Fenugreek Tea Has Great Health Benefits
Fenugreek tea is not a tea that most people know, especially in North America. However, in the Mediterranean, where fenugreek grows, it is both popular as a drink and as a spice in food, where it is used a lots of different dishes.
As far as the tea is concerned, it is made of fenugreek seeds and you can often find them in heath food stores or even specialty tea stores. You can, of course, sometimes find the seeds in larger supermarkets or small specialty supermarkets – especially those in Italian, Greek or Levantine areas of larger cities.
Like most teas, this tea is easy to make. For just one cup, you will need one teaspoon of the seeds. Bring the seeds and water to a boil and boil them for five to ten minutes. Try five minutes at first. If you’d like a stronger flavor, then boil them for up to ten minutes. Remove the tea from the heat source and cover the pan with a lid and leave to stand for another ten to fifteen minutes. Again, like most teas, the longer the mixture steeps, the stronger and often more bitter the tea. After the steeping time, simply strain the tea into a cup or mug. The seeds in the strainer have now fulfilled their use and can be thrown away. Again, like many teas, this one can be enjoyed both hot and cold. You can serve it with ice and lemon in the summer, which makes it into a refreshing summer drink.
This tea has many health benefits. An important one is that it can be used as a laxative. This is because it has a lot of fiber, which swells and is then expelled from the body along with body waste. Another reason why this is a perfect detox tea, in fact quite a few detox teas and weight loss teas have fenugreek in their ingredients.
It can also help to regulate your blood sugar and obviously, this can be very important. If you have a cough or even bronchitis, try this tea as it is known to reduce these symptoms as it removes excess mucus. Also, it can help to help nursing mothers as it can increase the flow of breast milk.
You can even use it for insect bites and general skin irritation and swelling. In this case, you do not drink the tea but use it to form a paste. To do this, simply mix about 50 grams (about three tablespoons or 1.76 oz to be exact) of crushed and powdered fenugreek seeds to about one quart of boiled water. Leave to stand and cool when it will thicken into a consistency like jello. Use a little on skin irritations and insect bites to soothe and heal.
It is important that if you are taking any medication, that you ask your doctor if this tea is OK to take.
I hope you can see that Fenugreek tea is easy to make and has many health benefits as well as being a great tasting tea.