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Before you crawl into bed, set time aside for something that brings you joy and relieves tension. A few to consider from the mindbodygreen team: A simple yoga-inspired stretch, a warm shower, a pampering skin care routine, listening to your favorite playlist (see above), reading an engaging novel, or giving yourself a short hand or scalp massage.
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There is an art to steeping tea, especially when it comes to herbal tea grown right in the garden. There are many herbs for tea you can grow in the garden to make a healing and soothing cup right at home. Here’s how to harvest, prepare, and enjoy your herbal tea.
There are few things as satisfying as the ritual of harvesting fragrant herbs and then using them to make wonderful herbal tea. Preparing a cup of tea signals your body to focus inward and heal what ails you.
When you also grow the herbs in your garden, the ritual expands to a full experience. Growing herbs and enjoying their aromas, beauty, and attractiveness to pollinators allows you to feed your body, and it makes sipping tea much more savoured.
The careful harvest and preparation of herbs for tea becomes part of the tea ritual and ensures that you get the perfect brew.
The warmth of hot tea can warm cold bones, comfort an upset tummy, soothe a sore throat, or help you fall asleep. Iced herbal tea can quench your thirst, cool your body temperature, replace lost electrolytes, and help with digestion.
The temperature of the tea doesn’t matter, it’s the match of the herbs you include with what your body needs (I wrote more about that in this post on the medicinal plants to include in an herbal tea garden).
Today I will share more about harvesting herbs, drying or preserving their flavours, and how to steep the perfect cup of herbal tea.
If you feel inclined, take a moment before harvesting to appreciate your plants. They have worked hard to offer so much goodness to the world, and gratitude is good therapy.
Cut herbs for tea with clean, sharp pruners first thing in the morning before the day heats up. This will maintain the most freshness in the leaves as well as cause less stress to the plant. If you are using leaves for tea, cut the stem off the plant and then remove the leaves from the stem (as opposed to plucking leaves off the plant and leaving it with bare stems).
Some herbs, like mint, lemon balm, and basil, can handle having one-third of the plant removed. Cut the stems down to one-third of the full height, just above a set of leaves. The plant will send out new shoots from the cut branch, making a fuller, bushier plant.
When using flowering herbs for tea, wait until the flowers are fully formed and remove all of the flower heads that are mature. Avoid harvesting the buds for chamomile and calendula (go for open flowers instead), but harvest the buds before they bloom when cutting lavender.
All herbs are different, so for best results research the best practices to harvest the particular herbs that you are growing.
Infusions are made from plant leaves and flowers, while decoctions are made from tougher parts of the plant, such as roots, stems, or seeds.
To make an infusion, pour boiling water over the tea ingredients and allow them to steep. Most herbal teas will not become bitter if steeped for a long time, so you can allow the herbs to infuse for 15-30 minutes or drink it sooner if you are happy with the strength of the tea.
To make a decoction, place the ingredients into a pot, cover with water, and simmer for 15-30 minutes. Again, you can strain out the herbs and drink it sooner if you are happy with the strength of the tea.
Fresh herbs can be used for making a great cup of tea. After harvest, inspect the leaves for any disease or pests (you don’t want to steep those!) and wash the leaves if you like. I grow all of my plants organically so there is really no need to wash them.
To make the perfect cup of tea from fresh herbs, bruise the leaves with a mortar and pestle. Next, place a tablespoon of bruised leaves in a cup and pour hot water over them. Allow the leaves to steep for five minutes or longer if you want a deeper flavour.
To dry herbs for tea, you can use a food dehydrator or air dry them. Herbs are delicate and need gentle heat, so even though many do dry them in the oven on low, I still find that too high for herbs.
Whether you’re using a food dehydrator or the air-dry method, space out herbs well to get plenty of air circulation. When the herbs are completely dry, store them in a pretty, airtight container like a vintage Mason jar. Replace any unused herbs the following year when the herb harvest is ready again.
To make the perfect cup of tea from dried herbs, you can use a paper tea filter or loose tea ball to keep the herbs contained. Start with five minutes of steeping and taste to determine whether it is ready to drink. The tea will become more flavourful the longer it steeps.
You can also pop fresh herbs in the freezer for use in teas. Put whole leaves into freezer bags and store them in the freezer for three to six months. The act of freezing will preserve the flavour and thawing will bruise the leaves and release their flavor. Discard the leaves if they become freezer burnt or begin to take on an odd odour.
To make the perfect cup of tea from frozen herbs, add frozen leaves to a cup or teapot and pour hot water over them. The hot water will quickly thaw the leaves and begin infusing them with flavour. Steep for five minutes or longer to achieve the best flavour.
No matter what the season, I start my days by making a big pot of herbal tea to drink throughout the day. I have a few teapots and an amazing thermos that keeps the tea fresh all day.
I find that making just one cup at a time uses too much energy—both my own efforts and the heat required to boil water multiple times a day. In the morning, I decide on what type of tea I will drink for the day and experiment with flavours.
Herbs can be steeped directly in water and then strained out when you store the tea for the rest of the day. Or you can use a variety of different products to contain the tea: paper tea filters, tea balls, a tea pot with a tea filter, or even a coffee press.
