When You Drink Chai Tea Every Day, This Is What Happens To Your Body

If you drink chai tea every day, you may not realize what it's doing to your body. But first, what even is it? Chai tea — or masala tea, as it is also called – is a combination of black tea and spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. It's most often brewed with both milk and water. Prior to serving, it's also sweetened. Many people prefer to drink the tea in latte form, and you can find the popular concoction in most coffee shops.

According to tea company Teatulia, this delicious drink may date back to some 5,000 years ago, "when a king in what is now India ordered a healing spiced beverage be created for use in Ayurveda, a traditional medicinal practice in which herbs and spices are used for healing."

Although you may not order a chai latte for its medicinal purposes, the beverage still holds some healing power. According to experts and scientific research, this is what happens to your body when you drink chai tea on the regular. 

If you want to improve your heart health, choosing to drink chai tea every day may do just that. A study conducted in the United Kingdom in 2007 found that consuming three cups of black tea — the main ingredient in chai —  per day reduced the risk of developing coronary heart disease. A later study conducted by researchers in the Netherlands, Germany, and the U.K. also found that regular consumption of black tea was capable of reducing blood pressure. "Although the effect is small," the study noted, "such effects could be important for cardiovascular health at population level."

It's not just the black tea in chai that can improve your heart health though. Cinnamon, one of the more prevalent spices in chai, has also been found to lower blood pressure, triglycerides, and LDL (aka "bad") cholesterol. Thanks to the serendipitous combo of black tea and cinnamon, which has quite a few unexpected health benefits, chai is essentially a superfood — at least when it comes to heart health.

Finding a way to work cinnamon and ginger into your daily diet can sound complicated, but a cup of chai will do the trick. Why should you incorporate these two spices into your meal plan? For the health benefits — duh.

One study revealed cinnamon's potential ability to reduce blood glucose in both patients with type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Another study found that ginger helped lower blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics. However, Healthline noted that most studies recommend consuming one to six grams of each spice per day, which is more than you'll get in a teabag. 

"To get the most benefits, try preparing the tea yourself from scratch. That way, you can add slightly more cinnamon and ginger than most recipes call for," the publication revealed. "It's also important to note that, unlike home-brewed chai tea, varieties prepared in cafés are often heavily sweetened, which would likely negate the blood-sugar-lowering benefits of the other ingredients in chai tea."

"All of the spices in chai have been independently shown to inhibit or suppress inflammation as well as tumorigenesis," Tina Kaczor, licensed naturopathic doctor and board-certified naturopathic oncologist, explained in an article for Natural Medicine Journal. "At a molecular level, the crux of many chronic degenerative diseases, including tumorigenesis, is the inflammatory process," she continued. As such, deciding to drink chai tea every day and committing to that may prevent degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

Drinking chai, especially if you love the taste, is one of the easiest things you can do to protect against such diseases. "Chai, a simple combination of cinnamon, cardamom, clove, ginger, and black pepper represents an easily integrated means of including many spices that have evidence of anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antitumor effects," the professional explained. "The pleasant taste and easy access to these spices add to the practical application of this simple tea."

Ginger has been found to ease nausea in pregnant women, but what if you're nauseated due to a stomach ulcer? You can still find relief from chai tea — not from the ginger in the drink, but from the cardamom.

A study in rats with aspirin-induced gastric ulcers found that cardamom was able to help. Rats who ate cardamom extract experienced both smaller and fewer ulcers than the rats who did not consume cardamom. A similar study also found that cardamom, along with turmeric and sembung leaf, helped protect rats against getting stomach ulcers in the first place.

Even if you don't have a stomach ulcer, you may be plagued with indigestion. Thankfully, cardamom can also ease heartburn, David Grotto, registered dietitian and author of 101 Optimal Life Foods: Alleviate Stress, Ease Muscle Pain, Boost Short-Term Memory, and Eat Your Way to Great Health... One Delicious Bite at a Time, confirmed to Everyday Health.

When you're stressed out, nothing may sound better than a hot cup of tea. If stress is a daily occurrence, though, you may want to consider replacing your usual nightly brew with chai tea — and don't forget to add nutmeg! A study conducted by researchers in India found that nutmeg seed extract induced an "antidepressant-like effect" on mice. Interestingly, the nutmeg extract was able to zen the mice, but it didn't have any kind of negative impact or "significant effect" on the animals' movement.

In addition to potentially boosting your mood, the nutmeg — and cloves — in your cuppa may also boost your libido. One study in rats revealed that the spices "were found to stimulate the mounting behaviour of male mice, and also to significantly increase their mating performance." So, uh, there's that.

Naturally, what happens in mice may not be the same as what happens in humans. However, if you're looking for a way to unwind, it couldn't hurt to brew a pot of chai tea every day, now could it?

When you consider all of the health benefits of the different components in chai tea, you can see why ancient people considered it a medicinal elixir. "The herbs in chai tea are strong herbs — it's more than a tea, it's like a traditional medicinal formula," Neka Pasquale, herbalist, licensed acupuncturist, and founder of the plant-based food company Urban Remedy, told Well+Good. "The ingredients in chai are very warming, which makes it a perfect winter tonic." 

Part of what makes chai tea the bee's knees — at least when it comes to wellness beverages — really comes down to the ways the ingredients compliment each other. "I would look at the recipe of a good chai tea like a good Chinese medicine formula — the ingredients work together synergistically," Pasquale explained. "If you had one herb supporting the digestion it would be great, but all of them together have a much stronger effect." 

Choosing to drink chai tea every day can benefit many parts of your body, which means it may just improve your overall health.

Chai tea isn't the best choice for menopausal women. "When you look at people constitutionally, some people already have way too much heat in their bodies — they might have really bad heartburn or feel hot, like people with a fever or women going through menopause," Neka Pasquale, herbalist, licensed acupuncturist, and founder of the plant-based food company Urban Remedy, told Well+Good. "You don't want to heat them up too much, because it aggravates the heat already in their body." For such folks, Pasquele recommends green tea, which also tastes great chilled. 

Chai tea made with cow's milk, as it is traditionally served, is also not the best bet for people with lactose intolerance, as it can cause nausea, stomach cramps, bloating, gas, and diarrhea. Of course, you don't have to drink chai tea with cow's milk. If you still want to experience the benefits from the spices and tea without any of the side effects of lactose intolerance, you should "opt for chai teas made from plant-based milks or only water," according to Healthline. 

Although deciding to drink chai tea every day is not the right fit for everyone, the pros outweigh the cons for most people.