Dr. Ming Tea is a brand which claims their products cause weight loss. They describe their products as the “Number 1 slimming tea in the world.”
In this article we'll review the ingredients and formulation of some of Dr Ming's tea products to provide our determination on whether or not they're actually likely to cause weight loss. We'll highlight some issues we have with the brand's claims of "clinically proven results."
Dr. Ming Green Tea Ingredient Review
At the time of updating this article, it appears that Dr. Ming tea has updated their Green Tea formulation. There are now four ingredients in Dr. Ming Green Tea: green tea, senna, peppermint, and citrus sinesis.
Green Tea is the first ingredient, and we consider this to be a potentially effective weight loss ingredient. A medical review on green tea use in overweight and obese patient populations, published in the Cochrane Library, analyzed data from many medical studies on the topic and concluded the following:
"Green tea preparations appear to induce a small, statistically non‐significant weight loss in overweight or obese adults. Because the amount of weight loss is small, it is not likely to be clinically important."
Senna is the second ingredient in Dr. Ming Green Tea, and we haven't come across any medical research suggesting this plant causes weight loss, nor does Dr. Ming Tea cite any on their product page. We will consider this an ineffective ingredient.
We recommend avoiding senna tea unless otherwise prescribed by a doctor. A medical review from 2020 documents how long-term use of senna may cause liver injury, and is unadvisable.
Peppermint is the third ingredient in Dr. Ming’s Green Tea, and again we cannot identify a single clinical trial proving this ingredient to cause weight loss. We consider it ineffective.
Citrus sinesis is the botanical name for the sweet orange plant. Since Dr. Ming Tea uses an image of an herb to represent this ingredient, we're assuming they use the leaves of the tree rather than the oranges.
We haven't found any medical studies suggesting sweet orange leaves cause weight loss, nor are we able to find adequate safety data on this ingredient. It doesn't appear to be very well-studied for consumption in humans, and we would recommend avoiding it.
Overall we consider this tea to be unlikely to cause weight loss. We are only able to identify one potentially-effective ingredient, and that ingredient did not cause statistically significant weight reductions in medical studies.
We recommend avoiding two of the other three ingredients for health reasons.
Is Dr. Ming Pineapple Tea Better?
Dr. Ming sells a Pineapple Tea which the brand claims can also cause weight loss.
We already examined senna leaf and found it to be an ineffective ingredient for weight loss, and potentially unsafe for long-term use. We recommend avoiding this ingredient.
Rose hips are typically used to naturally reduce blood pressure, but we located a clinical trial which found that rose hip supplementation increased metabolic rate and reduced body fat mass. This study had animal subjects rather than human subjects which is a weaker standard of evidence, but we'll consider this ingredient potentially effective.
Orange peel is generally used in topical formulations to benefit skin. We can't find any medical studies suggesting this ingredient is effective for weight loss.
Pineapple has been associated in one rodent study with weight loss. We cannot find any human studies proving this ingredient effective, so we'll consider pineapple potentially effective for weight loss.
Overall we would consider Dr. Ming Pineapple Tea to have a superior formulation to Dr. Ming Green Tea for weight loss, because we consider two of its ingredients to be potentially effective for weight loss versus one for Dr. Ming Green Tea.
We do not recommend this formulation overall due to the inclusion of senna.
Questionable Health Claims
The homepage of Dr. Ming’s website features a section claiming their products are "Backed By Proven Results" such as "reduced waist circumference" and "eliminated excess weight."
These results are apparently backed by a "test group of 35 subjects" self-evaluating the efficacy of Dr. Ming Tea. Essentially, it seems as though the brand gave products to 35 individuals and had them report back on changes.
We consider it to be highly questionable from an ethical perspective for a brand to be making claims of clinical efficacy based on user self-reporting. It's an extremely weak standard of evidence in our opinion.
Interestingly, Dr. Ming Tea previously used the term "clinically proven" but appears to have since updated their claims after our article disputed their use of this term.
We recommend that consumers only consider clinical trials published in legitimate medical journals as proof that a product works. Brands make all sorts of marketing claims, but unless those claims are backed by legitimate medical inquiry we recommend giving them no consideration.
Doctor Shares Opinion on "Detox" Tea
Not only does Dr. Ming Tea describe their products as effective for weight loss, but the brand also describes both of their teas as "detox" teas.
One of the most popular YouTube videos explaining why "detox tea" claims are highly questionable and potentially unscientific comes from a channel called "Doctor Mike" and has over 1 million views at the time of updating this article.
We recommend that consumers considering Dr. Ming Tea check it out:
Our Clean Weight Loss Picks
There are food-based nutrients which have been shown in medical studies to be effective for weight loss.
Dietary fiber was shown in a medical review published in The Journal of Nutrition to cause 16 pounds of weight loss in 6 months when combined with moderate caloric restriction (750 calories per day below baseline).
Supergut Fiber Mix is our top fiber supplement, because it contains three different types of fiber powder, and retails for only $1.75 per serving at a subscription rate.
MCT oil was shown in a meta-study to cause more than one pound of weight loss over 10 weeks. This equates to potential annualized weight loss of 6 pounds per year with less than one tablespoon's worth of MCT oil per day.
Bulletproof MCT Oil is our top MCT oil product, because the only ingredient is MCT oil derived from coconuts. and it currently costs only $15.50 for over a month's worth of product.
Ginger intake "significantly decreased body weight" according to a 2019 meta-study on ginger and weight loss that analyzed data from 14 clinical trials.
Pique La Ginger is our top ginger product, because it's an organic tea in convenient crystallized form, and all that's needed is to pour the powder into a glass and add hot water.
All three of the products mentioned in this section are entirely free of additive ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy or unsafe.
