11 Incredible Benefits & Side Effects of Turmeric Tea: Should You Drink It?

Turmeric tea has grown in popularity in recent years for its long list of health benefits. But using turmeric for health benefits isn’t new. It’s actually been used for centuries in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine.

Now turmeric is being used for the treatment and prevention of many diseases and symptoms. Who knows, turmeric tea might just be the answer you’ve been looking for. Turmeric tea is also super easy to add to your diet and make at home!

But as with any herbal tea, there are always some potentially negative side effects to be aware of. And turmeric tea is no exception. When researching the benefits and risks of turmeric tea, there’s an overwhelming amount of information, and it can sometimes even be contradictory. It’s important to speak to your doctor first to know if turmeric tea is right for you!

So what is turmeric tea good for, and is it right for you? Let’s dive in!

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

Turmeric Tea Benefits & Risks To Know About Before You Try ItTurmeric Tea Benefits & Risks To Know About Before You Try It

Disclaimer

First and foremost, I’d like to point out that I’m not a doctor. I’m simply a tea enthusiast interested in learning about the different types of tea and the affects it can have on our bodies. If you’re unsure about anything, please contact your doctor first.

It’s also important to take everything you read here with a grain of salt. For one, there aren’t enough studies done on turmeric in tea specifically to see the full list of side effects. The studies are usually using turmeric or even curcurmin supplements. On top of that, the studies may not even be human trials. So results vary based on how the turmeric is ingested and how the study was conducted.

Remember, when making turmeric tea, you never actually ingest the turmeric because you’re steeping it. This can make a huge difference from the results seen in the studies.

What Is Turmeric?

Turmeric is a flowering plant in the ginger root family. Most of the worlds turmeric comes from India. The part we use is the root of the plant. These aren’t just any roots though, they’re a special kind known as a rhizome. They’re thick roots that grow horizontally (ginger root is in the same family).

The roots are vibrant yellow (and stains EVERYTHING!). Back in the day, it was actually mainly used as a yellow dye and for cooking in curries.

What’s The Difference Between Turmeric & Ginger?

Just because turmeric is in the same family as ginger, does not mean they are the same. Both are rhizomes, and are mostly harvested in India.

When used in cooking, ginger has more sweet and spicy notes whereas turmeric is more peppery. Ginger isn’t used as a dye, in fact, it barely has any colour at all! They do compliment each other very nicely both for flavour and benefits.

an overhead photo of a full ginger root and shaved yellow pieces of ginger, and a full turmeric root with shave orange pieces of turmeric on a marble counter top. Although the turmeric and ginger are similar, they have completely different colours schemes, a the the turmeric root looks a bit more like it was just recently pulled out from the ground. The ginger roots looks cleaner, and almost smoother.

What’s Turmeric Tea?

You would think that turmeric tea uses the flower of the plant, but, you couldn’t be more wrong! Turmeric tea still uses the root. You can either use turmeric powder, the fresh root, or even the dried root.

Using the fresh root is the best if you want to maximize benefits but it’s also harder to find and extremely messy to use. Remember, it was first used as a dye.

To make turmeric tea, you simply add turmeric to hot water and let it steep as you would any other tea. There are a few extra ingredients that you’ll want to add to the tea to get all the health benefits possible…

three pinch bowls filled with different stages of turmeric, plus arrows with text that describes each one. The first one is a fresh turmeric root, they look like thick brown misshappen skinnier sweet potatoes, with a bright orange inside. In the middle are shaved and dried pieces of the turmeric root, they still have an orange inside, but the outside is more yellow instead of brown, and they've shrunken. Finally, you have powdered turmeric, which is a bright orange powder

Health Benefits All Thanks to Curcumin

The medicinal properties in turmeric is all thanks to the active compound Curcurmin. It’s actually a polyphenol – a naturally occurring compound family. P.S. polyhenols also show up in tea as flavanoids.

Curcurmin is what we have to thank for all the powerful benefits of turmeric. It makes it a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. But curcurmin by itself doesn’t lead to any health benefits. It has what’s called poor bioavailability. This is the degree and rate that a substance is absorbed into a living system. Basically that means that it isn’t easily absorbed by the human body.

Fortunately, we have found ways to increase the absorption of curcurmin…

How To Better Absorb Curcurmin?

There are two ways to increase the the absorption of curcurmin in our body: black pepper and fat.

Piperine (the active component in black pepper) increases the bioavailability of curcumin by 2000%! So all you need to do is add a bit of pepper to your tea! I know it sounds a bit odd, but it doesn’t taste all that bad, I swear!

If pepper in tea isn’t exactly up your alley, another substance that can increase the absorption of curcurmin is fat. This can is anything with a high fat content like oil, butter, milk…etc. So the easiest is to turn your turmeric tea into a latte by adding some nice fatty milk to it. Skim milk won’t work in turmeric tea but you can use other fatty milk alternative like oat or coconut milk. It’s that easy!

