Digestive distress is increasingly common in the modern world, where stress, our diet, hyper-hygienic lifestyle, and medication use all do a number on gut health, motility, and the integrity of the gastrointestinal lining. Fortunately, soothing and healing herbs can prove helpful in a range of digestive issues including acid reflux, ulcers, leaky gut, SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, IBS (inflammatory bowel syndrome, IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), and more. A full gastrointestinal evaluation and modern medicine may also be necessary as well as supportive diet changes and supplements. However, a gut healing tea can be an amazing ally in the healing process. Some benefits will be felt within minutes with deeper benefits from daily use over months or years.
Why Tea?
Making a strong herbal tea allows us to get a lot of herb into direct contact with the gastrointestinal lining in a soothing and easily absorbed format. Slimy, soothing mucilage, a mainstay for many gut-healing teas, prefers water over any other solvent to release and activate its benefits. That said powders (mixed in drink or food), broth, chewable pills, or capsules can also be used.
Basic Gut-Healing Tea:
For soothing irritation and promoting healing combine:
- 3 heaping tablespoons marshmallow root and/or leaf
- 1-2 heaping tablespoons plantain leaf
- 4 cinnamon stick
- 10 cloves
- 2 star anise
- sprinkle of rose petals
Instructions: Make this recipe in a 32-ounce French press. Use hot water and steep for 4-8 hours unless otherwise specified. Drink hot or cold. Refrigerate extras and drink within 1-3 days. Here are some ways to adjust the recipe to your needs, flavor preferences, and using the herbs you have on hand...
Increase digestive fire - add 2-4 cardamom pods or ginger root to taste
Gas, pain and bloating - add 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds and perhaps 2-4 cardamom pods. If marshmallow seems to aggravate gas and bloating, reduce the dose or leave out.
GI inflammation and pain - add 1-2 tablespoons of meadowsweet.
Need extra gut-healing support - add a pinch of licorice root and more plantain leaf.
SIBO-Friendly Tea:
- 2 heaping tablespoons meadowsweet
- 2 heaping tablespoons plaintain
- 1 heaping tablespoon calendula flower
- 2 heaping tablespoons marshmallow, optional, usually well tolerated
Brewing instructions, same as above.
