How Much Moringa Should I Take Daily?

The Recommended Starting Amount for Moringa

Nutrition facts have become a regular part of our daily lives, easily found on the packaging of our favorite snacks or meals. Whether it’s a box of crackers or a tray of cinnamon rolls, a quick glance at the back reveals a breakdown of vitamins, nutrients, calories, and fat content.

This information is typically at our fingertips; if not on the packaging, a quick online search provides it. However, the challenge arises when dealing with foods like Moringa, which haven’t undergone sufficient FDA scrutiny to establish a standardized daily value. This leads to a common question of how much Moringa you should take each day. 

In this article, we will be answering this question in more detail. 

How Much Moringa Should I Take Daily?

Even though the FDA hasn’t officially designated a daily value for Moringa, extensive research provides some guidance. We recommend that Moringa newcomers start with a daily intake of 500 mg to 1 gram. This amount can be gradually increased to a range of 5-15 grams over the course of a few months.

More information about Moringa and Moringa’s daily dosage is below.

If you wanted a quick deep-dive into Moringa’s nutritional facts, here’s a good article we wrote on it: 

• Moringa Nutrition Facts

How Much Moringa Do People Normally Use?

Over the course of thousands of years, humans have integrated Moringa into their diets, providing us with ample time to experiment with its usage. However, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how much Moringa one person should consume. The ideal amount varies depending on the person, the specific recipe, and whether Moringa is being used in the form of leaves, powder, or drumsticks.

Recipes With Moringa Leaves

This 4-serving chutney recipe by Archana’s Kitchen, for example, uses two cups of Moringa leaves, or half a cup per person. This Dal recipe from Saffron’s Trail uses 1.5 cups for a 2-person dish or 3/4ths of a cup per person.

One cup of fresh Moringa leaves, according to the USDA, is about 21 grams. In other words, the Archana’s Kitchen recipe will give you about 10.5 grams of Moringa per serving, while the Saffron’s Trail recipe will give you a little over 16 grams.

Recipes with Moringa Powder

Recipes calling for Moringa powder tend to use less. This delicious Moringa and mint chocolate squares recipe from Aduna calls for only 2 teaspoons (or about 9.5 grams) and makes 12 chocolate squares; less than a gram of Moringa per square. This gorgeous Moringa smoothie from Kind Earth only uses 1 teaspoon (4.75 grams).

Recipes with Drumsticks

Recipes that call for drumsticks tend to use more, on the other hand! This scrumptious 2-serving drumstick masala recipe from Sharmis Passions uses 5 drumsticks or about 27 grams per serving.

On the other hand, this potato and Moringa recipe from Indian Healthy Recipes uses 3 (about 33 grams), albeit only for 1 serving.

How much Moringa you use is going to depend a lot on whether you’re using fresh leaves, dried ones (though these are much less common in recipes; I tend to use them only in teas), powder, or drumsticks.

The powder is much more concentrated, so recipes tend to use a lot less. Drumsticks tend not to contain quite as much of the vitamins/minerals/nutrients as the leaves do (with a few exceptions; check the USDA database here for more information), so most recipes use more.

Too much of any vitamin or nutrient (even the really important ones, like calcium or Vitamin A) can actually have negative side effects, and Moringa has lots of vitamins and nutrients! 

How Much Moringa is Too Much Moringa Per Day?

This question is a really fun one. It also requires a little bit of math, but I’ll do it for you; you can just follow along and check my work.

In 2009, researchers studying Moringa aqueous leaf extract found that doses were safe up to 2000 mg/kg (or, to simplify, up to 2 grams per kilogram). You can check out the research in more detail here.

Three years later, another study went further; they concluded that it wasn’t until a person started taking 3000 mg/kg before the dose would be dangerous.

Therefore, 3000 mg/kg (or 3 grams per kilogram) is too much, and 2000 mg/kg (2 grams per kilogram) shouldn’t have negative side effects. But what does that actually mean?

For the purposes of this experiment; we’ll use a small number. Let’s say we have an adult that weighs 50 kilograms, which is equivalent to about 110 pounds; in other words, someone on the smaller side.

