers in other ways that affected the results.
Its uncertain whether green tea is helpful for other conditions, they write.
