Have you been eating your herbs during the last week?
Would you like to know how they have been benefiting you medicinally? Who says medicines have to
taste bad?
HERBS IN THE KITCHEN, PART II
Remember that pesto we made? It has medicinal
properties.
Sweet basil has an established antibacterial action
that acts principally on the digestive and nervous systems. It is useful for indigestion,
flatulence, stomach cramps, colic, nausea, vomiting, intestinal worms, and a number of
other purposes such as depression, anxiety, nervous irritability, migraine, and it also
helps epilepsy sufferers. It increases mother's breast-milk, too.
Holy basil is thought to have an affinity with the
heart, protecting it from stress and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It
has the ability to stabilize blood sugar levels making it useful in the treatment of
diabetes. It is great for respiratory infections like colds and coughs and it even helps
asthma sufferers. This is one of the basils we grow in pots year round because it is not
available to us any other way.
IN DEFENSE OF OIL & BUTTER
Oils have been getting a "bad rap" lately and
so has butter. They have been replaced with those aerosol spray cans containing "God
only knows what" and those margarines that could double as plastics.
Being one who prefers knowing exactly what I'm eating,
I go for the pure oils and clarified butter and use them wisely. Did you know that olive
oil is very nourishing and it actually improves the balance of fats within the blood?
Other oils have medicinal benefits also, like safflower oil that was shown in research to
reduce the likelihood of coronary artery disease and lower cholesterol levels.
I could go on about the benefits other oils, but for
time's sake let me just say that the best rule of thumb is to buy foods in their purest
form. Avoid things that have been created in a chemistry lab and made to look like food.
By that I mean don't fall for the "I can't believe it's not butter" Madison
Avenue hype stuff. Believe me ... it's not butter and if you saw the ingredients sitting
on your table before they were processed, you'd want to puke.
OK ... back to more pleasant thoughts...
OTHER MEDICINAL HERBS IN THE KITCHEN
Let me give you a list of some herbs/foods with
medicinal value that you could use to stock your kitchen. I'll just jot them down here and
we can talk about them individually as they come up later in this series. This list could
be clipped and tacked onto your shopping list for convenience. I know you won't be able to
find all of these, but you could keep your eye out for them and by all means use what you
can find.
Garlic, cayenne, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, nutmeg,
turmeric, sweet basil, holy basil, rosemary, sage, thyme, ginger, lemon balm, peppermint,
dill, chervil, horseradish, tarragon, borage, caraway, saffron, cumin, bay laurel, star
anise, sweet marjoram, oregano, parsley, sarsaparilla, sassafras, winter savory, sesame
seeds and seed oil, sheep's sorrel, lemon grass, garden cress, watercress, Virginia
peppergrass, alfalfa, nasturtium, celery, globe artichoke, eggplant, lemon, avocado,
dandelion, nettle, corn, onion, cashew, pineapple, asparagus, oats, red beet, white beet,
cabbage, papaya, chicory, pumpkin, barley, French beans, winter cherry, sweet cherry,
apricot, pomegranate, radish, blackcurrant, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries,
grapes, raisins ... oh dear...
HAVE I BITTEN OFF MORE THAN I CAN CHEW? :-0
That list is long and I haven't even begun to list the
Chinese herbs or macrobiotic stuff. We will not have enough time to discuss all of these
herbs/foods, but we'll *nibble* away at them until the time comes for us to get onto
another topic.
Let's start off with the "lowly" cabbage
(Brassica oleracea). Cabbage is detoxifying to the body and is helpful in the long term
treatment of arthritis and in breaking down toxins in the liver. The ancient Romans used
it as a remedy for hangovers. Because of its very high content of vitamins A, B1, B2, and
C, cabbage has been used as a food for the prevention of cancer. Cabbage juice (extracted
with a vegetable juicer) is an excellent tonic food for those recovering from stomach
cancer. Used as a poultice, the leaves are beneficial for cleansing wounds. They are also
beneficial when applied to swellings, tumors, and painful joints. To make the poultice
blanch or chop the leaves, or cut out the midrib of a leaf and iron it, placing it while
hot on the area to be treated. These poultices can cause blisters if left on too long. One
or two hours would be long enough. After knowing all this, will you ever look at a cabbage
the same way again?
Why have I included eggplant in this list? Because it
lowers blood cholesterol levels and helps regulate high blood pressure ... that's why!
Eggplant leaves can be used as a poultice for burns, abscesses, and cold sores, and the
fruit can be used as a poultice for hemorrhoids. (Eggplant leaves are toxic and should
only be used externally.)
Why have I included many of the common items in this
list? They all have some medicinal values that are well worth mentioning if we can get to
all of them. We'll come back next week and see how many of these we can expound upon.
In the meantime, here's a good tip that helps to keep
me out of trouble in the supermarket. Stay on the outside isles when shopping. Avoid those
middle isles as much as possible unless you happen to be in a nice whole foods store. And,
here's a good tip from Benjamin Franklin, "To lengthen thy life, lessen thy
meals."
|