Moringa comes in a wide variety of forms, from a capsule to a juice to a matcha-like tea. All of them have a range of health benefits, including blood sugar control, weight loss, and antioxidants. The question is, how often should you consume moringa?
Different Methods to Consume Moringa
As you might imagine from the title of this post, we're mostly going to talk about juice and tea. Consuming moringa as a beverage is generally more flavorful than simply taking a capsule, and offers you more flexibility.
Taking moringa as a capsule is quick and easy, but can have some side effects. It's a quick burst of supplement, and some people report that it can give them minor indigestion, particularly if taken on an empty stomach. Moreover, as a concentrated green supplement, you may end up with an aftertaste or "grassy burps" that seem to linger throughout the day. Some people don't experience this, and others don't notice or care if they do, but it can be a deal-breaker for others.
Moringa juice is usually found as a concentrate, either pure or mixed with some other juices, typically superfruits like goji and acai, which are packed full of vitamins and antioxidants. Some moringa juices are sold as beverages rather than concentrates, however, and as such are usually based heavily in other fruit juices with moringa as an additive.
Moringa tea, meanwhile, can be either a finely ground matcha-like tea or a dried leaf tea similar to other teas. It can be part of a blend or it can be found on its own and used to make your own blend. Tea is not concentrated, so the amount you consume varies and will be different from the amount you consume with juice.
General Advice
Before we get into specific ways to consume or drink moringa, we'll start off with some general advice.
First, you can broadly categorize moringa into two groups. One group is food, and the other is the supplement. As a food, moringa is a vegetable staple in the areas where it is grown, and it's not really possible to consume too much of it. It's basically a salad green and can be eaten as part of a regular diet. You can think of it as somewhat similar to spinach; sure, if you eat too much of it, you might encounter some digestive issues, but you're likely going to fill yourself up before you reach that point unless you're eating nothing but moringa leaves.
Moringa juice beverages – not concentrates – fall into this category as well. A juice beverage is usually based on a neutral fruit juice, typically apple or pear, and has other juices added in small amounts to add flavor, vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants. Moringa is the primary component in a moringa juice beverage, of course, but you'll also see some flavor additives like goji, acai, and even lemon. Different additives give it different flavors.
The caution here is that a juice beverage is not necessarily healthy for you. They are, after all, pretty much just juice. The benefit of fruits and vegetables comes primarily in the fiber and nutrients in it, and a processed juice drink doesn't have that. It has the flavor and sugar content of the fruit, and the nutrient content of the vegetables, but not the fiber content of the plants. You're better off making a juice at home, adding the juice to a whole food smoothie, or simply eating moringa more directly.
The other category is the supplement. As a supplement, moringa tends to be much more concentrated. The leaves are dried and ground down into a powder, or their juice is pressed out of them and left unadulterated by additional water, sugar, or juices. That's typically what you're getting if you're getting a moringa tea.
That said, moringa tea is then brewed in water, to reduce the concentration. You aren't simply eating a bag of tea leaves, right? Brewing a cup of tea is generally a serving, and the concentration and potency of the tea depends primarily on how much of the tea you brew and how long you steep it, as well as how you prepare it.
A moringa juice concentrate like what we sell splits the difference. It's a concentrate, and the added juices we put in it – like cranberry, pomegranate, acai, and goji – are also concentrates, not full juices. This means that while the concentrated juice is not pure moringa, it's still a concentrate that is best added to something else rather than consumed straight. You won't be drinking a whole bottle of this stuff.
The second consideration is that, as a supplement, you should always start small and work your way up. You don't know how moringa is going to act on your body until you take it. Some people are more sensitive to herbs and herbal remedies than others, and it might have a stronger or weaker effect on you based on your unique biology.
We recommend taking a small amount of moringa once per day in general, to see how your body reacts. If you experience significant negative side effects, like blood sugar swings, blood sugar crashes, digestive issues, or an allergic reaction, discontinue using it. If, on the other hand, you experience no significant adverse side effects, continue taking it and see how it improves your body, health, and life.
In general, it may take several days to begin to see any effects from moringa, unless you have an allergic reaction, which is fairly unlikely. For the strongest health effects, you will want to take it once per day for several weeks to start seeing those effects, so you can judge if they're beneficial enough to keep taking the supplement. Some people, unfortunately, won't see much benefit. Others will improve so much that they may decide to continue taking it on a regular basis.
It all depends on the individual.
Drinking Moringa Juice Beverages
Moringa juice beverages can be made at home with concentrate and your favorite juices, or it can be bought as a juice drink from another store. These kinds of beverages tend to sacrifice some of the health benefits from the moringa in favor of flavor, however, so we recommend making it yourself if you want it.
