Our Better Nature: Trees to Beat a Cold

We all know that trees are good for us in a general sense: They take carbon dioxide from the air, thus helping to combat climate change, and while most of the oxygen we breathe comes from marine algae, trees still account for 28 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Spending time around trees is also good for our mental health, with proven effects such as reduced stress levels and stronger immune systems.

But during cold and flu season, the needles from many types of native conifers can be used to make tasty, nutritious teas that are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants. As with all natural remedies, it’s important to first check with your health care provider to make sure there’s nothing in your health history that might conflict with drinking this kind of tea. Pregnant women should be especially cautious about any kind of supplement not prescribed by a doctor.

That said, tea made from the needles of pine, spruce, cedar, and fir trees has been safely consumed worldwide for centuries. The practice remains quite popular in Japan, Korea, China, and among indigenous peoples in North America. One of the main things that evergreen needles are known for is their high vitamin C content. In fact, by weight, pine needles have more vitamin C than lemons.

Although vitamin C cannot prevent a cold or bout of influenza, research does show that it can help shorten the course of illness by increasing “…T-lymphocyte activity, phagocyte function, leukocyte mobility, and possible antibody and interferon production.” Because our bodies cannot make vitamin C the way they can synthesize the B-vitamins, we have to get C from outside sources. In the old days, people who did not get enough fruits and vegetables, in particular sailors, used to get scurvy, a disease that caused anemia, tooth loss, and eventual death.

In 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier and his crew were on the verge of death from scurvy near present-day Quebec City. Luckily for them, they were cured by Native Americans who gave them tea made from the needles of the eastern white cedar. Cartier dubbed the cedar “l’arbre de vie,” or the tree of life, which is why today we know it as arborvitae.

In addition to vitamin C, conifer needles also contain vitamin A and amino acids like arginine that are used to make proteins. Pine needle tea has also been shown to be anti-inflammatory, and to reduce blood pressure as well.

Hemlock tea is one of my favorite evergreen teas. This is not the recipe poor Socrates drank, which was made with the toxic perennial herb, poison-hemlock. The kind I like is an infusion of needles and young shoots from the stately eastern hemlock tree, sometimes called the Canadian hemlock. This hemlock tea is great with a touch of honey, and the good part is that you can drink it more than one time. Plus, it’s fun to see the reaction when I offer it to guests.

There are dozens of companies that sell bagged evergreen-needle tea that’s ready to use, but if you have access to evergreen trees, you can easily make your own. Be sure to harvest just a portion of the ends of twigs from large, healthy trees. Rinse the needles well under cool water, and blot them dry. You can freeze extra for future use.

To make tea from fresh needles, cover the bottom of a teapot, saucepan, or metal or ceramic bowl with needles – it is not necessary to chop them. Fill the vessel three-quarters full with boiling water (never boil the needles — it destroys vitamin C and releases a slightly bitter flavor). After steeping for five minutes, stir briefly and pour through a metal-mesh strainer before serving. Conifer-needle tea has a mild “piney” taste and aroma that I like plain or with just a hint of added sweetener.

How to make pine needle tea (Uploaded to YouTube by Trail Life USA)

For a sugar-free sweetener, you might want to try chopped twigs from either yellow birch or black birch trees, which are found throughout the eastern half of the country from Minnesota to the east coast, and as far south as Georgia. The twigs have a naturally sweet wintergreen flavor, but need to be steeped longer than pine needles do.

Another birch-related tea is made from Inonotus obliquus, a fungus that grows on birch trees. Known as chaga, it has a long history in northern latitudes around the world as a medicine as well as a pick-me-up. Sometimes called cinder-conk because it looks as though it has been charred black, this native fungus is available online and at most health-food stores as a tea. The health benefits of chaga tea include lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and lower blood sugar. Of course, there is no reason that chaga tea can’t be drunk together with conifer-needle tea.

All of our native spruces, firs, and cedars are completely safe to use, but two western species of pine, ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine, can be toxic. The only other evergreen to avoid is the yew, which is often grown as a landscape hedge. If you’re new to tree identification, get someone who knows their stuff to help you.

Doctors are already prescribing time spent in the woods, or “forest bathing,” for stress, anxiety, and high blood pressure. Perhaps in the near future they may be telling us to drink evergreen-needle tea when we present with the sniffles.