Read the Label on Your Chinese Weight Loss Tea
Just like when you are shopping for any sort of supplement, medication, or even packaged food, the first thing that you need to do is read the label.  The only difference is that instead of looking at the calories or amount of carbs or salt, you are looking specifically at the ingredient list and whether any warnings are included.

Tea may be a healthy, wholesome product, but it is still a processed item that could have potentially been altered somewhere down the line.  In the case of some Chinese weight loss tea, you will find that some nasty things have been added to boost its effect.

Herbal Fen-Phen
Herbal fen-phen is a manufactured herbal product that is made by combining St. John’s Wort and Ephedra.  St. John’s Wort has been widely regarded as being more or less safe, but the case is not the same when it comes to Ephedra, which has been reported as one of the primary components of the compound in pharmaceutical fen-phen that caused serious heart valve problems in those who look it.  If your weight loss tea contains herbal fen-phen, it should be skipped.

Check for Natural Laxatives
Many so-called Chinese weight loss tea producers will add natural laxatives to their tea.  This is done because when laxatives do what they do, the person in question tends to lose a little bit of extra weight due to the fact that they are spending so much of their time in the bathroom.  This is a false concept because rather than reducing the number of calories that are absorbed or boosting metabolism, all these compounds do is flush the already digested food out of the colon.

Natural laxatives that many weight loss teas contain include: senna, castor oil, aloe, rhubarb root, cascara, and buckthorn.

These effects are compounded frequently by people who are new to the world of weight loss tea or those who fail to read instructions before they drink.  If you steep the tea too long or if you drink too much of it, you can cause yourself serious, if usually temporary, digestive discomfort.

Still, that does not mean that Chinese weight loss tea is bad for you.  In fact, you don’t even need to purchase actual “weight loss teas” in many cases to receive the benefits that they have to offer.  The beneficial compounds and antioxidants are available in any high quality green or white tea.  Just remember to always read the labels and you’ll be able to enjoy that hot cup of tea and be secure in the knowledge that you are promoting good health.

Safety Concerns
Easy weight loss tea does not always mean safe weight loss tea. As previously stated, there are many teas out there that have other things added to them in order to boost the “weight loss” aspect of them, but these chemicals can be misleading or even dangerous.

Laxatives, even natural ones, can lead to not only digestive discomfort, but prolonged use can lead to more serious problems in the digestive system, particularly in the colon, the main part of your body that is directly affected by them.

If you see senna, natural fen-phen, aloe, rhubarb root, castor oil, cascara, or buckthorn on your chosen tea for weight loss, skip it and move on.

Effectiveness
Remember that you are buying this tea for a purpose, but you also need to be careful. While the proper tea should help supplement an overall weight control effort, it is by no means a miracle cure. It should help your efforts, but if you suddenly start dropping weight like crazy, there is something else going on that is probably not healthy for you.

That said, it should definitely still have an effect. Measure your results both before and after you start taking it. If you notice no difference, it will not work for what you are aiming for.

Additional Health Benefits
Some weight loss teas will provide you with further benefits aside from your objective of weight control. Tea has been used for centuries for medicinal purposes to treat a huge number of maladies, and a high quality tea will be beneficial for many of them as well.

Primarily associated with green tea and oolong tea, most high quality teas are full of cancer fighting compounds known as polyphenols. The same antioxidants are associated with a significant reduction in blood pressure, as well as aiding in the normalizing of blood sugar in people with blood sugar abnormalities.

Your Own Reactions
You will not be able to judge this very well until after you have been drinking the tea for a time. You need to observe your body before and after you drink, as well as any reactions that you have as a result of drinking the tea. Does it make you jittery? Does it send you running to the bathroom every ten minutes? Have you suddenly lost a huge amount of weight since you started drinking it? If so, you may want to abandon it and move on to something else.

Palatability of Your Tea For Weight Loss
Obviously, the best weight loss tea for you is going to be palatable, as in it tastes good. This particular consideration, you can fudge a little bit through the use of flavorings and additives. That is not to say that you should be dumping heaping spoonfuls of sugar into your tea, but a splash of vanilla extract or cocoa powder can go a long way toward improving the flavor of your beverage.

Of course, these are but a sample of the considerations that a person should go through when choosing a particular tea for weight loss. In the end, you will need to ask yourself three questions before you make that final purchase: is it safe, does it work, and does it taste good enough that you can handle drinking it? If the answers to those three questions are all yes, you are well on your way to finding yourself a quality weight loss tea.