Rooibos Tea: A Caffeine-Free Anti-Aging Secret

Risks and Benefits of Red and Green Rooibos Tea." Black, green, and white teas are all made from the same evergreen plant. Herbal tea, on the other hand, involves pouring water over any plant in the world other than the tea plant. In my other articles, I covered hibiscus and chamomile tea on boosting AMPK and blocking inflammation. Are there any other notable herbal teas that may have anti-aging properties? Rooibos, also known as red tea, is a caffeine-free herbal tea grown in a mountainous region of South Africa.  

How Rooibos Tea Can Enhance Your Lifespan

It has been shown to increase the lifespan of C. elegans by as much as 23 percent under conditions of oxidative stress, presumed to be due to its antioxidant properties. In a head-to-head comparison of fifteen herbal teas, rooibos came in at number two (after dandelion) for in vitro antioxidant power. Green rooibos— analogous to green tea— worked better in the C. elegans study than red rooibos, which is the commercially more common oxidized form (akin to black tea). Green rooibos tea has about twice the antioxidant capacity compared to red, though both similarly increase the blood antioxidant capacity after consumption. Within six weeks, rooibos intake can decrease markers of oxidative damage and even drop LDL cholesterol by nearly 27 points (mg/dl) compared to control, but the dose used (six cups (1440 ml) a day) is more than most people drink. No smaller quantity has yet been put to the test. If you want to try it at home, though the "optimal cup" is said to require 10 minutes of steeping, it appears that extraction plateaus at five minutes;  

Rooibos: Infusion Techniques, Safety and Ethical Dimensions

Infusion Methods and Optimizing Benefits

For Rooibos, a longer infusion time does not seem necessary. The traditional preparation method is to simmer the Rooibos, which does seem to improve its antioxidant capacity compared with a simple hot or cold infusion. This practice fell into disuse with the advent of tea bags in the 1960s, for reasons of convenience. A similar transition occurred for black tea, from 5% use of tea bags in the UK in 1960 to over 95% in 2007.

However, this change may have had positive consequences. Since bagged tea is generally chopped much finer than loose tea, the increased surface area improves extraction. It takes just two minutes of brewing to extract the same amount of compounds from bagged black tea as it does from loose black tea in ten minutes. Ideally, we should infuse for longer than two minutes. The extraction of flavonoids from black tea is not complete until about the fourth minute. 

Green tea can be steeped for three minutes at 85°C (for optimum nutrition and taste), and white tea at 98°C for seven minutes. (Bag-infused white tea also provides almost twice the antioxidant capacity of loose tea.)

Rooibos safety and precautions

Rooibos has an excellent safety record. However, four cases of liver toxicity associated with Rooibos consumption have been reported in the medical literature, the most convincing involving two separate hospitalizations for acute hepatitis following resumption of Rooibos consumption. All cases resolved uneventfully once patients stopped drinking Rooibos. Nevertheless, as with any new tea, herb, supplement or medication, consult your health care practitioner immediately if you develop symptoms of liver problems, such as abdominal pain, dark urine or jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes).

Rooibos: A Fair Trade Model and Ethical Offering on Inasbay Marketplace

A significant advantage of Rooibos is that it is, by definition, a Fair Trade product. Since 1993, almost every country on the planet has ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, a major step forward in global environmental policy aimed at conserving biodiversity by rewarding the Earth's custodians with a fair and equitable sharing of benefits. The Rooibos Benefit-Sharing Agreement was the first industry-wide agreement to be concluded with indigenous peoples under this Convention.

This ethical dimension makes Rooibos a preferred choice for those who favour responsible consumption. When you're shopping online and looking to buy tea online, the Inasbay marketplace offers a rigorous selection of organic teas, including Rooibos, in line with these values of sustainability and fairness.

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