Chai tea!

myhoff13

In case anyone else was wondering if chai tea is safe during pregnancy, I wanted to share my findings! I LOVE chai lattes. First, it's better to drink decaf, but you're allowed up to 200mg a day. Most chai teas (including Starbucks) contain an ingredient called star anise, which I've read is to be avoided during pregnancy. Just like a lot of things, the side affects of star anise on your developing baby are unknown, I always err on the side of caution. I figured I'd buy my own chai concentrate and mix it with milk at home. I'd purchased the Tazo brand at Target, but found that it contained anise too. Grrrr!! So I searched around for a good chai concentrate that doesn't contain anise. Some ingredient lists don't tell you if there is anise. It will say "natural spices", which may or may not include anise. I ended up emailing thr company that makes Oregon chai concentrate. They confirmed there is no anise in their mixes. What's funny is that the person who responded to my inquiry congratulated me on my pregnancy. I looked back to my initial email and I never mentioned I was pregnant! They just get that question a lot from pregnant chai latte drinkers! I am still waiting to hear back from Panera about their ingredient list, but if anyone is interested I can message them about it!

PrimRoseMama

You aren't drinking the anise in a medicinal tincture. Most of the commercial applications contain very little anise. Certainly not enough to be a hazard. I hate Chai-- I don't drink it, but the average chai consumed in moderation shouldn't be a problem.

saladflambe

Chai without anise is not Chai.

Pho without anise is not Pho.

GIMME THE ANISE

DrillSergeantCat

What I've found is that anise is likely safe for pregnant women when used in normal amounts that would be found in food. Stop trying to ruin chai.

myhoff13

Wow, no need to be rude.

myhoff13

And FYI, it is likely safe for people who are NOT pregnant. It says to avoid use if pregnant and it is unsafe and poisonous for infants. Please educate yourself a little better.

saladflambe

ANISE!

llybeck

myhoff13 said:

And FYI, it is likely safe for people who are NOT pregnant. It says to avoid use if pregnant and it is unsafe and poisonous for infants. Please educate yourself a little better.

Well, I for one am going to listen to my OB over WebMD. I've never had my OB tell me to avoid the very small amounts of star anise in Chai tea. If you went by the logic of, "there isn't enough information so just avoid it", you would be able to ingest very few things. They are never going to do a large study giving pregnant women various amounts of things that haven't been tested before because that would mean testing until it actually becomes harmful. It's like prescription medications that are labeled class B or C. Nothing is saying they ARE harmful, just that studies haven't been done to say one way or the other. I guess I can't say for sure but I don't think anyone has had serious negative affects on them or their baby because they had a few Chai lattes. 

If you want to live your pregnancy being an alarmist about tiny amounts of star anise in your Chai tea, be my guest. But just because other people realize that it's probably just fine in normal amounts and are fine with drinking it, that doesn't mean we aren't educated. Take a deep breath, you're going to have a long road ahead of you if you get this worked up about Chai tea. 

myhoff13

Llybeck- I'm not an "alarmist" for wanting to err on the side of caution for the safety and health of my baby. I also never said don't drink it!!!! Since I drink a few cups daily, I did research to find a good quality product that was anise free and simply wanted to share my findings (in case anyone else had concerns). There are TONs of things out there that may or may not be safe for pregnancy. It is your responsibility to make your own informed decision. DrillSergeantCat bad info, which is why I posted the correct info and said to make sure you educate yourselves. If you're not worried about it then move along. I was simply trying to share my findings on a yummy chai product that is safe for me to drink all day long with no worries.

llybeck

myhoff13 said:

Llybeck- I'm not an "alarmist" for wanting to err on the side of caution for the safety and health of my baby. I also never said don't drink it!!!! Since I drink a few cups daily, I did research to find a good quality product that was anise free and simply wanted to share my findings (in case anyone else had concerns). There are TONs of things out there that may or may not be safe for pregnancy. It is your responsibility to make your own informed decision. Drillsergeantcat had bad info, which is why I posted the correct info and said to make sure you educate yourselves. If you're not worried about it then move along. I was simply trying to share my findings on a yummy chai product that is safe for me to drink all day long with no worries.

Actually no, her information was correct. That is what just about any doctor will tell you. You're basing your information off of WebMD which isn't exactly the most accurate source of information and it is a website that frequently pushes "worst case scenario" information. 