A safe dose of 2 grams per kilogram means that a 110-pound adult could consume 100 grams of Moringa without suffering any negative side effects. A 200-pound adult could eat 180 grams.

Now, the average 0-sized capsule holds about half a gram of powder. In other words, if you weigh 50 kilograms or 110 pounds, you could eat 200 capsules of Moringa powder in a single sitting and be fine.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: please do not eat 200 capsules of Moringa at a time. Don’t eat 200 capsules of anything at a time. Even if your capsules are teeny tiny, just don’t do it. I promise that you’re not going to enjoy yourself. But theoretically, you could.

You would need to eat a ridiculous amount of Moringa a day to eat too much. A small, 50-kilogram adult would need to eat more than 200 capsules.

You’d need to eat more than 5 cups of fresh leaves. More than 9 or 10 drumstick pods.

It’s absolutely possible to eat too much of any vitamin or mineral.

That’s the reason we have Tolerable Upper Intake Levels; to tell us how much Calcium, Vitamin A, and potassium is too much. But luckily for us, “too much Moringa” is a large amount; far more than we typically eat.

There are a few great brands that make organic Moringa capsules, one of which is by Pura Vida. 

 

How Much Moringa Powder Per Day?

Remember, Moringa powder is very concentrated.  Because of this, Moringa Powder Dosage is recommended at 5 to 10 grams a day, with a build-up period to getting to these numbers.

If you want to start slow, I suggest under 500mg and gradually increase over a couple of months to get into this range.

My personal favorite Moringa powder that I use to make Moringa tea is the Organic Moringa Powder by True Moringa. It’s 100% raw organic Moringa powder (made from Moringa leaves), and has no additives, preservatives or artificial colors. 

I like to make Moringa tea every morning on an empty stomach. I pour one teaspoon of Moringa in boiling water, stir it well and add ginger and mint to give it more of a flavor and it tastes delicious! 

So What Do Experts Recommend?

Because there’s not currently a standard recommended serving amount for Moringa, you’ll see recommended serving sizes vary a little. For the most part, though, they do remain pretty consistent.

Kuli Kuli, one of the largest distributors of Moringa within the United States, recommends a daily dose of 1tsp to 1 tbsp (2 grams to 14.3 grams) of Moringa powder.

You can also get Kuli Kuli’s organic Moringa powder that is 100% Moringa leaves and non-GMO. 

Aduna, another huge distributor of superfoods like Moringa, recommends a daily serving of 10 grams (a little under 2 tbsp).

Carrie Waterman, a Ph.D., and researcher at UC Davis who’s been researching Moringa for 15 years, recommends a daily dose of 5-10 grams for a 150-pound adult. Most research studies on Moringa have given participants daily doses ranging from 4.6 to 8 grams. All of these doses are well within the range of safety, and most are pretty analogous to what you see in recipes.

 

Moringa Capsules Dosage Per Day

Since we know we should be taking between 5-10 grams of Moringa per day, this directly ties into how many capsules we would take per day. If our capsules are 500mg, we would need to take between 10-20 capsules per day. If our capsules were 1000mg (1g), we would need to take between 5-10 capsules per day. The amount of Moringa present in your specific brand of capsules will directly influence how many capsules you should take per day.

Conclusion

In Summary, if you’re new to Moringa, we recommend starting with a small dose. While the majority of people experience significant benefits from Moringa, everyone is unique, and it’s essential to introduce new foods gradually into your diet.

Begin with a single gram, either added to your lunch or dinner daily or mixed into a smoothie. Stick to this amount for about a week, allowing your body to adjust to this new addition to your diet.

Over the next month or two, you can gradually increase the amount of Moringa you consume. At Morning Gardens, we typically use about 1-2 teaspoons of Moringa per day, equivalent to roughly 5-10 grams. This quantity suits us well, providing the benefits of Moringa’s antioxidants, nutrients, and vitamins without requiring significant dietary changes.

While we recommend these amounts when asked about daily Moringa dosage, it’s important to take your time in finding the right amount for you. Consult with your doctor, increase doses gradually, and pay attention to your body’s response.