To make hot tea, pour water that has just reached boiling over the herbs in a large teapot and steep. Strain out the herbs and pour the tea into a large thermos to keep it piping hot throughout the day. Tea should be drunk or discarded by the end of the day (12 hours).
To make iced tea, pour water that has just reached boiling over the herbs in a large teapot and steep. Strain out the herbs pour the tea into a glass bottle and move to the refrigerator. Iced tea will stay fresh in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
I also enjoy making sun tea when I’m out and about in the garden. This involves letting the sun steep the tea! See how to make sun tea here.
There are certain teas that can be very beneficial during pregnancy, while some herbal teas should be avoided altogether during different parts of pregnancy. It’s best to get a personalized plant from your healthcare provider or herbalist.
Lemon balm and chamomile taste delicious together and are a great tea to have before bed to send you off to dreamland. Chamomile contains a compound known as apigenin that works as a mild sedative and helps to calm nerves. The mint family, such as lemon balm, can help to soothe a sore tummy as well as relax muscles.
Fresh herbs contain the most healing properties from the plant, so fresh is best. However, dried herbs also work well and will still contain lots of flavour and properties from the plant. Use fresh while you have them, and dry whatever you have left at the end of the season to enjoy until the following year.
Herbal tea is a wonderful and simple way to add a little ritual, health, and mindfulness to your day. I hope you add it to your routine and enjoy it as much as I do.
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Stephanie Rose
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“Certain foods can cause vaginal infections due to their effects on hormonal balance, immune function, and the vaginal microbiome,” says Melanie Bone, MD, a consultant OBGYN and US Medical Director at Daye. “For example, foods high in sugar can promote the growth of yeast, while processed foods can disrupt the balance of vaginal flora.”
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An elixir for youthful skin sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But when you really think about it, plenty of natural herbs, spices, and teas can supply your body with the vitamins and nutrients you need for a healthy glow. Beauty elixirs are all around us if you take a closer look.
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Good news: calendula isn’t known for having many adverse side effects. It is possible, though, that this herb could cause an allergic reaction, especially in people with known allergies to marigolds or plants in the Asteraceae family. It might also interfere with certain medications, like sedatives, blood pressure meds, or medications for diabetes. If you’re concerned, check with your doctor about potential contraindications before plunking down your cash on calendula.
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Have you ever dug through your pantry only to discover a tea blend you’d bought a year ago (or more) and forgotten all about? Or maybe you’ve brewed a cup of tea, gotten distracted, then wandered upon the cup hours later, wondering if you could still drink it?
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Here is a review of reviews on the health effects of animal foods versus plant foods.
Instead of looking only at individual studies or individual reviews of studies, what if you looked at a review of reviews? In my last video, I covered beverages. As you can see below and at 0:20 in my video Friday Favorites: What Are the Best Foods?, the majority of reviews found some effects either way, finding at least some benefits to tea, coffee, wine, and milk, but not for sweetened beverages, such as soda. As I explored in depth, this approach isn’t perfect. It doesn’t take into account such issues as conflicts of interest and industry funding of studies, but it can offer an interesting bird’s-eye view of what’s out in the medical literature. So, what did the data show for food groups?
You’ll note the first thing the authors did was divide everything into plant-based foods or animal-based foods. For the broadest takeaway, we can look at the totals. The vast majority of reviews on whole plant foods show protective or, at the very least, neutral effects, whereas most reviews of animal-based foods identified deleterious health effects or, at best, neutral effects, as you can see at 1:14 in my video.
Let’s break these down. As you can see in the graph below and at 1:23, the plant foods consistently rate uniformly well, reflecting the total, but the animal foods vary considerably. If it weren’t for dairy and fish, the total for animal foods would swing almost entirely neutral or negative.
I talked about the effects of funding by the dairy industry in my last blog, as well as substitution effects. For instance, those who drink milk may be less likely to drink soda, a beverage even more universally condemned than dairy, so the protective effects may be relative. They may arise not necessarily from what is being consumed, but rather from what is being avoided. This may best explain the fish findings. After all, the prototypical choice is between chicken and fish, not chicken and chickpeas.
Not a single review found a single protective effect of poultry consumption. Even the soda industry could come up with 14 percent protective effects! But, despite all of the funding from the National Chicken Council and the American Egg Board, chicken, and eggs got big fat goose eggs, as you can see below and at 2:20 in my video.
Also, like the calcium in dairy, there are healthful components of fish, such as the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Not for heart health, though. In “the most extensive systematic assessment of effects of omega-3 fats on cardiovascular health to date,” increasing intake of fish oil fats had little or no effect on cardiovascular health. If anything, it was the plant-based omega-3s found in flaxseeds and walnuts that were protective. The long-chain omega-3s are important for brain health. Thankfully, just like there are best-of-both-worlds non-dairy sources of calcium, there are pollutant-free sources of the long-chain omega-3s, EPA, and DHA, as well.
The bottom line, as you can see below and at 3:04 in my video, is that when it comes to diet-related diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, mental health, bone health, cardiovascular disease, and cancers, even if you lump together all the animal foods, ignore any industry-funding effects, and just take the existing body of evidence at face value, nine out of ten study compilations show that whole plant foods are, in the very least, not bad.
