Dr. Ming Tea is a brand which claims their products cause weight loss. They state it’s the “Number 1 slimming tea in ​​the world.”

We don’t be​​lieve these claims and in this article we’ll do a research-based review of the ingredients in Dr. Ming Green Tea and Dr. Ming Pineapple Tea, and explain why we believe their health claims are misleading. We’ll also explain why we believe some of the medical language on Dr. Ming’s site is deceptive.

Deceptive Medical Marketing

The homepage of Dr. Ming’s website features a section claiming “Clinically Proven Results” which include “eliminated excess weight” and “reduced appetite” amongst other benefits.

The term “clinical” has a pretty clear definition in the medical community of a research trial which is published in a scientific journal. When we link out to scientific studies in our research articles, we're linking to clinical trials published in medical journals. If you get five friends together and have them sample your product and claim it’s good, that’s not a clinical trial in any medically accepted sense.

We haven’t seen any published research on Dr. Ming products, and they don’t link to any on their website, so it seems as though they’re using this term deceptively to make it seem as though there is medical research backing their product, which there doesn’t appear to be.

Their site even states that a “test group of 35 subjects” tried their products and that’s how they’re reporting the data. Again, telling a group of people to try your product and report back is very, very different from a controlled medical trial with a placebo.

We find this marketing tactic to be a huge red flag and would recommend avoiding this brand for this reason alone.

Lack of Published Dosages

There is no published dosage or Nutrition Facts label anywhere on their website, which is another red flag. Consumers deserve dosage information for health products so they can determine if they’re receiving an effective dose, especially if specific medical claims are being made like increased weight loss.

To simply not publish any dosage information for a product making such aggressive health claims is simply unacceptable. What if there is 1 mg of each active ingredient and the rest is rice flour? Without dosages, we can’t determine whether the product is likely to work.

Dr. Ming Green Tea Ingredient Review

Dr. Ming’s Green Tea contains six ingredients: citrus sinesis, green tea, senna, peppermint, licorice root, and uva ursi.

Citrus Sinesis is the botanical name for oranges. One specific type of blood orange called “Moro” has been studied in some preliminary research and shown positive effects for weight loss as we discussed in more detail in our It Works review, which is a weight loss product that’s a lot better formulated than Dr. Ming's tea.

Because Dr. Ming uses the generic botanical family name, we can’t determine if this ingredient would be effective. Moro may help for weight loss but there’s no reason to believe a standard orange would. It’s a sign of poor formulation quality in our opinion when the ingredients aren’t listed in a specific and botanically accurate manner.

Green Tea is the second ingredient, and there is some research suggesting that green tea may aid in weight loss. Because Dr. Ming doesn’t publish the dosage of green tea in their formulation it’s hard to assess whether it’s likely to be effective.

Senna is the third ingredient in the formulation, and we haven’t come across any research at all suggesting it’s effective for weight loss. It’s commonly used as an herbal laxative, so there may be a transient weight loss effect but that’s not fat loss. Taking laxatives may make you lose water weight short-term but has no impact on long term fat loss.

Peppermint is the fourth ingredient in Dr. Ming’s Green Tea, and again we can’t find any research studies even suggesting it’s effective for weight management. Even Dr. Ming’s website only states that peppermint “aids in digestion.” Well then what’s it doing in a weight loss formulation? This is just more evidence that whoever was formulating this product was incompetent.

Licorice Root is the fifth ingredient and has been associated with reduction of body fat mass in medical research.

Uva Ursi is the final ingredient in Dr. Ming’s Green Tea, and we haven’t come across any research suggesting it’s effective for weight loss.

Overall, only two of the six included ingredients seem to make sense for a weight loss product.

Misleading Health Claims

Dr. Ming’s website claims their products are effective for a variety of health concerns such as appetite and weight, without any proof. Their site publishes no research that their products are effective, so there’s no reason to assume they are.

Unfortunately many companies make claims that their teas will be effective for weight loss without much evidence. Even Herbalife does it.

We believe that a company making health claims should either have funded clinical trials proving those health claims, or link out to existing medical research showing their ingredients are likely to be effective. One company which does this is Gorilla Mind, which we thoroughly reviewed in the linked article.

Is Their Pineapple Tea Better?

We’ve thus far reviewed Dr. Ming’s Green Tea, but they have another product called Pineapple Tea. Three of the Pineapple Tea ingredients (senna, licorice root, green tea) are the same ones in the previous formulation so we don’t need to review those again.

The ingredients unique to this formulation are: alfalfa leaf, rose hips, orange peel and pineapple.

Alfalfa leaf is typically taken for kidney and prostate issues, and no​​t primarily for weight loss. We haven’t seen any medical research proving it works as a weight loss aid.

Rose hips are typically taken for blood pressure concerns (and are quite effective to that end), but there are medical studies showing rose hip supplementation can increase energy expenditure and increase fat loss.

Orange peel is generally used for skin benefit. We can’t find any medical studies showing it’s at all effective for weight loss.

Pineapple has been associated in one rodent study with anti-obesity outcomes. This is a weak standard of evidence for inclusion in our opinion.

Overall, we don’t believe Dr. Ming Pineapple Tea is likely to be more effective than Dr. Ming Green Tea for weight loss.

Conclusion

Dr. Ming is not a brand we would recommend, because they make misleading health claims and sell what we believe to be poorly-formulated products. The brand also has a “Clinical Research” section which we believe to be intentionally deceptive.

This is a brand that doesn’t publish their ingredient dosage, or any medical research to prove why their ingredients should be effective.

A review of medical research tells us that many of the ingredients in Dr. Ming’s teas are unlikely to be effective for weight loss.