If you like drinking herbal teas, you should try a less well-known one: Nettle Tea. It has a refreshing, slightly bitter taste, but that shouldn’t be a worry: it can be sweetened easily. It has plenty of health benefits which you should focus on.
About Nettle Tea
Nettle Tea is made from nettle, an herb also known as ‘stinging nettle’. It is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant part of the Urtica genus. It grows in many places: Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America.
During summer, the nettle grows up to 2 meters, while during winter, it dries down to the ground. The green leaves are soft, 3 to 15 cm long, but with many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes; they can also be found on the stem. The trichomes inject chemicals that produce a stinging sensation when humans or animals come in contact with it. Also, it bears small flowers, greenish or brownish in color.
It has many medical uses, but the nettle can also be eaten (cooked similarly to spinach). Plus, it is one of the ingredients of alcoholic nettle beer.
How to prepare Nettle Tea
For a cup of nettle tea, just add a teaspoon of the dried herb to a cup of boiling water. Cover it and let it steep for about 10 minutes. Once you remove the herbs, you can drink it either hot or cold. You can add honey or lemon to sweeten its flavor.
Children especially love to add a slice of lemon to their cup of nettle tea. The reason is that you can change the tea’s color by adding lemon. From dark green, the tea will become pinkish.
If possible, you can also try to prepare nettle tea from scratch. Gloves and scissors will help you pick up the leaves. It is best to use the smaller ones, as the bigger and older leaves are bound to be bitterer. Carefully wash each and every leaf, to remove any soil and insects. Next, put the leaves in a pot, add enough water to cover them, and boil until the water turns slightly green. Remove the leaves, otherwise, the taste will become bitterer and bitterer. Just like earlier, add honey or lemon to your cup of nettle tea, to sweeten the flavor.
Components of Nettle Tea
The root and leaves are used in order to make nettle tea. They also transfer the many constituents found in nettle. Some of them include amino acids, glucidic substances, volatile oil, fatty substances, formic and acetic acid, panthotenic acid, and folic acid. Nettle also contains vitamins C, B2, and K, beta-carotene, calcium, and magnesium.
Nettle Tea Benefits
Thanks to nettle being its main ingredient, Nettle Tea has plenty of health benefits.
First of all, nettle tea is good for your joints and muscles. It is often used in the treatment of arthritis, rheumatism, or tendonitis. Also, nettle tea is useful when treating diseases of the bile, and conditions of the spleen.
If you’ve got diabetes, nettle tea will help decrease the sugar in your blood, therefore lowering your glycemic level. Besides that, it is also used to treat diseases and inflammations of the urinary system and is useful when having to deal with various intestinal disorders. You can also drink it when you’ve got throat problems, or if you’re suffering from tuberculosis or asthma.
Nettle tea is also good at helping you fight against various skin problems. It can be used to treat allergic reactions and hay fever, as well.
Lastly, drinking nettle tea will make your hair get smoother and silkier.
Nettle Tea Side Effects
Nettle Tea can act as a laxative if you drink a large amount of it from the start. It is best to drink a cup every day, in order to help your body get used to it. After a few days you can increase the amount of tea you drink, but no more than three cups a day. If you drink too much, you might end up with diarrhea; other possible side effects are headaches, dizziness, insomnia, irregular heartbeats, vomiting, and loss of appetite.
It is advised that you not drink nettle tea if you’re pregnant, as it might cause miscarriages. Also, regularly drinking nettle tea can cause changes to a woman’s menstrual cycle.
If you’re taking medication, make sure you talk to your doctor first, before drinking nettle tea. It might interfere with the medication’s actions.
Nettle Tea should definitely be a must-have – or a must-drink, maybe. It has plenty of health benefits and very few side effects. Therefore, you don’t have to worry; include nettle tea in your daily diet and happily enjoy your cup of tea!