However, about eight out of ten of the reviews on animal products show them to be not good, as shown in the graph below and at 3:24 in my video.
This reminds me of my Flashback Friday: What Are the Healthiest Foods? video, which you may find to be helpful for some broad takeaways.
If you missed my previous video, check out Friday Favorites: What Are the Best Beverages?.
The omega-3s video I mentioned is Should Vegans Take DHA to Preserve Brain Function?.
For more on eggs, see here.
On fish, go here.
And, for poultry, see related posts below.
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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
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Here is a review of reviews on the health effects of tea, coffee, milk, wine, and soda.
If you’ve watched my videos or read my books, you’ve heard me say, time and again, the best available balance of evidence. What does that mean? When making decisions as life-or-death important as what to feed ourselves and our families, it matters less what a single study says, but rather what the totality of peer-reviewed science has to say.
Individual studies can lead to headlines like “Study Finds No Link Between Secondhand Smoke and Cancer,” but to know if there is a link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer, it would be better to look at a review or meta-analysis that compiles multiple studies. The problem is that some reviews say one thing—for instance, “breathing other people’s tobacco smoke is a cause of lung cancer”—and other reviews say another—such as, the effects of secondhand smoke are insignificant and further such talk may “foster irrational fears.” And, while we’re at it, you can indulge in “active smoking of some 4-5 cigarettes per day” without really worrying about it, so light up!
Why do review articles on the health effects of secondhand smoke reach such different conclusions? As you can imagine, about 90 percent of reviews written by researchers affiliated with the tobacco industry said it was not harmful, whereas you get the opposite number with independent reviews, as you can see below and at 1:18 in my video Friday Favorites: What Are the Best Beverages?. Reviews written by the tobacco industry–affiliated researchers had 88 times the odds of concluding that secondhand smoke was harmless. It was all part of “a deliberate strategy to use scientific consultants to discredit the science…” In other words, “the strategic and long run antidote to the passive smoking issue…is developing and widely publicizing clear-cut, credible, medical evidence that passive smoking [secondhand smoke] is not harmful to the non-smoker’s health.”
Can’t we just stick to the independent reviews? The problem is that industry-funded researchers have all sorts of sneaky ways to get out of declaring conflicts of interest, so it can be hard to follow the money. For instance, it was found that “77% failed to disclose the sources of funding” for their research. But, even without knowing who funded what, the majority of reviews still concluded that secondhand smoke was harmful. So, just as a single study may not be as helpful as looking at a compilation of studies on a topic, a single review may not be as useful as a compilation of reviews. In that case, looking at a review of reviews can give us a better sense of where the best available balance of evidence may lie. When it comes to secondhand smoke, it’s probably best not to inhale, as you can see in the graph below and at 2:30 in my video.
Wouldn’t it be cool if there were reviews of reviews for different foods and drinks? Voila! Enter “Associations Between Food and Beverage Groups and Major Diet-Related Chronic Diseases: An Exhaustive Review of Pooled/Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews.” Let’s start with the drinks. As you can see below and at 2:51 in my video, the findings were classified into three categories: protective, neutral, or deleterious.
First up: tea versus coffee. As you can see in the graph below and at 2:58, most reviews found both beverages to be protective for whichever condition they were studying, but you can see how this supports my recommendation for tea over coffee. Every cup of coffee is a lost opportunity to drink a cup of green tea, which is even healthier.
It’s no surprise that soda sinks to the bottom, as you can see below and at 3:20 in my video, but 14 percent of reviews mentioned the protective effects of drinking soda. What?! Well, most were references to papers like “High Intake of Added Sugar Among Norwegian Children and Adolescents,” a cross-sectional study that found that eighth-grade girls who drank more soda were thinner than girls who drank less. Okay, but that was just a snapshot in time. What do you think is more likely? That the heavier girls were heavier because they drank less soda, or that they drank less sugary soda because they were heavier? Soda abstention may therefore be a consequence of obesity, rather than a cause, yet it gets marked down as having a protective association.
Study design flaws may also account for wine numbers, as seen below and at 4:07 in my video. This review of reviews was published in 2014, before the revolution in our understanding of “alcohol’s evaporating health benefits,” suggesting that the “presumed health benefits from ‘moderate’ alcohol use [may have] finally collapsed”—thanks in part to a systematic error of misclassifying former drinkers as if they were lifelong abstainers, as I revealed in a deep dive in a video series on the subject.
Sometimes there are unexplainable associations. For example, one of the soft drink studies found that increased soda consumption was associated with a lower risk of certain types of esophageal cancers. Don’t tell me. Was the study funded by Coca-Cola? Indeed. Does that help explain the positive milk studies, as you can see in the graph below and at 5:02 in my video? Were they all just funded by the National Dairy Council?
As shown below and at 5:06, even more conflicts of interest have been found among milk studies than soda studies, with industry-funded studies of all such beverages “approximately four to eight times more likely to be favorable to the financial interests of the [study] sponsors than articles without industry-related funding.”
