Nothing can beat a healthy diet and exercise when it comes to losing weight. But sipping the right herbal tea might help you on your journey. Here are the 5 best herbal teas for weight loss.
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We’re always very cautious of anyone who promises miraculous results from weight loss supplements. Many diet foods are packed with artificial sweeteners and flavourings, while most diet pills have side effects that can cause health issues.
Ultimately, there’s no shortcut to losing weight. It takes time, a healthy diet, regular exercise, and other lifestyle changes like managing stress and getting enough sleep.
However, there are some herbal teas that might support your weight loss efforts by boosting your metabolism, reducing cravings, and encouraging your body to burn fat.
Any cup of herbal tea is a good choice of drink when you are watching your waistline. These tasty concoctions are low in calories and contain herbs that are packed with vitamins and antioxidants, so they are a great alternative to sugary fruit juices and processed fizzy drinks.
By keeping you well-hydrated, herbal teas can help you feel full between meals. Some have a naturally sweet taste that can reduce your cravings for unhealthy snacks and sweet treats.
On top of these general benefits, studies have found that some herbs have an effect on our metabolism and appetite. These herbs can’t make you lose weight on their own, but when you combine them with other healthy lifestyle changes, they can support you on your journey.
What Herbs Are Good for Weight Loss?
1. Green Tea
Green tea is probably the best-known herbal tea for weight loss and there have been plenty of scientific studies into its effectiveness. It contains both caffeine and a group of powerful antioxidants called catechins.
These compounds encourage our bodies to produce more of a hormone called norepinephrine, which sends a signal to our cells that they should release stored fat so that it can be burnt for energy. As a result, drinking green tea might help our bodies to burn fat faster.
Green tea also boosts our metabolism and helps us recover faster from exercise. And it can help to suppress appetite too, which makes it easier for us to resist cravings.
2. Cayenne Pepper
Cayenne pepper might be more associated with cooking than tea, but this tongue-tingling spice can also be used as an ingredient in herbal tea blends. As well as adding a pleasant heat to the tea, cayenne pepper can help you resist food cravings, especially when combined with green tea.
The capsaicin in cayenne pepper also helps to give our metabolisms a boost, meaning we burn more calories throughout the day. And it appears to reduce our levels of ghrelin – a hormone that makes us feel hungrier – which might make it easier to eat a bit less or resist the urge to snack between meals.
3. Ginger
Another fiery herb, ginger is a favourite in Asian cooking and lends itself well to making a delicious herbal tea. Its refreshing, warming flavour is a great complement to other herbs.
When it comes to weight loss, making ginger a regular part of your diet can boost your metabolism, increase fat burning, and help you lose belly fat.
Ginger also helps to reduce the amount of fat your body absorbs from your food. Although it doesn’t appear to affect LDL cholesterol, it can increase your levels of HDL cholesterol – the ‘good’ cholesterol that reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease.
4. Kelp
Seaweeds like kelp have become increasingly popular in recent years as we learn more about the many benefits they have for our health. Low in fat and calories, but packed with vitamins and minerals, there are plenty of reasons to make kelp a part of your diet.
Kelp contains a fibre called alginate, which reduces the amount of fat we absorb from our food by encouraging our bodies to release less lipase – the hormone responsible for fat metabolism.
Brown seaweeds like kelp are also a great natural source of iodine, a nutrient many of us lack in our usual diets. Iodine is vital to the healthy function of our metabolism, so getting the right amount can support our weight loss efforts by helping us burn more calories.
Although you can eat kelp as a food, it can also be dried and used as part of a herbal tea blend.
5. Guarana
Found in Brazil, guarana has an odd-looking fruit that resembles a human eyeball. Despite this slightly off-putting appearance, guarana is prized for its health benefits and has been used in indigenous medicine for centuries.
When it comes to weight loss, guarana’s high caffeine content is a winner. Caffeine is known to boost the metabolism and aid fat burning, especially when combined with catechins, which guarana also contains in abundance.
Test-tube studies suggest that guarana can also prevent fat accumulation in our bodies by preventing the formation of fat cells.
Guarana’s caffeine content has made it a popular ingredient in Brazilian fizzy drinks. The seeds are ground to make a powder, which can also be used in herbal tea blends aimed at supporting weight loss.
Our Herbal Tea for Weight Loss Support
These 5 metabolism-boosting herbs are just a few of the ingredients we use to make NutraTrim, a herbal tea blend aimed at helping you manage your weight and resist food cravings. Combined with a healthy lifestyle, the herbs in this tea can support you in your weight loss journey.
