Chocolate Maca Powder

Maca is well tolerated, and the evidence is still thin. These are the questions our naturopaths ask in store, which are mostly about choosing the right form and knowing what to expect.

A good fit if

• Libido is what you're after, and you'll give it a couple of months
• You want mood and energy support and you know it's based on one solid trial
• You'd prefer a non-hormonal option, which is what the hormone tests suggest maca is
• You'll take a gelatinised or extract form rather than raw powder

Check with us first if

• You take blood pressure medicine. Maca lowered diastolic pressure in one trial and blocks renin and ACE in lab tests.
• You take diabetes medicine. Black maca lowered blood glucose in a trial.
• You take an antidepressant. There's an individual case report of a problem with mianserin.
• You're pregnant, breastfeeding or buying for a child. We have no evidence in any of these groups.
• You have a thyroid condition, so we can talk through the glucosinolate question properly.
• The product says Lepidium peruvianum. That's not a name an Australian listed medicine can use.

• Yellow maca. Best known for: The default in unlabelled maca powder, and the cheapest. Absorption: Not separately characterised in the trial literature. Typical use: General use. The one trial that named yellow maca was null on its endpoint.
• Red maca. Best known for: Mood and energy. Absorption: GABA predominated in the red spray-dried extract. Typical use: In the 175-person trial, effects on mood, energy and health score were better with red.
• Black maca. Best known for: The variety men usually pick. Absorption: Higher fatty acids and macamides than red in the same trial. Typical use: Reduced blood glucose in that trial. The memory and sperm claims attached to black maca come from animal work in a narrative review.
• Gelatinised maca. Best known for: The form with the best human evidence. Absorption: Heat-and-pressure processed to strip the starch. Typical use: The form in the sexual desire trial (1,500 to 3,000 mg) and the hypogonadism symptom trial (3 g a day).
• Dry extract. Best known for: Concentrated capsules. Absorption: Not measured. Typical use: 2,400 mg a day in one 50-man trial.
• Spray-dried extract. Best known for: The largest trial's form. Absorption: Chemically characterised for macamides, fatty acids and GABA. Typical use: 3 g a day for 12 weeks.
• Raw powder, nibs, chocolate, blends. Best known for: Food use. Absorption: No trial in our sources used raw powder. Typical use: Fine in a smoothie. It can't be dose-matched to any trial, and as a food it carries no therapeutic claim at all.

Reference values. There's no Nutrient Reference Value for maca. It's a root vegetable and a herb, not a nutrient.

Typical supplemental range. Human trials used 1,500 mg to 3.3 g a day, for 12 to 16 weeks. The sexual desire trial used 1,500 mg or 3,000 mg of gelatinised maca, and the mood and energy trial used 3 g of spray-dried extract.

Upper level. In a listed medicine, the maximum recommended daily dose can't provide more than 3.5 g of dried root or the extract equivalent. An extract has to be worked back to its dried-root amount, so a 10:1 extract at 350 mg is already at the limit. Maca sold as a food doesn't have that limit. But no human trial we've reviewed went above 3.3 g a day either, so 3.5 g is the top of the evidence as well as the top of the rules.

Worth knowing. The longest human trials ran for 12 to 16 weeks, so there's no long-term safety data. Give it eight weeks before you judge it, because that's when the desire effect appeared. What you need depends on your age, diet and health, so talk to one of our naturopaths in store.

Food first, where the diet allows it.

• Maca root, as eaten in Peru: A traditional food crop of the high Andes, usually cooked or processed rather than raw
• Maca powder in food formats: maca content per serve is usually not declared as a dried-tuber equivalent, so it can't be matched to a trial dose

This list is the part of the page we will not shorten. If any of it applies to you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before starting.

• Blood pressure medicines. Maca reduced diastolic pressure in a 29-person crossover trial, and lab work shows it inhibits renin and ACE. An additive effect is plausible, so this goes to your prescriber.
• Diabetes medicines. Black maca reduced blood glucose in a 175-person trial. Same reasoning: talk to whoever manages your medicine.
• Antidepressants. A review of 1,816 adverse event reports identified maca with mianserin, causing restless legs syndrome. Adaptogens as a class accounted for 9% of adverse events reported with antidepressants.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. No evidence either way in our sources, and Schedule 1 carries no warning. Absence of a warning isn't evidence of safety.
• Children. Every human trial we hold was in adults. There's nothing to base advice on.
• Thyroid. Maca's a Brassicaceae and contains glucosinolates. The most recent review of 123 studies found brassicas don't have antithyroid effects in people with adequate iodine, and the one trial that measured TSH found no change. Still worth a conversation if you're being treated.
• Unstandardised products and self-dosing. Mild to severe effects are reported with overdosing or with unstandardised products.
• Long-term use. The longest human trials ran 16 weeks. Nobody's studied years of it.