Funding bias aside, though, there could be legitimate reasons for the protective effects associated with milk consumption. After all, those who drink more milk may drink less soda, which is even worse, so they may come out ahead. It may be more than just relative benefits, though. The soda-cancer link seems a little tenuous and not just because of the study’s financial connection to The Coca-Cola Company. It’s hard to imagine a biologically plausible mechanism, whereas even something as universally condemned as tobacco isn’t universally bad. As I’ve explored before, more than 50 studies have consistently found a protective association between nicotine and Parkinson’s disease. Even secondhand smoke may be protective. Of course, you’d still want to avoid it. Passive secondhand smoke may decrease the risk of Parkinson’s, but it increases the risk of stroke, an even deadlier brain disease, not to mention lung cancer and heart disease, which has killed off millions of Americans since the first Surgeon General’s report was released, as you can see below and at 6:20 in my video.
Thankfully, by eating certain vegetables, we may be able to get some of the benefits without the risks, and the same may be true of dairy. As I’ve described before, the consumption of milk is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, leading to recommendations suggesting that men may want to cut down or minimize their intake, but milk consumption is also associated with decreased colorectal cancer risk. This appears to be a calcium effect. Thankfully, we may be able to get the best of both worlds by eating high-calcium plant foods, such as greens and beans.
What does our review-of-reviews study conclude about such plant-based foods, in comparison to animal-based foods? We’ll find out next.
Stay tuned for the exhaustive review of meta-analyses and systematic reviews on major diet-related chronic diseases found for food groups in What Are the Best Foods?.
The alcohol video I mentioned is Is It Better to Drink a Little Alcohol Than None at All?, and the Parkinson’s video is Pepper’s and Parkinson’s: The Benefits of Smoking Without the Risks. I also mentioned my Dairy and Cancer video.
What about diet soda? See related posts below.
What’s so bad about alcohol? Check out Can Alcohol Cause Cancer? and Do Any Benefits of Alcohol Outweigh the Risks? for more.
I’ve also got tons of milk. Check here.
My recommendations for the best beverages are water, green tea, and hibiscus herbal tea. Learn more in the related posts below.
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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
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Plant-based diets are put to the test for treating migraine headaches.
Headaches are one of the top five reasons people end up in emergency rooms and one of the leading reasons people see their doctors in general. One way to try to prevent them is to identify their triggers and avoid them. Common triggers for migraines include stress, smoking, hunger, sleep issues, certain foods (like chocolate, cheese, and alcohol), your menstrual cycle, or certain weather patterns (like high humidity).
In terms of dietary treatments, the so-called Father of Modern Medicine, William Osler suggested trying a “strict vegetable diet.” After all, the nerve inflammation associated with migraines “may be reduced by a vegan diet as many plant foods are high in anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidants, and likewise, meat products have been reported to have inflammatory properties.” It wasn’t put to the test, though, for another 117 years.
As I discuss in my video Friday Favorites: Foods That Help Headache and Migraine Relief, among study participants given a placebo supplement, half said they got better, while the other half said they didn’t. But, when put on a strictly plant-based diet, they did much better, experiencing a significant drop in the severity of their pain, as you can see in the graph below and at 1:08 in my video.
Now, “it is possible that the pain-reducing effects of the vegan diet may be, at least in part, due to weight reduction.” The study participants lost about nine more pounds when they were on the plant-based diet for a month, as shown below, and at 1:22.
Even just lowering the fat content of the diet may help. Those placed on a month of consuming less than 30 daily grams of fat (for instance, less than two tablespoons of oil all day), experienced “statistically significant decreases in headache frequency, intensity, duration, and medication intake”—a six-fold decrease in the frequency and intensity, as you can see below and at 1:44 in my video. They went from three migraine attacks every two weeks down to just one a month. And, by “low fat,” the researchers didn’t mean SnackWell’s; they meant more fruits, vegetables, and beans. Before the food industry co-opted and corrupted the term, eating “low fat” meant eating an apple, for example, not Kellogg’s Apple Jacks.
Now, they were on a low-fat diet—about 10 percent fat for someone eating 2,500 calories a day. What about just less than 20 percent fat compared to a more normal diet that’s still relatively lower fat than average? As you can see below and at 2:22 in my video, the researchers saw the same significant drops in headache frequency and severity, including a five-fold drop in attacks of severe pain. Since the intervention involved at least a halving of intake of saturated fat, which is mostly found in meat, dairy, and junk, the researchers concluded that reduced consumption of saturated fat may help control migraine attacks—but it isn’t necessarily something they’re getting less of. There are compounds “present in Live green real veggies” that might bind to a migraine-triggering peptide known as calcitonin gene-related peptide, CGRP.
Drug companies have been trying to come up with something that binds to CGRP, but the drugs have failed to be effective. They’re also toxic, which is a problem we don’t have with cabbage, as you can see below and at 3:01 in my video.
Green vegetables also have magnesium. Found throughout the food supply but most concentrated in green leafy vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, magnesium is the central atom to chlorophyll, as shown below and at 3:15. So, you can see how much magnesium foods have in the produce aisle by the intensity of their green color. Although magnesium supplements do not appear to decrease migraine severity, they may reduce the number of attacks you get in the first place. You can ask your doctor about starting 600 mg of magnesium dicitrate every day, but note that magnesium supplements can cause adverse effects, such as diarrhea, so I recommend getting it the way nature intended—in the form of real food, not supplements.