Telling people to educate themselves because they disagree with you doesn't make sense. The info you provided is erring waaaaaaaaaaaay on the cautious side, to the point of being too much in the eyes of the doctors I've had. It is nice of you to provide others with information but there are people here who also want to give a more realistic perspective and say that drinking star anise is really not an issue at all unless you consume abnormally large quantities. And even then it is unknown if it would even be an issue. That's why people commented and disagreed, because the information you provided is actually not the standard on this subject. 

We can all comment on this forum as long as we are not violating the TOU so please don't tell people to "move along". 

DrillSergeantCat

myhoff13 said:

And FYI, it is likely safe for people who are NOT pregnant. It says to avoid use if pregnant and it is unsafe and poisonous for infants. Please educate yourself a little better.

Now who's being rude? 

FYI to you - Tazo, the brand Starbucks uses doesn't have any kind of anise. Anise is safe to use during pregnancy in food amounts. The problem with star anise is that it's sometimes confused between Chinese and Japanese. Chinese is food safe, but Japanese can be deadly. I would think most companies, unless they're going straight to the tree, would use anise instead of star anise since they give the same flavor, anise is food-safe for everyone, and it would reduce their liability if they used the wrong one. But, go ahead and call me stupid again.

jonesl12

myhoff13 said:

And FYI, it is likely safe for people who are NOT pregnant. It says to avoid use if pregnant and it is unsafe and poisonous for infants. Please educate yourself a little better.

Web MD is the worst

DrillSergeantCat

jonesl12 said:

And FYI, it is likely safe for people who are NOT pregnant. It says to avoid use if pregnant and it is unsafe and poisonous for infants. Please educate yourself a little better.

Web MD is the worst

WebMD always says I have cancer or a brain tumor. Since I don't, I'll assume it's not super reliable info about what I eat either. )

kp90

Thank you for your post. I can see you were just trying to do your own research and share with fellow chai drinkers. Myself included. Some of us appreciate the insight. Thank you. @myhoff13

DrillSergeantCat

kp90 said:

Thank you for your post. I can see you were just trying to do your own research and share with fellow chai drinkers. Myself included. Some of us appreciate the insight. Thank you. @myhoff13

If the insight was accurate, it would have been a big help. This post was uninformed and fear-mongering. Glad you enjoyed it, though.

saladflambe

kp90

Didn't ask for your input nor was that directed to you. But cool. Thanks. @DrillSergeantCat

DrillSergeantCat

kp90 said:

Didn't ask for your input nor was that directed to you. But cool. Thanks. @DrillSergeantCat

Good luck with the internet if you think people aren't going to respond to you. This is a public forum, anyone can respond to anyone else whether a comment was directed at them or not. Have fun!

kp90

Fully aware of that. =D>

DrillSergeantCat

kp90 said:

Fully aware of that. =D>

Good! Didn't seem like you were since you were trying to control how people responded. Glad we're on the same page.

kp90

Wasn't trying to control how anyone responded. Simply let you know I wasn't speaking to you but so glad you felt the need to respond to me and continue to do so. Makes my day! \m/

DrillSergeantCat

kp90 said:

Wasn't trying to control how anyone responded. Simply let you know I wasn't speaking to you but so glad you felt the need to respond to me and continue to do so. Makes my day! \m/

kp90 said:

Didn't ask for your input nor was that directed to you. But cool. Thanks. @DrillSergeantCat

Telling someone that you didn't ask for their input is most definitely trying to control how people respond.

kp90

It's really not. But you're entitled to your own opinion.

DrillSergeantCat

kp90 said:

It's really not. But you're entitled to your own opinion.

You're a real gem! So happy to ignore you from here on out! Good luck with your pregnancy.

bizzerbee

DrillSergeantCat said:

kp90 said:

Thank you for your post. I can see you were just trying to do your own research and share with fellow chai drinkers. Myself included. Some of us appreciate the insight. Thank you. @myhoff13

If the insight was accurate, it would have been a big help. This post was uninformed and fear-mongering. Glad you enjoyed it, though.

