HEALTH CHECK: Beware of social media posts promoting rooibos tea as a ‘cure-all’
According to the internet, one of South Africa’s favourite beverages, rooibos tea, can cure many ills. But are these claims accurate?
Published on 09 April 2021
Social media is littered with misleading and incorrect health advice. Recently Africa Check has noticed a popular drink being promoted as a remedy for a long list of ailments.
Need to treat prediabetes? Drink six cups of rooibos tea per day. Suffering from allergies? Rooibos is supposedly a “natural antihistamine”.
The tea, also known as “redbush” or “African red tea”, is indigenous to the Cederberg region in South Africa’s Western Cape province. But “rooibos is not a medicine”, Suzanne Herbst, spokesperson at the South African Rooibos Council, told Africa Check. The organisation works to “promote, grow and protect the rooibos industry of South Africa”.