Any foods that may be particularly helpful? You may recall that I’ve talked about ground ginger. What about caffeine? Indeed, combining caffeine with over-the-counter painkillers, like Tylenol, aspirin, or ibuprofen, may boost their efficacy, at doses of about 130 mg for tension-type headaches and 100 mg for migraines. That’s about what you might expect to get in three cups of tea, as you can see below, and at 4:00 in my video. (I believe it is just a coincidence that the principal investigator of this study was named Lipton.)
Please note that you can overdo it. If you take kids and teens with headaches who were drinking 1.5 liters of cola a day and cut the soda, you can cure 90 percent of them. However, this may be a cola effect rather than a caffeine effect.
And, finally, one plant food that may not be the best idea is the Carolina Reaper, the hottest chili pepper in the world. It’s so mind-numbingly hot it can clamp off the arteries in your brain, as seen below and at 4:41 in my video, and you can end up with a “thunderclap headache,” like the 34-year-old man who ate the world’s hottest pepper and ended up in the emergency room. Why am I not surprised it was a man?
I’ve previously covered ginger and topical lavender for migraines. Saffron may help relieve PMS symptoms, including headaches. A more exotic way a plant-based diet can prevent headaches is by helping to keep tapeworms out of your brain.
Though hot peppers can indeed trigger headaches, they may also be used to treat them. Check out my video on relieving cluster headaches with hot sauce.
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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
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Like many of you, I love a good travel mug. While I’ve been an Owala-devotee for quite some time now, as a shopping editor, I’ve tried them all: Stanleys, YETIs, Hydro Flasks, you name it. However, even after all of these years of testing, I’ve yet to find “the one” that can do it all. I’m a self-proclaimed beverage goblin so I’m constantly grabbing a new drink throughout the day, whether it be water, a loose-leaf tea, or something fun like a Poppi or a United Sodas. So I’ve been on the hunt for a bottle that can handle any drink I can throw at it.
I used to think that this was too big of an ask. After all, how many times have you used an “all-in-one” product that didn’t end up letting you down in an area or two? However, when the VIVA Recharge Travel Mug came across my desk, I was intrigued and decided to add another bottle to my collection. Little did I know that it would end up replacing my collection.
Designed to act as a travel tumbler, thermos, tea infuser, coffee press, flask, iced tea maker, and teapot, this 7-in-1 wonder makes it easy to make virtually any and every drink you could want. Featuring a French press-like design, the interior mesh filter is a dream for those looking to brew both tea and coffee. And if you’re looking to switch to water after that morning cup, simply remove the filter, rinse, and voilà: an instant travel tumbler! Complete with a double-wall insulated interior that keeps drinks hot for over 6 hours or cold for 12 hours, a leak-proof lid, and an ergonomic, nonslip design, it’s hard to fight the ingenuity of this mug.
Now, I had never seen a mug claim to do all of this before discovering the VIVA Recharge — so that meant I had some serious testing to do. I decided to perform a bunch of tests over the course of a week to see if it really could live up to its multiuse claims. I began with the easiest test: water. After putting in some water and ice, I used it as I would a normal water bottle for the rest of the day, and reader, it lived up to that 12-hour claim — I clocked in 13 and a half hours before I felt my water getting warm.
Next came the tea tests. Each morning, I made a different type of tea: loose-leaf, bagged, and then iced. All three were incredibly easy to make, but I found myself the most impressed with the loose leaf. The mesh filter of the press is so incredibly fine, and I was pleasantly surprised to find none of the tea made its way through. Plus, my tea was still warm six hours into the day! I haven’t put this mug down since.
The last test was the coffee test — this was the one I was most curious about. I don’t drink coffee so I had a friend come over and made her a cup with this “travel French press” so I could decide once and for all if this mug was the real deal. I was particularly interested to see if the fine mesh strainer would truly leave the coffee grit-free. So I made the coffee, poured my friend a cup, and wouldn’t you know it — no grounds at the bottom of her mug. Not only was I impressed, but my friend hit me with, “Oh, you have to write about this!” And well, here we are.
The VIVA Recharge is available in six fun colors and comes in at $50. Now, while that might seem a bit steep (see what I did there?) for a travel mug, when you take into account all that it can do, you’ll find it to be more than worth it. So if you’re ready to discover your new favorite travel mug — and possibly clear up some precious cabinet space in the process — give this mug a shot. Something tells me it may just become everyone’s next go-to mug.
Buy: VIVA Recharge Travel Mug, $49.95
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Sarah M. Vazquez
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When you’re searching for relief from the discomfort of a cold or the flu, you likely hit up the drugstore’s cold and flu aisle. But at least some people also swing by their local Starbucks for a semi-controversial, cult-favorite drink. Yes, we’re talking about the Starbucks “Medicine Ball,” a soothing tea blend that has garnered a loyal following for its comforting effects.
We’re believers that the best forms of relief come from the most unexpected places, and that anything that offers a glimmer of comfort amidst the discomfort of sickness is worth its weight in gold. The only problem with the Starbucks Medicine Ball drink is that you have to leave your house to get it – and, if you’re drinking it because you’re not feeling well, that means potentially exposing the hard-working baristas to your germs. With that in mind, we pulled together a Starbucks Medicine Ball recipe, to help you recreate the soothing comfort in the safety of your own home.