The ingredients you need to use in turmeric tea to absorb all the benefits. In the middle is a finalized cup of turmeric tea, with speckles of black pepper laying on top. In front of the mug, you have a pinch bowl with black peppercorns, the full turmeric root, and finally a mini double walled espresso mug filled with milk.

What Is Turmeric Tea Good For?

Turmeric tea is a powerful yellow elixir. Drinking a cup of turmeric tea a day can lead to you feeling better and just all around more energized.

The benefits of turmeric tea are all connected to it being a source of antioxidants, reducing oxidative stress and inflammation which leads to a whole other plethora of health benefits. For example, turmeric tea is good for our heart and brain health, pain and weight management, and cancer prevention and treatment.

It’s important to keep in mind that there aren’t enough studies done specifically with turmeric tea and humans. That means, we can’t know the exact side effects of ingesting it in tea form.

1. Turmeric is Filled With Antioxidants

Curcumin is filled with antioxidants leading to a whole plethora of health benefits. This makes it a powerful compound for people with pre-existing health conditions but also for those without.

Antioxidants are just good for our bodies. It can slow or even prevent the damage of cells caused by free radicals in the body. This means turmeric has immune system boosting abilities to keep our bodies in top notch shape!

turmeric-tea-benefits-and-risks-with-pepper

2. Turmeric Reduces Oxidative Stress & Inflammation

Both oxidative stress and increased inflammation are bad for our bodies. Oxidative stress is when our body can’t produce enough antioxidants to fight the free radicals. This can lead to chronic inflammation which can turn into other chronic diseases. To name a few… inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Because turmeric is filled with antioxidants, it’s able to reduce oxidative stress and the effects of it on our body.

3. Turmeric Tea Is Good For Our Brains

Turmeric tea can be very good for your brain health in a few ways. First it’s good at boosting attention and memory in healthy individuals. There was a study with people without any biomarkers for health problems. Researchers noticed a signifiant boost in attention and memory after only an hour of taking curcurmin extract.

Turmeric also has a positive side effect on depression and anxiety. It has the ability to reduce symptoms by boosting seratonin and dopamine levels. Subjects were found to even have more energy after taking turmeric. It’s believed that it can be just as effective as taking prozac (an antidepressant) – with fewer side effects.

If you thought turmeric tea couldn’t get any better for your brain health, you’d be wrong. It’s shown to prevent and slow down the progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers. This is all in thanks to the ani-inflammatory properties.

4. Turmeric Acts As A Natural Pain Reliever

Turmeric tea can be used as a natural pain reliever. Pain in our bodies can occur when our muscles are inflamed, and as we now know, curcurmin can act as an anti-inflammatory.

So drinking turmeric tea can reduce the inflammation and remove any pain caused by this. For example, turmeric is the perfect drink for after a work out, and it’s been very beneficial for those with arthritis. It’s had especially positive side effects for people living with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

You might also be interested in: The Benefits & Risks of Hibiscus Tea

5. Turmeric Tea Has The Ability To Manage Weight

It’s also believed that turmeric tea can aid in weight management, either weight loss, weight gain, and even muscle gain. This is all thanks to curcurmin helping with our metabolism, essentially speeding it up. And it helps with muscle gain because it helps our body digest proteins (you need protein for muscle gain).

Turmeric has helped patients with metabolic syndrome. From analyzing a collection of studies, curcurmin decreased their body mass index (BMI), weight, waist circumference, and leptin concentrations. It didn’t affect hip ratio and there was a significant increase significant increase in adiponectin levels.

Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where there aren’t enough studies. More studies are still needed to know the full effects on turmeric tea and weight management.

6. Turmeric Protects Our Hearts

On top of lowering oxidative stress and inflammation, which can lead to heart disease, turmeric also has separate protective cardiovascular properties.

Turmeric improves our resistance artery endothelial function which impacts blood pressure and blood clotting. A study with mice shows that curcurmin can stop the development of clogged arteries, which is a key risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. And they’re also starting to use cucurmin as a complementary treatment in heart failure.

7. Turmeric Tea Can Prevent & Even Treat Cancer

Curcurmin can help treat and prevent cancer in more than one way. As we know, curcurmin is an anti-inflammatory, and inflammation leads to tumor growth.

Turmeric is able to target the classic hallmarks of cancer like sustained proliferation, evasion of apoptosis, sustained angiogenesis, insensitivity to growth inhibitors, tissue invasion and metastasis…

Curcurmin has been most recently studied on colorectal cancer and showed promising results.

Is It A Benefit Or A Risk Of Turmeric Tea?

Because there aren’t enough studies with turmeric and curcurmin, there are still a lot of unknowns.The effect that turmeric has depends on a lot of factors, like are you already taking medications to treat a disease or symptom?

It also heavily depends on the amount you’re consuming, which can lead to contradictory results. For example, in reasonable amounts, turmeric it can be beneficial, but if you take too much, can quickly turn into a risk.

