Dandelion - Pu Gong Ying

If you've never tried dandelion tea before promise me you will because it is definitely one of the best teas you can take for your health. Dandelion is known as Pu Gong Ying in Chinese medicine. It has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for hundreds of years and still extremely popular today.

As a herb, we catergorise dandelion in the Clear Heat and Release Toxins group. This means it may help ease the signs and symptoms associated with inflammation or infection in the body and therefore may help you get better faster from a number of diseases and ailments.

As it mostly acts on the Liver and the Stomach it may be helpful with the signs and symptoms of digestive organ related problems such as gastritis, IBS, Chrohn's disease and reflux, but also ailments such as acne, urinary tract and bladder infection, psoriasis and gout can also benefit.

I must admit dandelion tea is a dark looking and reasonably bitter herbal tea which is off putting to many people but if at first you find the taste unpleasant I would encourage you to try it at least three times and you will find the flavour improves each time. The flavour tends to grow on you but you may find it's sometimes necessary to adjust the strength of the tea to make it more pleasant. Starting with a weaker strength tea you may increase the strength over a period of 2-4 weeks.

Dandelion tea is available at all good health food stores and most supermarkets. It can usually be found in many forms incuding plain dried and chopped root, freeze dried dissolvable granules, dry powder and teabag forms. It can also be found suitable for a stove top percolator.

If you have any questions about dandelion tea or just want to know more then be sure to ask your Chinese medicine practitioner. I'm sure they'll be happy to know you are interested.

So the challenge is to swap your morning coffee for dandelion tea. Can you do it? You will be glad you did.

Enjoy!

Dr Ben