There’s been a lot of buzz recently around tea detoxes (also known as ‘teatoxes’). These teatoxes are supposed to cleanse, purify and rejuvenate your body by eliminating toxins that could be preventing your immune system from performing at its best.
Being a bit curious myself, I decided to try one out, test its effects, and see if it would maybe be something that I’d want to start including in my routine every now and then for a ‘refresher’.
My First Teatox
I was first introduced to Skinny Bee Tea’s tea detox over on Twitter and was lucky enough to win a little giveaway of their 14-day teatox (they have 28-day teatoxes as well – now that’s a commitment!).
There are LOTS of teatoxes on the market, and out of all the options, I was happy to start my first with Skinny Bee Tea. Their teas are 100% organic and gluten-free, and contain a lot of the beneficial ingredients that make it worth while. (I actually received the Slendertoxtea shortly after this one and noticed a huge difference in the ingredients – Slendertoxtea just didn’t contain some of the more well-known herbs that support liver function that thankfully were in Skinny Bee Tea. I’ll get into the specifics below.)
Before I took the plunge into the daily tea drinking, I did a lot bit of research online just to see what to expect, how to eat while on a teatox, and so on. Here’s a little bit of a background on teatoxes that I found in my online researching.
Doing Some Research…
So what makes a tea a ‘detox’ tea? This article from Shape.com explains how teas specifically branded for detoxing are in fact different from your usual green and black teas. Here’s a snippet on a detox tea’s particular ingredients:
“Specific detox teas offer added benefits in the additional ingredients. Herbs like lemongrass, ginger, dandelion, and milk thistle all contain properties said to support a healthy liver, one of those organs in charge of your natural detoxifying process. Ginger has also been proven to alleviate oxidative stress within the liver, which indirectly helps the organ perform its cleaning task more efficiently.”
Of course after reading this, I went over to grab the Skinny Bee Tea teatox to check to see if they had any of these extra herbs, and I found not one, but two – Dandelion Leaf and Lemongrass. Good stuff!
The other staple herb that you’d expect to find you teatox is senna, an herbal laxative for the ‘cleansing’ part of the detox. After taking another look at the labels, I saw ‘Senna Leaf’ was included in the colon cleanse tea bags only, which is great because it can create some side effects if taken too often.
One extra special little ingredient added to the Skinny Bee Teas is Pu’erh leaf. It’s actually found in both the day detox and the color cleanse. Pu’erh Leaf teas apparently help the body by increasing metabolism and burning fat. So with that in mind, you get a little extra something in addition to the detoxing effect.
What to Eat During Your Teatox
The Shape.com article pretty much summed up how important a healthy diet is during your teatox. It explained how “tea can only be medicinal and detoxifying if your diet isn’t taxing your system. In order to truly detoxify your body, cut processed and fried foods, and up your intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and anti-inflammatory fats like avocados and almonds. Once your diet is clean and gentle on your body, detoxifying teas can begin to enhance your natural organ function.”
I eat pretty healthy on a regular basis, so I didn’t have to make too many adjustments to my diet. I stuck with the good stuff – fruits, veggies, chicken, healthy grains, etc.
I do have to confess that I had about two pieces of pizza right in the middle of the two-week period (thanks to the boyfriend and his pizza crazings!), but I can’t imagine that it had too much of an impact on the tea’s overall effects, though it may have lessened them. But despite this minor deviation from the recommended diet, I still experienced results!
My Results
After the first week of my teatox, I started to notice some differences in both my body and skin. The most noticeable difference was in my complexion – it started to clear up and even look brighter! In terms of weight loss, I stayed pretty much the same weight during the two-weeks. Digestion-wise however, I noticed some major differences – my tummy actually felt at peace! 🙂 I didn’t suffer from even the occasional indigestion or bloating that I get after eating certain foods (starches especially), and from the outside, my stomach actually looked flatter!
Would I do another teatox? Without hesitation! (I plan to wait about a month before I start my next one – which will most likely be the Slendertoxtea. I’m anxious to compare the two teas since their ingredients are completely different.)
Have you tried a teatox? If you have, what was your experience like?
Explore more of my favorite teatoxes (laxative and/or side-effect free):