Because of this, I’ve seen contradictory side effects of turmeric on both liver and kidneys. This is why it’s so important to speak to your doctor first and consume everything in moderation!

turmeric-tea-side-effects-benefits-and-risks

8. Turmeric Tea Side Effects On Your Liver: The Benefits

For the most part, curcurmin and the effects on your liver are positive for a lot people. Oxidative stress is a leading cause for liver disease and the fact that turmeric reduces oxidative stress is a good sign for our livers.

It has preventative effects on liver injury and can stop or slow down the progression of liver disease. Turmeric tea helps cleanse and detoxifies our liver.

But there were some reports of negative side effects on livers during the Alzheimer’s studies…

Can Curcurmin Also Cause Liver Toxicity? The Risk

When studying the effects of curcurmin on Alzheimer’s, there were a few instances of liver toxicity. The study said that chronic use of curcurmin should be avoided if you have liver disease, are a heavy drinker, or take medication that are metabolized by the liver.

This is a rare side effect, but it’s interesting how it contradicts that curcurmin helps detoxify our liver.

9. Potential Turmeric Tea Benefit & Risks On Our Kidneys

There hasn’t been an official trial yet testing the effects of curcurmin on kidneys, but based on research and other studies, it’s believed that it could be a beneficial treatment against Chronic Kidney Disease.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is often linked with hypertension, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease. All these symptoms and diseases are due to oxidative stress and inflammation (starting to understand how it’s all connected!?). As we know, curcurmin can lower the effects of both.

But as good as turmeric can be for our kidneys, it’s a case where it’s important to not overdo it. Too much curcumin can significantly increase the levels of urinary oxalate in your body which can increase the risk of kidney stone formation.

Risks Of Turmeric Tea

Lately, turmeric tea has been getting a pretty good reputation so it’s easy to forget that it can cause some risks for others. When you first research turmeric, it seems like there are barely any risks. I mean the FDA is even recorded saying turmeric substances are “Generally Recognized As Safe”.

Once you delve a little bit deeper though, there are a few risks to be aware of. Some mild side effects from studies reported people experiencing diarrhea, headache, nausea rash, and yellow stool.

It’s important also to keep in mind that the risks are typically associated with taking larger amounts of curcurmin and turmeric supplements – not drinking it in tea.

turmeric-tea-powder in a pinch bowl on a counter top

10. Stimulates Biles Secretion

Bile sounds gross but is actually is important. Curcumin can stimulate bile secretion (increase our bile) which can be dangerous for those with bile tract obstruction. This side effect was found during the trials to see the effects of curcurmin on Alzheimers.

Turmeric tea is not recommended for people with a biliary disease. Don’t drink turmeric tea if you have gallstones, obstructive jaundice, or acute biliary colic. It can significantly make any problems with gallbladders worse.

types-of-turmeric-tea-to-add-to-your-diet

11. Turmeric Interacts With Medication

Turmeric can help with certain diseases or symptoms unless you’re already taking a medication for that symptom – then it can actually make it worse. For example, turmeric can act as a blood thinner and antidepressant. This proves to be risky if you’re already taking medication to help with those conditions.

Another important one to mention is diabetes medication – you definitely don’t want to risk your blood sugar becoming too low. Turmeric also contains a high amount of iron, which can cause issues if you’re taking iron supplements.

A good rule of thumb is if you’re taking any medication for any symptom or disease, speak to your doctor before drinking turmeric tea.

Does Cooking Turmeric Get Rid Of The Benefits?

Of course, there are contradicting studies on whether cooking turmeric gets rid of its beneficial properties. One study boiled turmeric for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and then pressure cooked it. There was a significant loss in the curcurmin effects the longer it was heated for. In fact, up to 50% of curcurmin benefits were lost.

But they also found that this loss was cut in half when a souring agent was added – in this case they added tamarind.

To contradict this, there was also a study that found that heating curcurmin for shorts amount of time led to more absorption…

The point is that they don’t really know. You should be safe adding boiling water to your turmeric and not loose too many benefits. If you’re making turmeric tea on the stove, make sure to not actually boil it. Keep it at a light simmer and don’t let it go for longer than 10 minutes.

cooking-turmeric-tea-for-too-long-loose-benefits

How Much Turmeric Tea Is Too Much Turmeric?

The main risks of turmeric come with ingesting too much curcurmin. So if you consume it within reason, the side effects of turmeric should be mainly positive.

Like I said, the FDA says turmeric substances as “Generally Recognized As Safe”. The World Health Organization recommends 1.4 mg of turmeric per pound of body weight is okay for daily intake.

I would say if you’re drinking turmeric in tea, stick to one cup of turmeric tea a day to not overdo it.

How To Add Turmeric Tea To Your Diet?

There are a few ways you make turmeric tea to add it to your diet. The simplest is to buy a turmeric tea blend from Vahdam tea. They sell tea bags with dried turmeric root. My personal favourites are the Turmeric Moringa and Ginger Turmeric tea blends. (P.S. you can also find Vahdam Teas on Amazon)

You can also simply mix turmeric powder with boiling water (don’t forget to add some pepper to maximize those benefits!). Or you can buy fresh or even freeze dried turmeric to add to your tea.