Firstly, it’s crucial to point out that the Starbucks Medicine Ball does not contain actual medicine. At Starbucks, the drink is officially known as Honey Citrus Mint Tea. The menu states it was a popular customer creation that ended up on the regular menu. The soothing beverage combines Jade Citrus Mint green tea, Peach Tranquility herbal tea (a tea made with sweet peach, pineapple, chamomile blossoms, and lemon verbena), hot water, steamed lemonade, and honey.
This drink does contain a small amount of caffeine, as it is made with a green tea which naturally contains this stimulant. But the overall caffeine level of this drink is relatively low compared to other Starbucks beverages, making it a comforting choice for those looking for a warm, soothing option with a hint of a caffeine pick-me-up.
And while, again, the Starbucks Medicine Ball does not contain any true medicine, some people find that consuming honey helps ease their sore throat somewhat, while mint may help clear congestion temporarily.
To order a Medicine Ball at Starbucks, simply approach the counter and ask for a Honey Citrus Mint Tea, the drink’s official name. If desired, you can customize your tea drink by asking for more or less lemonade and/or honey if you want it sweeter or not-as-sweet.
A word of warning: some baristas aren’t huge fans of the Starbucks Medicine Ball, as evidenced by several Reddit threads like this one. The main complaint seems to be its popularity among sick people, who put baristas’ health at risk by coming into stores in person to order the drink. So keep in mind that if you are sick and contagious, you may not be considered the kindest patron if you’re prancing into a crowded Starbucks store, sniffling and sneezing – potentially exposing other customers to your illness. If you’re sick and you want to enjoy this drink, send a friend to snag one for you, hit up the drive-through (while wearing a mask), or make our Starbucks Medicine Ball recipe at home instead.
Related: Is It Rude to Lie About Being Sick? And 21 Other Illness Etiquette Questions
To recreate the soothing Starbucks Medicine Ball tea at home, you’ll need the following ingredients:
Steps:
If you don’t have access to Teavana teas, you can use other brands of green tea, mint tea, and peach tea to recreate this concoction. And if you don’t have lemonade on hand, a healthy squeeze of lemon juice can do in a pinch, although you may need to increase the amount of water and honey you use to compensate.
Then, sip and enjoy the soothing sensation. Ahhh…
Lauren Manaker is an award-winning registered dietitian and freelance writer who is passionate about providing evidence-based nutrition information in a fun and interesting way.
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Lauren manaker
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Have you ever tried tea blending? Making your own herbal tea blends is an excellent but gentle way to start experimenting with herbs’ properties. Customize a blend to suit your taste buds and needs, or try out one of my tea blend recipes.
My friends know that I’m most at peace when I have a cup of tea in my hands. I’ve never been much of a coffee drinker, preferring my morning matcha and my herbal teas. And in the afternoon, you’ll find me drinking some iced hibiscus tea.
I’m a tea addict, and I’m very much okay with it.
There’s always a tea for the different times of the day. With the right selection of herbs, you can use tea as a gentle way to control your moods and energy levels. That’s the beauty of herbal tea blending!
If you’re new to making tea mixtures, they’re a fun and gentle way to explore herbs. You can try your hand at making your blends or try a tea from my tea blends list below.
Here’s what we’ll be covering today!
Many moons ago, I did a herbal tea training with a herbalist, and I want to share one of the biggest tips they gave to the class: start with one herb.
Take the time to really sit with the first herb you want to try. This can be something you already know you like the flavour of, you have in large supply, or it has desirable properties.
Once you’ve chosen your tea, make a big jar of it. Take one big 1-litre Mason jar and pack it about a third full with your herb of choice. This is going to create a very, very strong tea.
Add the hot water, let it steep, and then strain it. Then, drink your strong tea throughout the day.
For a couple of days, you might drink solely motherwort tea. And one another, oat straw tea. But the idea here is that you’re getting a direct feeling of what each of these herbal teas does and how it affects your body.
When you’re reading herbal books and guides on the different herbs, you choose the ones that work for you and really test them out. It’s an ongoing learning process of getting to know the herbs and how your body reacts to them.
From a more fun standpoint, you can start making tea blends. It’s one of my favourite things to do since I have at least a couple of cups a day. But if you want to make your own blends, training yourself in herbal tea first is a good idea.
At the same time, teas are very gentle. If you mix several different herbs and some don’t resonate for you, you likely won’t have a strong negative reaction.
Most of them should be tolerable unless you have allergies. So, of course, be mindful of your individual aversions, sensitivities, and allergies to different plants.
But if you’re looking at them from a medical standpoint, you might find that different herbs work better for you. Say you’re making a sleepy tea blend like the one below. You may find that you don’t need chamomile but that the rose, hops, and peppermint actually do all the work for you.
Tea blends are a safe way to have fun with herbs and enjoy some really delicious and beautiful tea blends. I also love making custom herbal tea blends as gifts. Often, I make a little note to let them know what the tea is best for.
For instance, you could add wild rose petals or little rose petals from the garden for a romantic partner. Or if you’re giving it to someone who is really active, you can add hibiscus flowers.
