6 Health Benefits of Rooibos Tea | Side Effects

In recent years Rooibos tea has gained a lot of popularity, due to its benefits as a healthy beverage. Do you know the health benefits of Rooibos tea? Mostly this tea is liked and consumed in the Southern part of Africa, but now this drink has made its popularity around the world.

For people who don’t like black and green tea, it could be a good alternative. Rooibos tea has a lot of potential health benefits like the antioxidants that can protect against cancer, heart diseases and even stroke. So, in this post article, we are going to explore the health benefits of rooibos tea and its potential side effects.

Do I know about Rooibos Tea?

Some of the other names for this tea are red tea or red bush tea. This tea usually comes from the south part of Africa, because the leaves to make this tea can be found in this region. Rooibos tea is a herbal tea and it can no be related to other teas like green tea and black tea. This traditional process of making the is tea is fermentation. After fermentation, the leaves turn into red-brown colour.

(Also Read: Recipe for Bubble Tea | Boba Tea | Ingredients)

Other than fermented tea, green rooibos is also available, which is not fermented and much more expensive. In flavour, the unfermented tea is gassier than the red-brown colour tea with some more antioxidants.

Rooibos tea can be consumed in many ways. It can be used as black tea, with milk and sugar, iced tea, espressos, lattes and cappuccinos are some great varieties.

Some studies claim that rooibos tea is not a good source of certain vitamins and minerals, other than fluoride and copper. But do not worry it is full of antioxidants which can provide health benefits.

1. Free from Caffeine

Caffeine is found in other teas, like black and green tea but rooibos tea is free of caffeine. Caffeine can be consumed in a reasonable amount and it safe and caffeine also helps in better exercise performance, concentration and mood.

When consumed in excessive amount this can harm your body in multiple ways. Like heart palpitation, anxiety, sleep problems and even headache. Many people opt for caffeine-free tea and rooibos is a better option for them.

Other than caffeine rooibos tea has lower tannin levels. What tannins does to our body? It inhibits the absorption of nutrients such as iron in your body. Other than tannins rooibos tea is free of oxalic acid. When you consume oxalic acid in high amount, it may cause kidney stones. You don’t want that right? If you have kidney problems, consume rooibos tea.

2. Packed With Antioxidants

Consuming rooibos tea is beneficial in terms of health-promoting antioxidants like aspalathin and quercetin. In our body free radicals harms us in many ways. Antioxidants can help in protecting cells from these free radicals. This way rooibos tea can reduce the risks of heart diseases and cancer. A study has also backed this evidence that rooibos tea can produce antioxidants in our body but the documented sources are small. More study can be done in this field.

In a study. It can conclude that red rooibos tea can increase fewer antioxidants and green rooibos can increase more antioxidants. The numbers were 2.9 % and 6.6%.

3. Good for Heart Health

A healthier heart means antioxidants play their role. Evidence has shown that drinking rooibos can improve cholesterol levels as well. In a study, 45 overweight adults, with heart diseases were studied and they were given six to seven cups of rooibos tea daily for 5-6 weeks. The results were astonishing. The results showed that within six weeks, bad cholesterol “LDL” was decreased and it has boosted the good cholesterol “HDL”.

What does healthy cholesterol do to our body? It gives protection against strokes, heart attacks and various other heart conditions.

So, consuming rooibos teas means, it will positively affect your blood pressure and heart health. Other than that it lowers bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol if anyone is at high risk of heart diseases.

4. May also Reduce Cancer Risk

Studies have shown that some antioxidants like quercetin and luteolin, present in rooibos tea, can kill cancer cells and also prevent the growth of the tumour. Note that a cup of rooibos tea contains very little amount of these antioxidants. There are other good sources for these antioxidants. Some fruits and vegetables also contain the above compounds. Studies are needed to be done on rooibos and their effects o cancer cells.

5. May Benefit Type 2 Diabetes

Rooibos tea is the only natural source of aspalathin antioxidant. A study in mice with type 2 diabetes found that aspalathin reduced blood sugar levels and also reduced insulin resistance. This is quite positive news for people who are suffering from type 2 diabetes. Studies are needed in humans.

Other unverified Benefits

We can say that there is a lack of evidence to support some of the benefits of rooibos tea. However, there is a lot of potential in the study. Claims show that there are other unconfirmed benefits as well.

• Bone health: It is also believed that rooibos tea can improve bone health but the studies are less to prove this statement.
• Improved digestion: There isn’t any study available to even support this. It is believed that this Tea is beneficial to the digestive system as well, by reducing digestive probelsm.
• Others: Some other benefits of rooibos tea are, it can aid sleep problems, certain allergies, headache and colic, but no study material to support this.

We can say that lack of study or evidence does not mean, the claimed benefits are false, rather we can say there is no study behind them or not fully studied and there is still room for study.

Potential Side Effects

In a nutshell, we can say rooibos tea is safe and side effects are extremely rare. Some very rare negative side effects have been reported when consumed in a very large amount. Drinking in a large amount can create a liver problem even this one is a complex case. There are certain compounds in the tea which are responsible for the production of female sex hormones called estrogen. All these effects are mild and very rare.

Bottomline

It’s healthy, it’s delicious, it’s full of healthy nutrients. It’s low in oxalic acid, low in tannins, caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants. There is no strong evidence to prove that rooibos tea is healthy and beneficial. The studies were done on animals and test tube have shown some positive results but it needs to be translated into real-world health benefits for humans.

 

 

(This content including advice provides common information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. JOLTYOURBUDS does not claim responsibility for this information.)