Woman who spent £2k on drinking four matchas a day was left with severe migraines and acne
A woman who was addicted to drinking matcha spent £2,000 on the drinks in one year and was quaffing up to four a day, leading to her suffering serious migraines, vomiting, acne and weight gain.
19-year-old Isabella Wilson tried her first matcha back in summer 2024 when she had some of her friend's drink and thought 'it's not that bad'.
She went from 'having a few a week' to suddenly having 'multiple matchas a day', and she even got a job in a coffee shop serving the stuff where she'd get the drinks for free and then have more when she got home.
At the height of her addiction she was drinking up to 400mg of caffeine a day, as much as you'd consume if you downed five Red Bulls, and Isabella couldn't concentrate because she had matcha on the brain.
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She said: "It got to the point it was quite scary - it occupied my thoughts completely. I'd be thinking about having my next matcha while I already had one in my hand."
The Bolton woman started buying bags of matcha powder from a dodgy seller on Vinted so she always had some at home, but during that time she gained two stone, felt very unwell and was having severe migraines on a daily basis.
Looking back on it now she says it 'didn't click to me how weird it was' that she was buying matcha from Vinted, adding that she'd get messaged and buy it before the site could take the listing down.
She was also buying £10 matcha bags from Tesco and was finding it difficult to have enough money to afford her habit, and the symptoms she was getting from drinking so many were taking their toll.
Isabella said: "My headaches lasted a full day. I'd go to sleep with one and still have it when I woke up. I had medication and I wore glasses to try and get rid of them.
"When I would walk or move my head, it was like I could feel my brain, sort of, moving? I had tunnel vision, dizziness and foggy eyes too. I had always naturally had an hourglass figure, but I looked at myself one day and realised I was square. It was very upsetting."
She said the headaches were so bad sometimes all I could do was sit in a dark room' and she was being sick once a week, with everything clicking into place after she saw a video about someone being hospitalised from matcha.
It was January when she started linking her matcha habit to her symptoms, and by March she'd cut down to drinking just two a week with her noticing a quick improvement in her condition.
Within a few weeks her acne was clearing, the headaches and brain fog were gone, she started losing weight and the nauseous feeling subsided.
She's suffered withdrawals as a result with her feeling 'dizzy' and saying 'matcha would be on my mind all the time', but she'll only drink it very rarely now.
Wanting to warn people away from the idea it was 'a magical drink that will fix them', she described matcha as a 'cutesy clean girl drink that tastes nice' but people didn't know about the 'health factors'.
Which? data revealed high-street matchas have more caffeine than an espresso, while health experts have warned high caffeine intake can cause anxiety and headaches, with matcha also being linked to affecting the body's ability to absorb iron due to the polyphenols.
Topics: Lifestyle, Health, Food And Drink
Joe Harker