I drink A LOT of tea, most of which is actually iced tea. When I’m active, I like to make hibiscus iced tea to keep me hydrated. And when I’m out in the garden, taking a sip feels like I’m instantly revitalizing my body.
I will make one of the blends below and then make a tea mixture that is 1 part the blend, 1 part hibiscus flowers, and 1 part rose hips.
This creates a delicious herbal iced tea blend for the summertime. So, you can try tea blending to make a warm drink when you feel like cozying up, but also in the summer to hydrate and energize you.
Finding the right ratio takes time and a few experiments before you find one you like. Start by making just enough for one cup of tea and noting the ratios you made. Next time, try a different ratio. Keep going until you’ve found one that resonates most with you.
In general, you want…
Always use the same measuring scoop/set for each part so you get accurate ratios.
If you’re new to tea blending, take inspiration from my list of teas. I rely heavily on these herbal tea blends, from when I have an upset stomach to when I want a boost of energy.
For more of my favourite herbs to grow for a tea garden, check out this post.
This tea is like taking a multivitamin; it’s full of vitamins and minerals that can boost your meals by drinking as a warm tea. You can also add it as a third of your iced tea blends.
This tea helps to calm your heart and encourage a peaceful mind. It’s very flavourful, sweet, and aromatic. It also makes for a great gift for somebody who’s mending a broken heart.
If you’re trying to soothe the tummy, tea blending can be risky business if you haven’t explored the herbs first. This herbal tea blend helps to cool and chill. Use it when you have an upset stomach or are experiencing bloating. It helps to improve digestion.
Mixing herbs to a nice green tea can help build energy that tapers off slowly, as opposed to the caffeine in coffee, which spikes quickly and then drops. The caffeine in green tea is more of a gentle rise, and when supported by other herbs, it can be really energetic.
I really love this sleepy tea blend! It takes the same idea of my dream pillow and puts it in a tea form. I don’t drink much hot water and tea before I go to bed, so I tend to sit and sip this a few hours before sleep and just after dinner in a small amount.
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Stephanie Rose
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This week Heidi and Spencer give their takes on all the hottest stories in the world of pop culture. First, we get a wedding recap from Chelsea and Spencer shares what his and Heidi’s wedding invite looked like (00:06). Then we dive into updates on Kate Middleton’s whereabouts (14:06), before discussing whether there’s a potential friendship rekindling between Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian (25:36).
Hosts: Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag
Producers: Chelsea Stark-Jones, Aleya Zenieris, and Kevin Cureghian
Theme Song: Heidi Montag
Subscribe: Spotify
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Spencer Pratt
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Tea consumption is higher than you might imagine. In fact, it’s the second most consumed drink globally, trailing only water in its universal appeal.
Originating around 2700 BC, tea has evolved into a cultural cornerstone across continents. It offers a palette of over a thousand varieties, including white, green, oolong, and black teas. Each type presents a unique flavor and health benefits, shaped by its specific processing and fermentation techniques.
While known for its coffee consumption, the United States shows a significant preference for tea. Ready-to-drink tea accounts for a substantial share of the market.
Interestingly, nearly 80% of all tea consumed in the U.S. is iced tea!
Globally, the tea industry is a vital economic component for many countries. China leads the pack in terms of revenue generated from tea. The industry’s growth is evident, with projections indicating a steady increase in global tea consumption. This is supported by a rising interest in organic and specialty teas, which have seen substantial growth in recent years. This may be a result of a broader consumer shift towards healthier, more sustainable options.
The health benefits of tea are thought to range from antioxidants that protect against various cancers to its links with reduced risks of conditions like Parkinson’s disease and cardiovascular issues. Tea’s hydrating properties and the potential for lowering LDL cholesterol levels and blood sugar also contribute to a healthier lifestyle.
Tea is also culturally significant. Countries like China, Korea, and Japan recognize tea cultivation sites as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). International Tea Day on May 21 celebrates the global importance of tea, highlighting its role in rural development, poverty reduction, and sustainable livelihoods.
Tea’s status as the world’s second most popular drink is a testament to its rich history and health benefits.
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WTF
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If you’re the type of person who has three beverages on their desk at all times, listen up: A new meta-analysis compared how six different types of popular drinks impact cardiovascular health and mortality risk. The findings could influence your go-to bev lineup, so let’s dive in.
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Coffee and tea have been seen as villains for the body. An entire industry has popped up around alternatives to just good coffee or a piping hot cuppa tea. There is a rough estimate the world drinks three cups of tea for every cup of coffee. And tea is the second most popular beverage in the world (behind water). Now science is indicate Coffee, tea and good health may go together.
The study, published in PLOS Medicine, surveyed data on 360,000 people between the ages of 50 and 74, looking for their coffee and tea drinking habits and incidents of dementia and strokes over the years. After the initial survey was conducted, these same participants were followed up with 11 years later, allowing researchers to compare and contrast.
RELATED: Coffee Protects You From This Disease According To New Research
The study concluded participants who drank two to three cups of any of these two drinks a day fared better than those who didn’t drink them at all. The sweet spot was found when people consumed the amount of each beverage daily (4 to 6 cups total), resulting in a 28% lower risk of dementia and 32% lower risk of a stroke.