Fear mongering? Haha I think that's a bit of a stretch! People on the bump lose their shit when the word bully gets thrown around or when it's used too lightly.. Maybe we should have the same standard for words like fear mongering. It was just a post about how she herself is going to make her own chai mix at home! Their was nothing in OPs post that would have a scared any moms to be on this site! Think panties got twisted a bit too much for such a non important post.

kalanieileen

Mmmm when I was a barista in my college years I created this chai drink that was so delicious, people started calling it "Christmas in a Cup".. Now I am craving one :P

tripledaggerWed95976

A single grande chai latte from Starbucks has 95mg of caffeine....u said your drinking several cups a day?? That's way more than 200mg of caffeine. I would be more concerned with ur caffeine intake then your star anise intake

myhoff13

Thanks for the nice reply ladies! That's all I was trying to do is share my findings. The women I contacted from Oregon Chai was really nice and said they get this question a lot from pregnant women. In response to the previous post, I drink decaf. Thanks for the heads up though, it is appreciated! And to the other ladies, don't worry about the women on here that want to argue or be rude. I chalk it up to hormones, lol. Have a good day everyone!

tripledaggerWed95976

U said "it's better to drink decaf, although there isn't a ton of caffeine anyway".... Kinda sounds like u drink it caffeinated :-). Even if u are actually drinking decaf, u shouldn't say there isn't much caffeine in it--- it's comparable to a regular latte or mocha or whatnot. Not trying to be argumentative- but it's good for prosperity if the info on these boards is actually accurate

myhoff13

Good point! Tea still contains caffeine! I just switched to decaf since I sip them all day -now that the weather is cold. Starbucks does seem to have higher caffeinated drinks (coffee and tea) than most. I could be wrong, but I thought an 8 oz cup of caffeinated chai is typically 40-60mg?

Anyway, again this post was meant to be geared towards avid chai drinkers who may have been concerned about the anise being an issue I was just trying to be helpful and share a tasty alternative. I didn't mean to alarm anyone. Lastly, to the WebMd haters (I get it)... I just grabbed that snapshot for convenience. If you do your research, there are plenty of credible sites with good info on this, including the food and drug administration.

DrillSergeantCat

myhoff13 said:

Good point! Tea still contains caffeine! I just switched to decaf since I sip them all day -now that the weather is cold. Starbucks does seem to have higher caffeinated drinks (coffee and tea) than most. I could be wrong, but I thought an 8 oz cup of caffeinated chai is typically 40-60mg? Anyway, again this post was meant to be geared towards avid chai drinkers who may have been concerned about the anise being an issue I was just trying to be helpful and share a tasty alternative. I didn't mean to alarm anyone. Lastly, to the WebMd haters (I get it)... I just grabbed that snapshot for convenience. If you do your research, there are plenty of credible sites with good info on this, including the food and drug administration.

The confusion is between anise and star anise. One is a-okay and the other it's not known. I love Chai, too and I'm not going to stop drinking it. I found this website when I was trying to convince my friend that having a coke is okay and it has pretty much every drink you can imagine. https://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database

llybeck

myhoff13 said:

Thanks for the nice reply ladies! That's all I was trying to do is share my findings. The women I contacted from Oregon Chai was really nice and said they get this question a lot from pregnant women. In response to the previous post, I drink decaf. Thanks for the heads up though, it is appreciated! And to the other ladies, don't worry about the women on here that want to argue or be rude. I chalk it up to hormones, lol. Have a good day everyone!

Or you could chalk it up to people wanting to give others accurate information... which is what people did. @DrillSergeantCat was abundantly clear that what you are drinking is anise, which is totally fine. Even so, commercially produced chai tea isn't going to have harmful amounts of anise or star anise or anything else in it, they would likely have a warning on it if it were actually harmful to pregnant women. Unless you're drinking gallons of the stuff every day you're going to be just fine. Even then you'll probably have a heck of a stomach ache but you'll be fine. You're insisting that it may not be safe because of a WebMD article. If you are worried then okay, you do you, but to tell people they are hormonal or rude for correcting your incorrect information is pretty ridiculous. 

Bigboobsmcgee

2 pages about chai tea huh? And 1 of those pages was practically full of posts from 2 women fighting back and forth. Great day on The Bump!

 

DrillSergeantCat

Bigboobsmcgee said:

2 pages about chai tea huh? And 1 of those pages was practically full of posts from 2 women fighting back and forth. Great day on The Bump!

 

10 comments consists of "almost an entire page"?

Bigboobsmcgee

DrillSergeantCat said:

Bigboobsmcgee said:

2 pages about chai tea huh? And 1 of those pages was practically full of posts from 2 women fighting back and forth. Great day on The Bump!

 

10 comments consists of "almost an entire page"?

Hahaha I knew you'd be the one to comment on this, seeing as how you were one of the gals going back and forth, always getting the last word. And counting the posts too!

DrillSergeantCat

Bigboobsmcgee said:

Hahaha I knew you'd be the one to comment on this, seeing as how you were one of the gals going back and forth, always getting the last word. And counting the posts too!

You know me so well, Internet Stranger. I counted them because of your comment. Not something I normally do.