Generally, you're looking at what amounts to about an ounce of moringa concentrate added to a glass of juice or a smoothie. The resulting beverage should be limited to once a day.
If you have a juicer, you can make moringa juice at home. You need access to fresh moringa leaves in order to make it, of course, so that might be a roadblock. However, if you have access to it, fresh-pressed juice can be the most delicious form of moringa, with the most bioavailable and concentrated effects. By necessity, any form of moringa you're buying commercially other than fresh produce is going to have been processed and pasteurized, so it loses some of its benefits, albeit not a lot.
To make moringa juice at home, start with about half a cup of the leaves, fresh and washed. If you're using a juicer or juice press, add the leaves and juice them. If you're using a blender, add the leaves and about a cup of water and blend until smooth. You can then add any additives you want, like honey, lemon juice, or other fruit or vegetable juices. Alternatively, you can add the moringa juice to a smoothie.
Drinking Moringa Juice Concentrate
If you don't have access to fresh leaves or don't have a blender or juicer to use to make the juice yourself, a concentrate is perfectly fine. Our moringa concentrate is packed with additional additives full of nutrients, making it even more of a superfood above and beyond moringa on its own.
Moringa concentrate is best added to another beverage, smoothie, or just to water. It's very potent if you don't dilute it, and as such, it can cause some digestive issues. The flavor is also very strong, so it's better to mix it with other flavors to cut back on the bitterness naturally present in the concentrate and the leaves.
We recommend taking roughly one ounce of moringa juice concentrate, mixed with a cup of water or a smoothie. Take this once per day after breakfast. Try to take it consistently each day to see the best effects on your health.
Drinking Moringa Juice Tea
Moringa tea comes in two forms: a powder and a leaf. You can think of it the way you would the difference between green tea and matcha; they're the same plant, prepared differently.
Loose-leaf moringa tea can be brewed up the same way any other tea can be brewed; simply put some of the loose leaves into your favorite tea device, tea bag, or steeper, and brew in hot water for a couple of minutes. The longer you brew, the stronger the flavor will be and the more nutrients you will get out of the tea. Keep in mind that moringa is naturally somewhat bitter and grassy, so you may want to blend the moringa with other herbal teas or even dried fruits to get the best out of it.
Powdered moringa as tea is brewed in the same was as matcha tea. Use a sifter to sift out the powder to remove clumps and impurities and add it to a cup of hot water. Whisk the tea until it is thick and frothy, then enjoy. You can also do a cold brew and add the resulting tea as an additive to other beverages, or drink it cold later. Again, though, remember it can be pretty strong on its own and is often an acquired taste.
For moringa tea, you should start with a single cup each day, generally brewed light. Once you've found a balance of flavor and concentration you enjoy, you can start consuming more each day to get the health benefits. Typically one to two cups per day is plenty, after which you can enjoy other kinds of tea or beverages throughout the day. Like the concentrate, we recommend drinking this beverage in the morning, with or after breakfast.
Can You Get Too Much Moringa?
Is it possible to get too much moringa? Technically, yes, though it's highly unlikely. Moringa is basically just a nutritious vegetable, and as such, you're likely to fill yourself up with it before you reach a point where it induces negative health effects.
With concentrates, however, it's easier to get too much of the moringa nutrients without the filling effect of fiber associated with the vegetable itself.
We typically recommend a single ounce of concentrate each day, or one to two cups of tea or juice each day. You can increase this amount on a personal basis, depending on the beneficial effects you experience and the negative side effects you get.
In terms of negative side effects, the only one you typically have to worry about is digestive issues. Moringa is a natural laxative, though it's far from potent compared to other natural laxatives. In moderation, you shouldn't have issues with it. If you drink too much too quickly or too often, you may end up having to rush to the restroom a little more often than you would prefer. If this happens, cut back on the amount of moringa you drink and you should settle your stomach.
The one major caution with moringa juice involves blood sugar. One of the health benefits of moringa juice is that it can help lower your blood sugar levels naturally. This is great for pre-diabetics and people who may have blood sugar issues, but it can potentially be dangerous for people who hypoglycemia. If you already have issues with low blood sugar, avoid taking moringa.
Conversely, if you're on medications to lower (or control) your blood sugar, check with a qualified physicial to see if moringa is safe to take with your current medication. If you lower your blood sugar too much with a combination of medicine and moringa, you could be putting your health at risk.
Make sure to talk to your doctor about moringa juice if you're interested in trying it in conjunction with other treatments. If you're not allergic and you aren't on blood sugar medications, natural juices and teas should be perfectly safe for you to try.