In an email exchange with CNN, Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, chair of the American Stroke Association Advisory Committee and chair in Vascular Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, explained while the study was intriguing there was no way of establishing causation from this initial data.
RELATED: This Type Of Coffee Is Best For Your Heart Health
“We cannot impute causality, and say ‘drinking more coffee or tea is good for your brain.’ What we can only say in this study, people who reported moderate coffee/tea drinking were less likely to have a stroke or dementia occur in the 10 years of follow-up,” he said.
RELATED: Here’s When You Should Drink Coffee For Maximum Productivity
Coffee has long been associated with preventing a wide range of diseases and improving heart health. Still, it’s always important to approach caffeine in moderation, managing your coffee intake without keeping too much of a stern hold on it. When it comes to tea, studies have found links suggest lower odds of cardiovascular disease, better teeth, and even protection against cancer.
In short, go for the warm drink in the morning, and don’t overthink it if you get the urge to have more later on in the day.
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Maria Loreto
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What are the effects of eating only five days a week or following a fasting-mimicking diet five days a month?
Instead of eating every other day, what if you ate five days a week and fasted for the other two? As I discuss in my video The 5:2 Diet and the Fasting-Mimicking Diet Put to the Test, the available data are similar to that of alternate-day fasting: About a dozen pounds of weight loss was reported in overweight men and also reported in overweight women over six months, with no difference found between participants on the 5:2 intermittent fasting regimen and those on a continuous 500-calories-a-day restriction. The largest trial to date found an 18-pound weight loss within six months in the 5:2 group, which isn’t significantly different from the 20 pounds lost in the continuous calorie restriction group. Weight maintenance over the subsequent six months was also found to be no different.
Though feelings of hunger may be more pronounced on the 5:2 pattern than on an equivalent level of daily calorie cutting, it does not seem to lead to overeating on non-fasting days. One might expect going two days without food may negatively impact mood, but no such adverse impact was noted for those fully fasting on zero calories or sticking to just two packets of oatmeal on each of the “fasting” days. (The oatmeal provides about 500 calories a day.) Like alternate-day fasting, the 5:2 fasting pattern appeared to have inconsistent effects on cognition and on preserving lean mass, and it also failed to live up to the “popular notion” that intermittent fasting would be “easier” to adhere to than daily calorie restriction.
Compared to those in the continuous-restriction control group, fewer subjects in the 5:2 pattern group expressed interest in continuing their diet after the study was over. This was attributed to quality-of-life issues, with 5:2 fasting participants citing headaches, lack of energy, and difficulty fitting the fasting days into their weekly routine. However, as you can see below and at 1:53 in my video, there has yet to be a single 5:2 diet study showing elevated LDL cholesterol compared with continuous calorie restriction at six months. Nor has it been shown for a year. This offers a potential advantage over alternate-day regimens.
Instead of 5:2, what about 25:5, spending five consecutive days a month on a “fasting-mimicking diet” (FMD)? Longevity researcher Valter Longo designed a five-day meal plan to try to simulate the metabolic effects of fasting by being low in protein, sugars, and calories with zero animal protein and zero animal fat. By making the diet plant-based, he hoped to lower the level of the cancer-promoting growth hormone IGF-1. He indeed accomplished this goal, along with a drop in markers of inflammation, after three cycles of his five-days-a-month program, as you can see below and at 2:33 in my video. 
One hundred men and women were randomized to consume his fasting-mimicking diet for five consecutive days per month or maintain their regular diet the whole time. As you can see in the graph below and at 2:47 in my video, after three months, the FMD group was down about six pounds compared to the control group, with significant drops in body fat and waist circumference, accompanied by a drop in blood pressure.
Those who were the worst off accrued the most dramatic benefits, as seen in the graph below and at 3:04 in my video. What’s even wilder is that three further months after completion, some of the benefits appeared to persist, suggesting the effects “may last for several months.” It’s unclear, though, if those randomized to the FMD group used it as an opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes that helped maintain some of the weight loss.
Dr. Longo created a company to market his meal plan commercially, but, to his credit, says “he does not receive a salary or a consulting fee from the company…and will donate 100% of his shares to charity.” The whole diet appears to be mostly dehydrated soup mixes, herbal teas like hibiscus and chamomile, kale chips, nut-based energy bars, an algae-based DHA supplement, and a multivitamin dusted with vegetable powder. Why spend 50 dollars a day on a few processed snacks when you could instead eat a few hundred calories a day of real vegetables?
How interesting was that? All-you-can-eat above-ground vegetables for five days would have the same low amount of protein, sugars, and calories with zero animal protein or animal fat. But we’ll probably never know if it works as well, better, or worse because it’s hard to imagine such a study ever getting done without the financial incentive.
To learn more about IGF-1, see my video Flashback Friday: Animal Protein Compared to Cigarette Smoking.
In this series on fasting, I’ve covered several topics, including the basics of calories and weight loss, water-only fasting, and the types of alternate-day fasting, see them all in the related videos below.
I close out the series with videos on time-restricted eating: Time-Restricted Eating Put to the Test and The Benefits of Early Time-Restricted Eating.
If you want all of the videos in one place, I’ve done three webinars on fasting—Intermittent Fasting, Fasting for Disease Reversal, and Fasting and Cancer—and they’re all available for download now.
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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
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