Iaso Tea is a line of products made by a company called Total Life Changes (TLC). The brand sells four different Iaso Tea products, but we'll be reviewing Iaso Tea Original and Iaso Instant Tea as those are the products suggested to be effective for weight loss.
In this article we’ll review every ingredient in Iaso Tea Original and Iaso Instant Tea based on published medical research to provide our determination on whether these products are likely to be effective for weight loss.
We'll also highlight an issue we have with the brand's Fruit Punch Instant Tea product.
Iaso Tea Original Review
This product has a new formulation at the time of updating this article. Iaso Tea Original now contains four ingredients: senna extract, papaya leaves, chamomile leaves and persimmon leaves.
Senna is a laxative ingredient that may cause short-term weight loss due to water loss, however we cannot identify any medical studies suggesting this ingredient is effective for long-term weight loss in humans or animals.
We recommend avoiding senna entirely because a medical review found that this ingredient can cause liver injury when used at high doses for long periods of time. The dose of senna in Iaso Tea is not published.
Papaya leaves is the second-listed ingredient. We cannot locate any medical research suggesting that this ingredient is effective for weight loss, nor does TLC share any on the product page, so we'll consider this ingredient ineffective.
Chamomile leaves are typically used for anti-anxiety effects, but have been studied in relation to weight.
A medical review published in the Experimental and Clinical Sciences journal on chamomile for obesity suggested the compound may be effective, but nearly all of the studies analyzed used chamomile extract (which is a more concentrated version) rather than raw chamomile leaves. In the three animal studies where chamomile tea rather than extract was used, no weight loss effect was noted.
Persimmon leaves are the final ingredient, and while there exists one animal study suggesting that this plant may be effective for weight loss, the rats in the study were consuming 5% of their diet in persimmon leaves. It's highly unlikely that any human will be getting 5% of their calories from the persimmon leaves in Iaso Tea, so we will consider this ingredient underdosed and ineffective for weight loss.
One funny thing about this product is that the previous formulation (shown in part below) contained two ingredients “holy thistle” and “blessed thistle” which refer to the same plant called Cnicus benedictus. The fact that they were listed separately suggests that the manufacturer thought these were two different plants.
Overall we do not believe that Iaso Tea Original is likely to cause weight loss, and we would recommend avoiding this product. We are unable to identify any ingredients we consider appropriate and effectively-dosed for weight loss, and we recommend avoiding senna entirely due to toxicity concerns.
Iaso Instant Tea Review
Iaso Instant Tea has four ingredients: Nutriose FM 06, senna extract, papaya extract, and chamomile extract. This product is a powder formulation that's added to water and doesn't need to be brewed.
Nutriose FM 06 is a patented ingredient derived from corn fiber. A clinical trial published in 2011 found that this ingredient caused body weight loss in overweight men. However, the daily dosage used was 34 grams (g), which we would estimate is vastly higher than the dosage of this ingredient in Iaso Instant Tea.
Since TLC does not publish the dose of this ingredient on their product page, we cannot consider this ingredient effective.
We explained in the previous section why we recommend avoiding senna extract due to potential toxicity concerns.
This product includes papaya extract rather than papaya leaves, which we would consider to be a superior choice for a weight loss product. An animal study found that papaya caused weight loss. While we cannot consider an ingredient effective without human trials proving so, we believe papaya extract is a safe and potentially effective ingredient.
Chamomile extract may be effective for weight loss based on results from animal studies cited in the previous section.
Overall we consider Iaso Instant Tea to have a superior formulation to Iaso Tea Original in regard to efficacy. We consider three ingredients in this product to be potentially effective for weight loss. However, Iaso doesn't publish ingredient doses so we cannot conclude that this product is effective overall for weight loss.
We don't recommend Iaso Instant Tea due to the inclusion of senna extract, which we don't recommend that consumers ingest.
Is Fruit Punch Instant Iaso Tea Missing Ingredient(s)?
TLC describes their Fruit Punch instant tea has having a "spirited, fruity flavor." However, there are no flavoring agents listed in the ingredients section.
The ingredients listed at the time of updating this article are the exact same ingredients as in Iaso Instant Tea.
We're concerned that TLC is failing to publish ingredient information about flavoring agents used in this formulation, which would be a consumer safety issue. Some consumers have allergies or sensitivities to certain ingredients, which is why it's so important for every ingredient to be listed.
We urge TLC to clarify this ingredient issue, and to add any flavoring agents to this product page if there are any missing.
Questionable Health Claims
There is an unfortunate trend in the wellness space where tea brands make arguably unscientific claims related to "detoxification" and "cleansing." The popular brand Herbalife makes similar claims.
In healthy adults, the liver and kidneys manage detoxification as we’ve covered in more detail in previous reviews of detox products, and we haven’t found any medical research suggesting that random blends of herbal tea ingredients optimize this biological process.
The claim shown above is entirely uncited. We recommend that consumers avoid health products making bold claims of efficacy or treatment without medical citation for those claims.
One of the most popular YouTube videos on the questionable health effects of detox tea is published by a channel called "Doctor Mike":
Questionable Amazon Reviews
Iaso Tea is available for sale on Amazon. Their most popular product on that channel, Iaso Instant Tea, only receives a "C" grade from FakeSpot, which is a software tool that uses artificial intelligence to detect potentially fraudulent reviews.
Iaso Instant Tea has an average rating of 4.3/5 stars on Amazon at the time of updating this article, but FakeSpot issues an adjusted rating of 2.5/5 stars.
Our Weight Loss Supplement Recommendations
There are several weight loss products that we recommend due to their research backing and lack of side effects.
Dietary fiber is a safe and effective weight loss supplement.
An extensive medical review published in The Journal of Nutrition found that dietary fiber intake directly predicts weight loss when consumed at a high enough dose. Fiber is zero-calorie plant matter that makes you feel full faster, and consume fewer calories overall.
The fiber supplement we recommend is SuperGut Fiber Mix. It contains a clean and effective formulation: a blend of three different types of unflavored dietary fiber and zero additive ingredients. It can be mixed into liquids or foods. Interested consumers can buy SuperGut fiber at this link.
We recommend using two fiber mixes per day, which provides 16 grams (g) of fiber. This is within the effective fiber dosing range associated with the greatest weight loss outcomes in the above-linked study.
Medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil is another dietary supplement which has been shown in clinical trials to cause weight loss.
MCT oil is quickly absorbed by the body and increases metabolic rate, which causes fat loss. A meta-study on MCT oil documented weight loss of 1.12 pounds over 10 weeks. This equates to a potential annualized weight loss of 5.84 pounds with MCT oil supplementation.
We recommend Bulletproof MCT Oil as our top MCT oil product, because it has a clean and effective formulation. The only ingredient is MCT oil derived from coconuts, and the product has no questionable additives. Interested consumers can buy Bulletproof MCT Oil at this link.
The effective dose range of MCT oil for weight loss (based on the medical review) is 1.7 g to 10 g per day. Bulletproof's MCT oil provides 14 g in one tablespoon, so around two-thirds of one tablespoon should be a maximally-effective dosage.
Iaso Tea Real User Review
One of the most popular YouTube reviews of Iaso Tea comes from a channel called "Tonia Kay" and has achieved over 240,000 views at the time of updating this article.
The review appears unsponsored and the creator shares her experience taking Iaso Tea at the one-week mark:
