Repurpose, Regrow, and Recycle – Food Waste Edition

In the United States, there are 6.3 million households with very low food security and over half a million people without shelter.

And yet, one out of every four calories intended for human consumption is never actually eaten. More than 20 pounds of food per person are thrown out and sent to landfills every month. Organic waste is the second highest component of landfills, and it produces massive amounts of methane. Methane traps 28 to 36 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, accelerating the process of global warming. When toxic substances in the landfills leak out into our soil and waterways landfills also poison plants, animals, the environment, and humanity.

It’s time we all do our part by reducing food waste.

Repurpose, Regrow, and Recycle

Each one of us can turn our own trash into a treasure by repurposing it, regrowing it, or recycling it.

1. Repurpose

That part of the plant or animal that you thought was useless may be filled with nutrients that your body needs. For example, common food scraps like beet greens, carrot greens, potato greens, and leek tops are packed with similar, and often times, more vitamins, minerals, and health-promoting compounds than the part of the plant that we commonly eat. Beet greens and potato greens can be used just like any other green, in salads, steamed, or sauteed, and carrot greens can be added to dressings and sauces like chimichurri and pesto.

When in Doubt, Dehydrate

If you don’t have the time to prepare these greens or you want to donate your leftovers to a food bank or homeless shelter, dehydrate them. Put the beet greens, carrot greens, leek tops, or any other greens that you will not be eating in your dehydrator at low temperatures (around 100 degrees Fahrenheit) until they are crisp. These dehydrated vegetables will last for up to a year. In fact, if they are stored in a cool, dry place (around 54 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal) and that has a very low moisture content, they can last for up to a decade!

These vegetables can be re-hydrated, eaten as chips, or turned into a powder by blending them together. Having your own greens powder will make it much easier for you to add greens to soups, salads, dressings, sauces, and smoothies. The same can be done with extra herbs as well.

Preserve Your Fruits Too

You can also use a dehydrator to preserve fruits that you won’t have the chance to eat. Simply blend the fruit together with some flax seeds or chia seeds until it becomes a thick, apple-sauce-like consistency and dehydrate it until it becomes fruit leather. This fruit leather can last from 6 months to a year, as long as it is stored in a cool and dry place.

Don’t throw out your organic lemon peels or orange peels either. You can turn your organic citrus peels into a natural vitamin C supplement. Simply cut them into pieces, dehydrate them, and blend them into a fine powder. Add this powder to smoothies, soups, dressings, sauces, or salads for an extra health boost.

Related: Homemade Vitamin C

Nothing Supersedes These Super Seeds

Avocado seeds can also be dehydrated and blended into powder. Adding a tablespoon or two of the seed powder to your meal may improve your cholesterol levels, and can be useful in the treatment of hypertension, inflammatory conditions, and diabetes. These seeds have also been found to have insecticidal, fungicidal, and anti-microbial properties. Other nutritious seeds like squash, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds can be saved, dehydrated, and eaten as well.

Dehydrating your vegetables is a simple and easy way to turn some of your most common food scraps into simple snacks and nutritious additions to meals. But what about the waste created from eating meat products?

Related: Things Health Nuts Do With Their Food

Bones and Organs

Muscle meat, like chicken breast and steak, is the most commonly eaten part of the animal, and yet it is the least nutritious. Yes, that burger is packed with complete protein and some vitamins & minerals, but you are missing out on the bones and organs, which can be the most nutrient dense part of the animal.

The bones and cartilage can easily be turned into a nutritious bone broth that provides you with minerals and amino acids that promote the health of your bones, heart, muscles, skin, and nervous system.

When it comes to organ meat, the most nutrient dense is beef liver. 100 grams of beef liver contain more vitamins and a greater amount of those vitamins than 100 grams of apples and 100 grams of carrots combined.

Before you throw out the bones and cartilage from that chicken, steak, or duck, simmer them in water for 8 to 24 hours and you’ll have a nutrient dense broth that you can drink or use as a base for soups. And don’t discard the organ meats either. There are plenty of recipes online that you can use to make them into a nutritious meal. If you are not a fan of eating liver, you can blend it up, dehydrate it, put it into capsules, and use it as a dietary supplement.

However, don’t just trust any meat products. Factory farms torture the animals, unhealthy animals produce unhealthy meat, and these practices are destroying the environment as we know it. For a multitude of reasons, please make sure that you are sourcing your meat and bones from farmers that use sustainable methods and treat their animals humanely.

Related: The Healing Effects of Bone Broth and How To Make Your Own

Egg Shells

If you are looking for a natural supplement that actually improves bone health, then don’t throw away your egg shells. Instead, wash them, dehydrate them, and grind them in a coffee grinder. This will provide you with a fine calcium-based powder that you can put in capsules or add to smoothies that may treat and prevent osteoporosis and improve bone and cartilage health.

Related: Homemade Calcium and Magnesium

2. Regrow

Many of the vegetables and herbs that we eat can easily be regrown without seeds. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, lettuce, celery, garlic, ginger, onions, fennel, cilantro, basil, oregano, cilantro, turmeric, and many other popular vegetables and herbs can all be regrown, providing you with an abundance of produce to feed you, your family, and those in need. If you end up growing too many vegetables, you can always donate your produce to soup kitchens and/or dehydrate the greens and herbs. Check out How to Regrow Your Favorite Herbs and Save Lots of Money. Also, click here to find a food bank near you, and Click here to find a homeless shelter near you.

3. Recycle

Even when you apply everything you have learned to repurpose and regrow your food scraps, you will still end up with some waste. Instead of throwing it out and sending it to a toxic landfill, start your own compost pile or just add those scraps to your soil to give your plants nutrition right away.

Related: 5 Cost-Effective Ways To Home Container Gardening – DIY

Here are examples of food items you can use to instantly nourish your soil and plants:

  • Coffee grounds are an excellent source of nitrogen, which is an essential component of chlorophyll and protein that allows the plant to thrive. Mix them into the soil for best results.
  • Eggshells give the plants their protein. Crush your eggshells into tiny pieces and scatter around your plants. They are also excellent pest repellents. Slugs and snails have difficulty climbing over the shells and onto the plants.
  • Banana peels have potassium,  which helps plants bloom profusely. And like eggshells, banana peels are pest repellents. To use them effectively, cut your banana peels into small pieces and bury them two to three inches deep to provide sustainable nutrition and pest defense for the plant. You can also rub the inside of the peel on the leaves of the plants to repel pests even more
  • Citrus peels can be chopped up and scattered in the garden to keep your plants free from cats and dogs that try to use your garden as a litter box.
  • Garlic can be buried around your plants to ward off different types of garden pests.
  • Miscellaneous Food Scraps like fruit and vegetable peels and pulp can be buried directly in the ground near plants or between the rows of your garden. This keeps the soil rich, plants healthy, and pests away. The scraps will also feed earthworms, which greatly improve the health of the soil. Make sure you bury the food scraps deep enough in the soil so that they don’t attract critters and pests.

There are also a couple things that you should avoid putting in your garden including:

  • Meat
  • Bones
  • Cheese
  • Grease and oils
  • Dog and cat litter
  • Diseased plants

These attract animals and pests that will eat your plants before you can.

Putting It Into Practice

Think about what you can apply to your life right now. Are there some egg shells lying in your trash that could go into your garden? Are you wasting fruits and vegetables because you don’t have a dehydrator?

Implement whatever you can with whatever resources you have, and check back with this article again to apply something new every week. If you know of another way to re-purpose, reuse, or recycle your food waste please comment below or on social media, so we can let more people know.

By re-purposing, reusing, and recycling your food waste, you can heal the environment, nourish yourself, and feed the people that need nutrient-dense food the most. And when we unite our small efforts together, we can make big change happen.

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How to Read Food Labels and Avoid Toxic Ingredients

Grocery shopping has become hazardous to our health. We are told that whatever is sold from a grocery store shelf has been approved as safe, and the health-isle food is healthy. The truth is that there are actually many harmful additives in processed food and very little nutrition. It’s difficult for the layman to know this when the chemicals are disguised or not labeled. Shopping with an untrained, uneducated eye is becoming detrimental to our health.

In the not too distant past, foods without pesticides and herbicides were the norm. Our soil was rich with nutrients and the ingredients we used for recipes were not enriched or processed. It was easier for families to eat more wholesome and natural foods baked from scratch. Nowadays, the majority of our food supply is manufactured in a laboratory from substances that were not intended for the body. Even cooking from scratch has become a health concern because the individual ingredients going into the freshly cooked food are either genetically modified or loaded with pesticides and herbicides. Without a trained eye and an understanding of how to read labels, even home cooked meals can be hazardous to your health.

Processed Food, Comes In a Package With Ingredients Listed

If you are sick, do not trust anyone else with your health, especially not a corporation. That means you prepare your own food. Processed foods are stripped of many of the natural nutrients, and when fortified, it’s done with synthetic vitamins and minerals that are not bioavailable. Food products are often bleached, pasteurized, deodorized, and have chemical ingredients added to them that are not put on the ingredients label. Often times, artificial preservatives are used in order for the product to taste fresh when it’s purchased a few years later. There are preservatives that do not have to be listed.

But everyone eats processed foods sometimes, so how do we make the best choices? The first dead giveaway that a product is laden with food additives and chemicals is the long list of hard to pronounce ingredients that don’t sound like food. Unfortunately, the food additives lurking in most packaged foods are dangerous to your health. Studies have shown that many of these toxic additives can make you fat, and are a catalyst for the onset of debilitating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, hormonal imbalances, and more.

Related: Foods That Feed Candida

Enriched and Fortified = Synthetic Nutrients

You can be certain that a product will contain synthetic nutrients if the packaging is labeled with the term “enriched” or “fortified” in the description. This ambiguous term describes most of the refined conventional grain products such as pasta and spaghetti, macaroni, white rice, and white breads. Baked goods will also usually contain this indication on the label.  Lately, even the preferred organic versions of these grains also contain enriched ingredients, so be absolutely certain to check the labels and stand clear of “enriched” products!

Be aware that during the processing, all of the much needed natural nutrients are unfortunately stripped out of the grain to make it appear white. Then, synthetic B nutrients known as Niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate and riboflavin are added to the ingredients in order to make the food “appear” healthy. Synthetic B nutrients are chemically derived using formaldehyde and petroleum and as you may have guessed, they are actually very unhealthy! In the long run, it is easy to avoid synthetic nutrients if you want to by purchasing organic whole grains and organic pasta without the “enriched” ingredients. In fact, Basmati and Jasmine rice are naturally white grains that can be found next to the conventional brands on the shelves of your local supermarket. Mix it up a little bit and try other healthier grains such as couscous, nutritious quinoa, organic polenta (corn meal–to avoid GMO), amaranth, brown rice, millet and more.

Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs

The four primary genetically modified cash crops in the USA and abroad are soy, corn, canola, and sugar beets. Derivatives of these foods can be found in over 70 percent of the products in your local grocery store, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s included. The main reason the plants are genetically modified is so they can handle higher amounts of herbicide. Bacterial genes are inserted that allow them to survive doses of herbicide that would otherwise kill them under normal circumstances. Luckily for us, the current regulation ensures by definition that Certified Organic food cannot be GMO, therefore, it should be fairly easy to buy organic soy milk, tofu, tempeh, cornmeal, polenta, and canola oil if you visit the local health food store. The challenge comes with the packaged food. Most packaged foods contain fillers like soybean oil, soy protein, and high fructose corn syrup. Those packaged foods produced by healthy brands may have all organic ingredients but many do not.

The surest way to protect yourself from eating these foods is by making recipes from scratch from whole foods without fillers and preservatives.

Related: Understanding and Detoxifying Genetically Modified Foods

High Fructose Corn Syrup

High fructose corn syrup, a.k.a. HFCS  is a sugar derived from corn. The corn from which it is derived is almost always genetically modified. Currently, it is unfortunate for the consumer that genetically engineered ingredients are not labeled in the U.S. Just knowing that corn is typically genetically modified will help you choose organic versions of corn products.

High fructose corn syrup has been known to cause gastrointestinal distress and elevated triglycerides. It is also associated with blood sugar problems, depression, fatigue, B-vitamin deficiency, hyperactivity, heart disease, diabetis,  tooth decay, and periodontal disease. Large amounts of HFCS has caused tumors in mice and may cause a similar result in humans if consumed frequently.

Related: Is Agave Nectar Healthy?

Sneaky HFCS Synonyms

  • Maize syrup
  • Glucose syrup
  • Glucose syrup
  • Fructose syrup
  • Tapioca syrup
  • Dahlia syrup
  • Fruit fructose
  • Crystalline fructose
  • Dahlia syrup

MSG – Monosodium Glutamate

MSG is monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer added to most processed food to make it taste good. This substance crosses the blood-brain barrier and quite literally excites your brain cells to death. In infants and children, the blood-brain barrier is not fully developed, sadly making MSG even more harmful to young ones.

The harmful component of MSG is the glutamate. Glutamic acid is an essential amino acid found in protein and required for the human body to be healthy. It is the L-glutamic acid that is the part of the protein that your body needs. When glutamic acid is manufactured, it contains both L-glutamic acid and D-glutamic acid. D-glutamic acid occurs as a result of the manufacturing process only. It is not a part of the protein and your body does not have a need for it. MSG is a neurotoxin, making it highly toxic to your nervous system. There is a loophole in MSG regulation that allows food manufacturers to include some MSG in your food without labeling it. In order for food companies to list MSG as an ingredient, the glutamic acid content in the food must be 79% or greater. If there is 78% or less of glutamic acid in the substance, the food companies are not required to include MSG in the labels. They are also not required to list the chemicals that are used to derive certain ingredients on the label either. Therefore there is loads of MSG in foods that the untrained and uneducated shopper are not aware of.  MSG can be hidden in many ingredients that the average consumer is not aware of. Ingredients that contain MSG but are not labeled MSG are known as clean label ingredients and used to deceive the consumer.

“Clean Label Ingredients” You Should Avoid

The “Clean label Ingredients” is a marketing phrase to replace “all natural.” There are many MSG “clean label” ingredients identified by Truth in Labelling.org that you should be aware of. The list includes, but is not limited to the following substances:

  • Glutamate
  • Glutamic acid
  • Monosodium glutamate
  • Magnesium glutamate
  • Natrium glutamate
  • Gelatin
  • Calcium caseinate
  • Sodium caseinate
  • Textured protein
  • Hydrolyzed protein (anything hydrolyzed)
  • Yeast nutrient, yeast extract
  • Yeast food
  • Autolyzed yeast
  • Vetsin
  • Ajinomoto

Ingredients That Contain MSG or Create MSG During Processing

According to Truth in Labelling, there are also quite a few ingredients that will often contain MSG or create MSG during the processing:

  • Carrageenan
  • Maltodextrin
  • Malt extract, Malt flavoring
  • Barley malt
  • Citric acid
  • Soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, soy protein
  • Whey protein concentrate, Whey protein isolate, whey protein
  • Seasonings
  • Protease, Protease enzymes
  • Pectin
  • Natural Flavor, flavorings
Related: MSG’s Many Side Effects and Aliases

Some Ingredients Work with MSG

You should also be aware that some ingredients work along with MSG and their use typically suggests that the product has MSG in it. Truth in Labeling notes that these ingredients are not likely to be used as food additives if there were no MSG present in the product.

  • Disodium 5-Guanylate
  • Disodium 5-Inosinate
  • Disodium 5-Ribonucleotides

Hydrogenated oils

Fully hydrogenated oils may not contain trans-fat, but research shows that it may be worse than trans fat in that it lowers the good cholesterol more than trans fats and raises blood sugar levels. Hydrogenated oils are associated with heart disease, breast and colon cancer, atherosclerosis and high cholesterol.

Partially hydrogenated fats and oils contain trans fats and are also associated with heart disease, breast and colon cancer, atherosclerosis and high cholesterol. Even if a package claims that No Trans Fats are used, you must read the label to see if it contains partially hydrogenated oils because the government allows companies say “No Trans Fats” if it contains less than 0.5 g of trans fat per serving.

Related: Everything You Should Know About Fat

Cancer Causing Additives

Nitrites and nitrates are used in processed meats and form powerful cancer-causing agents in your body. The FDA knows they’re dangerous but allows these ingredients in food because they prevent botulism. Nitrite-free meets can be found in your health food store. But be sure to read the ingredients on the label and ensure that the food does not contain sodium nitrite, potassium nitrite or anything that has nitrite or nitrate in the name.

According to trusted sources, sodium benzoate is the most widely used preservative in the world. It is typically used in foods, beverages, foods, liquid supplements, toothpaste, oral care products and pharmaceuticals. Sodium benzoate has caused birth defects in lab animals. It can cause skin rashes, gastrointestinal issues, hyperactivity, neurological problems and more. When Sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate are used in a product that contains ascorbic acid or vitamin C, it can form benzene. Benzene is known to cause cancer and cancer kills.

Aspartame

Aspartame is one of the most dangerous food additives on the market today. Drinks, candy, and chewing gum are potential sources of hidden MSG and/or aspartame and neotame. Aspartic acid, found in neotame and aspartame ordinarily causes MSG type reactions in MSG sensitive people. Aspartame is found in some medications, including children’s medications. Neotame is relatively new and we have not yet seen it used widely in the United States.  Aspartame is commonly known as Equal and Nutrasweet. In Europe, it’s called E951. The FDA stopped monitoring adverse toxicity reactions from aspartame in 1995, however before that 92 different adverse reactions from aspartame were reported. Recent studies have shown that aspartame causes cancer in amounts approved for human consumption and it is genetically modified. It’s best to stay away from any products that lists aspartame as an ingredient. Beware of aspartame in chewing gum, breath mints, cereal, frozen desserts, ice cream, gelatin desserts, puddings, cookies, yogurt, frozen yogurt, fruit spreads, sugar-free maple syrup, hard candy, chewable vitamins, laxatives, supplements, medications, prescription drugs, orthodontic elastics, pediatric antibiotics and more! Read the ingredients on the labels very carefully and make sure you do not use any products that contain aspartame.

Sugar Negatively Affects the Absorption of Vitamins and Nutrients

Contrary to popular belief, not all sugar is created equally and most of us are aware of the dangers of consuming too much sugar, whether it be processed sugar from GMO beets or natural sugars.  Some of these dangers include well-known ailments like obesity, insulin spikes, high blood sugar, diabetes and yes, cancer. Too much glucose, a form of sugar can lead to deficiencies in the nutrients that reach your cells. What actually happens is the sugar reduces the absorption of the vitamins and minerals you are getting from the food you consume. There are a few specific vitamins that are affected by the surplus of sugar in your system. Because vitamin C and glucose use the same transporters to the blood, too much sugar intake will slow down the absorption of this nutrient in your body. This can be detrimental as vitamin C is responsible for cell tissue regeneration and a well-functioning immune system. Magnesium is a nutrient that becomes depleted by an over intake of sugar. This is dangerous as magnesium is utilized by all metabolic functions of the body and too much sugar increases magnesium excretion by the kidneys.

I hope you are getting enough Vitamin D which is essential to protect the body from infections, autoimmunity, dementia inflammation and other diseases like cancer. Eating too much sugar in your diet will definitely increase vitamin D deficiency.

Calcium is another nutrient that the body needs. It’s important for bone health among other things. Interestingly, vitamin D works with the calcium in absorption to the cells. In a roundabout way, too much sugar consumption inhibits the body’s ability to take in this nutrient, because the less vitamin D in your system, the less your body is able to absorb calcium from your food.

Related: Healthy Sugar Alternatives and More

Be Mindful of the Ingredients in Your Food

You can start living a healthier lifestyle today by being more mindful of the ingredients in your food. Unfortunately, there isn’t much help from official sources because they are controlled by big corporations interested in raking in the cash — from government agencies to big agricultural and food companies, to research institutes and even congress. They lie and tell us that something is nutritious as long as it helps corporations make a fortune and keeps government officials in office. As a result, people are getting bad information about basic health information. Take control of your life and your diet today, you owe it to yourself!

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What is Cascara? Coffee, Tea, Superfood?

After walking into a coffee shop in Washington D.C. recently, I was quite surprised that they were promoting a new drink for 2017 on the menu called “Cascara”, with a subtitle stating “Warm and nutty caramel tones made from the skin of coffee cherry blossoms”. I asked the barista if this was tea or coffee. She looked perplexed and said to me, “no, it’s a syrup”. Needless to say I was confused, but intrigued. So I thought to myself, a new drink being showcased at this coffee shop which could seem to be a healthier alternative to coffee, yet it’s syrup. This is the brilliance of marketing, which makes you excited about something new being available as a coffee alternative. I proceeded not to order it because I didn’t fully understand what they were offering.  Was it tea, coffee, syrup, or all of it mixed together? Either way, if I was to order Cascara, I would want the real super food coffee cherry tea version I heard of, not a syrup mixed into a hot drink. My visit to this coffee shop left me wondering, what is this elusive Cascara being offered, and is it really coffee or tea?

After further research, I found that Cascara (translated from Spanish meaning ‘husk’ or ‘peel’) is also known as coffee cherry skins in English. Cascara must not be confused with the herbal plant with a similar first name, Cascara Sagrada (Chittem Bark), which is completely different and has natural laxative properties when consumed. Cascara (coffee cherry skin) is the by-product of the coffee beans after they have been removed from their red skins and dried in the sun, much like raisins. In the past, these skins were usually placed in compost or thrown away during harvest because it was believed to ruin the taste of coffee. However, for centuries Cascara has been brewed in Yemen and Ethiopia before coffee beans were even used as a drink. Recently, this alternative sounding exotic drink has made a big move onto the U.S. market in various forms including everything from beauty products, tea infusions, enhanced waters, sports drinks, sodas, to vodka infusions and other alcoholic beverages.

What still remained unclear was how should this elusive and somewhat confusing drink be classified? It is believed that Cascara is something between coffee and tea, although it is derived from the coffee plant. It should be noted that Cascara does not taste like coffee nor does it contain its high caffeine content. According to Moldvaer, “Cascara caffeine content is fairly low, even at the strongest, longest brew, the caffeine content of Cascara came in at 111.4 mg/L, compared to broad range of about 400-800 mg/L in brewed coffee.”  Cascara comes in an interesting mélange of flavors ranging from sweet, subtle, earthy, to rich, warm, robust and nutty. Its undertones have a fruity flavor with hints of raspberry, red mulberry, currant, cranberry, and cherry.[2] Its classification is neither coffee nor tea, but it remains in its own realm because it does not come from beans or tea leaves, but from the fruit of the coffee plant. However, there is an opposing opinion suggesting that it is indeed coffee with high caffeine content.  According to Megan Wood, “cascara is a tropical, berry fruit that just happens to be coffee,” Wood says, “It’s not tea — it’s 100 percent coffee. But it smells like herbal tea.”  She also goes on to say that “It’s kind of like nature’s Red Bull.” So at the end of the day, you might have to make the decision yourself whether you want to categorize cascara as tea, coffee, or a hybrid, and whether it leaves you feeling caffeinated or not.

Regardless of its disputable classification, I would recommend you be courageous and jump on the trendy drink bandwagon for 2017 and give Cascara and its healing benefits a try. Even though you may not know whether it’s truly coffee or tea, the health benefits are numerous.  Due to its high concentration of polyphenols, Cascara is a true superfood. It will also help boost your immune system, provide antioxidants thus protecting you from free radicals, and offer you a host of anti-inflammatory properties. With extensive research over a decade, FutureCeuticals, has also discovered that Cascara produces BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor), a protein essential for maintaining healthy cognition, and other brain-related processes such as mood and sleep.

Cascara can be consumed as a hot drink or as a cold refreshing infusion. According to 44 North Coffee, Cascara is loaded with flavor, vitamins, natural sugars, and anti-oxidants. Dr. Debbie Palmer states that, “Cascara is rejuvenating because it’s high in polyphenol compounds: proanthocyanidins, chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, ferulic acid and caffeic acid. The coffee berry fruit has been found to be higher in antioxidants than tea, vitamin C and E, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and pomegranate.” In preparing Cascara, Wood and Raftery recommend steeping three tablespoons of cascara in 10 ounces of hot water for four minutes. For a cold brew, they suggest six tablespoons to 12 ounces of water, steeped for 12 to 16 hours. To purchase Cascara, there are a number of coffee roasters making it available online. Let this year be the year where you become an independent taste tester, and you can make your own personal decision on whether Cascara is coffee, tea, or something in between.  Either way, it’s a highly recommended alternative as a superfood drink option. For a great recipe on making a cold brew of Cascara (Coffee Cherry) tea, visit Alma Holistic Health.

Interesting fact: In Yemen, Cascara is consumed as Qishr (a hot beverage containing spiced coffee husks, with ginger and cinnamon) which is usually consumed instead of coffee because it is much cheaper.

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Sulforaphane – Why Your Cells Need Cruciferous Vegetables

Sulforaphane is a miraculous compound that enhances brain function, promotes healthy fat distribution, and greatly reduces the risk of cancer, brain diseases, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It is like a health insurance policy for your cells. And guess what? It’s all natural. Sounds like another supplement sales pitch, right? That’s what I thought when I first heard about it, but then I dug through the research.

In a scientific article published by Dr. Thomas W. Kensler and his colleagues, sulforaphane is described as one of…

…the most potent naturally occurring inducers of Nrf2 signaling.”

Nrf2 is a cytoprotective (cell-protecting) pathway that protects your cells from oxidative stress and removes toxins from the body. This means that nrf2 plays a key role in preventing and reversing common health issues like:

  • Heart disease
  • Diabetes
  • Cancer
  • Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury and other brain diseases
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • ALS
  • Autism and other behavioral disorders
  • Chronic pain
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Asthma

The best part is that you won’t have to climb to the top of a mountain or scavenge the Amazon jungle and sit through a 6-hour ceremony to reap the benefits of nrf2. All you need to do is eat cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage. Sulforaphane will be yours.

Related: Foods, Vitamins, and Herbs That Kill Cancer

Where Does Sulforaphane Come From?

Technically, sulforaphane does not naturally occur in cruciferous vegetables. A healthy, mature broccoli plant, for example, will contain no sulforaphane. However, as soon as the plant is damaged an enzyme called myrosinase is released that reacts with glucoraphanin, a compound that is sulforaphane’s precursor.

This process is not a gift from nature to ensure human health, it is actually the plant’s defense mechanism. Sulforaphane is designed to be toxic to the plant’s predators. In fact, it can be toxic to humans in large quantities. For example, when we ingest the majority of our calories from raw cruciferous vegetables, we can impair our thyroid function.

However, in small quantities, sulforaphane creates a hormetic effect. A hormetic effect is what happens when we gain beneficial effects from something that would be toxic or lethal in higher doses. For example, daily cold exposure triggers brown fat production. This is a healthier version of fat that increases our energy and heat production. This means that cold exposure has a hormetic effect on our bodies, but if we are exposed to frigid temperatures for too long, we will begin to accumulate frostbite instead of brown fat.

Although you won’t get frostbite from eating too many cruciferous vegetables, very high intakes of these vegetables have been found to cause hypothyroidism. This is because compounds in cruciferous vegetables called glucosinolates can be broken down into goitrins in the body. These goitrins interfere with the production of thyroid hormones causing hypothyroidism. However, if you maintain an adequate iodine intake, you will need to eat a lot more cruciferous vegetables to experience adverse effects. Fortunately, you won’t have to eat a tremendous amount of cruciferous vegetables. The benefits of sulforaphane can be experienced by eating just 3 to 5 servings per week. In fact, doing this may prevent cancer.

Cancer Prevention? Yeah, That Too

If you dig through the literature on sulforaphane, you will find an abundance of studies on cancer. Sulforaphane has been found to prevent the formation of breast, prostate, colon, skin, lung, stomach, and bladder cancer. One study found that a diet of three to five servings per week of cruciferous vegetables is sufficient to decrease the risk of cancer development by 30% to 40%. It was also found that consuming one portion of cruciferous vegetables per week is associated with a significantly reduced risk of oral cavity and pharynx, esophageal, colorectal, breast, and kidney cancer.

These profound effects are not only due to sulforaphane’s cell protecting properties. Sulforaphane also has the capacity to be selectively toxic to malignant cells, while simultaneously enhancing the detoxification of aflatoxins and airborne toxins like smoke. It also has been shown to have potent affects on the brain.

Brain Transformation

Sulforaphane is essential for brain health, especially in healing damaged brains. In cases of traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease, sulforaphane has been found to improve memory and learning abilities. Scientists think that this may be associated with its ability to promote neurogenesis and reduce the aluminum load in the brain.

Autism is also positively affected by sulforaphane. In one study, autistic children that supplemented with sulforaphane showed an improvement in social interaction, abnormal behavior, and verbal communication.

Related: Increase your IQ with the Right Foods, Herbs, Vitamins

Fat Loss & Gut Health

Studies have found that sulforaphane triggers the creation of brown fat in mice. Brown fat is a healthier form of fat storage that actually increases energy consumption.

Sulforaphane also improved the gut flora of mice compared to other mice that were fed the same diet without sulforaphane. This may mean that sulforaphane can change our body composition by promoting brown fat storage and a healthy gut flora while staving off unhealthy, inflammatory white fat.

Related: Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases

And There’s More

Studies have also found that sulforaphane aids in the reversal of fatty liver disease, preventing lung damage from inhaled toxins, reducing hypertension, and improving mood.

Okay. That’s it.

I am sure there is more, but that is enough of the science for today. Let’s get practical.

How to Get More Sulforaphane

Simply eating cruciferous vegetables is not enough to guarantee that you are getting sulforaphane in your diet. Many different environmental factors can cause glucoraphanin to not be converted into sulforaphane. And glucoraphanin is useless to the body.

One environmental factor that reduces the production of sulforaphane is heat. Studies have found that exposing cruciferous vegetables to temperatures higher than 158 degrees Fahrenheit deactivated the myrosinase enzyme leading to a sharp decrease in sulforaphane production. This suggests that cooking your cruciferous vegetables will rob you of the benefits of sulforaphane. But before you make a raw kale salad or have some raw broccoli to get your daily dose of sulforaphane, it is important to note that myrosinase activity decreases as the cruciferous vegetable matures. Luckily, there is a much easier and tastier way to increase the amount of sulforaphane in your meals.

The Best Source of Sulforaphane

Even if you eat raw broccoli or cauliflower, you are still getting 10 to 100 times less sulforaphane than when you eat 3-day-old broccoli sprouts. In fact, one ounce of broccoli sprouts can convert to as much sulforaphane as one-and-a-half pounds of mature broccoli. This is mainly because myrosinase activity is increased in young sprouts compared to adult plants. This increase in enzyme activity helps ensure that the vulnerable sprout can protect itself into adulthood.

The increased activity of the myrosinase enzyme in broccoli sprouts also helps you to convert the glucoraphanins from other vegetables in your meal to sulforaphane. You can reap these benefits with every salad by garnishing it with broccoli sprouts. Dr. Rhonda Patrick suggests adding around 2.5 ounces of broccoli sprouts to your daily smoothies, salad, or snack.

Supplementing with Broccoli Sprouts

Buying a broccoli sprout supplement may seem like the best option, but don’t let the tempting price of $10 a month fool you. This will cost you 20x more than buying broccoli sprouts in the store, and supplements can’t even guarantee that the myrosinase enzyme will be present or active.

When you buy fresh broccoli sprouts you can at least guarantee that you are getting sulforaphane in your diet. Store bought broccoli sprouts will cost you about $1 per ounce or you can easily grow them at home for the cost of around 9 cents per ounce.

Related: You Need Sulforaphane – How and Why to Grow Broccoli Sprouts

Conclusion

Sulforaphane is a compound that comes with a list of beneficial effects that gets longer as we continue to study it. You can reap the benefits of sulforaphane by eating around 5 servings of raw or minimally cooked cruciferous vegetables a week. However, the simplest and most effective way to consume sulforaphane is by eating broccoli sprouts.

Just one ounce of broccoli sprouts converts to as much sulforaphane as one-and-a-half pounds of mature broccoli. A reliable source of broccoli sprouts is your local organic food store, but this added expense can easily break your grocery budget. The cheapest way to supplement your diet with broccoli sprouts is by growing them at home. After 5-7 days you can have up to a half pound of sprouts for 10x less than the cost of broccoli sprouts in the store.

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You Need Sulforaphane – How and Why to Grow Broccoli Sprouts

Brain Enhancing, Fat Burning, Cancer Preventing, DIY Homemade Supplementation

It is not another drug or folk remedy. You can prevent many forms of cancer, improve gut health, establish healthy body fat composition, enhance brain function, detoxify your cells, and reduce depression with this one miracle compound.

It’s called sulforaphane, and it is naturally produced when cruciferous vegetables are damaged. We initiate the reaction that creates sulforaphane with the process of chewing, which allows us to reap a plethora of benefits that make the scientific research on sulforaphane look like a late night TV ad.

The Scientific Sales Pitch

Although there are many proposed effects of sulforaphane, let’s stick with what has been studied. Sulforaphane has been shown to prevent the growth of many cancers including breast, prostate, colon, skin, lung, stomach, and bladder cancer. The risk of common diseases like diabetes, heart disease, gastric disease, neurodegenerative disease, ocular disease, and respiratory diseases are reduced with the consumption of sulforaphane as well. Even behavioral disorders like autism have been helped with sulforaphane supplementation. And if that isn’t enough, sulforaphane has been shown to decrease fat gain and improve body composition in mice. All this is possible because sulforaphane stimulates protective and detoxifying mechanisms in the cells. This allows the cells to eliminate environmental toxins like mercury and air pollutants from the body and repair themselves from the damage caused by oxidative stress.

The Best Source of Sulforaphane

With positive and protective effects on almost every cell in the body, sulforaphane is like a health insurance policy for your cells. This compound can be found in raw or minimally cooked cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.

It is important to note that sulforaphane cannot be produced from vegetables that are cooked at a temperature above 158 degrees Fahrenheit. This is because the enzyme that helps create sulforaphane is deactivated when is heated above 158 degrees Fahrenheit.

The enzyme that helps create sulforaphane may also become less active in mature cruciferous vegetables, so it is uncertain how much sulforaphane you will actually get from mature plants. This is where crucifer sprouts save the day. Due to their increased enzyme activity, crucifer sprouts are the best source of sulforaphane. But one sprout, in particular, may provide the most sulforaphane of them all. That sprout is the broccoli sprout.

Where To Get Broccoli Sprouts

After seeing the benefits of broccoli sprouts it is tempting to add that $10 bottle of broccoli sprout capsules to your cart, but don’t let the tempting price fool you. At $10 per bottle, you are spending 20x more than if you bought broccoli sprouts in the store, and supplements can’t even guarantee that they actually have any sulforaphane or enzyme activity.

With store bought broccoli sprouts you can at least guarantee that you are getting sulforaphane in your diet. However, store bought broccoli sprouts will run you about $1 per ounce when you can easily grow them at home for the cost of ~9 cents per ounce.

With one 64 oz mason jar, a seed strainer lid, broccoli seeds, a glass bowl, and water you can grow up to 15 pounds of sprouts per pound of broccoli seeds. That means you can have a half pound of sprouts every week for over 6 months. Fifteen pounds of broccoli sprouts would cost you $240 if you bought them in the store or almost $5,000 in capsule form, and you can get them for less than $50.

How to Grow Your Own Broccoli Sprouts

Growing your own broccoli sprouts is simple and easy. It doesn’t require gardening skills, and after less than a week you can have up to half a pound of delicious broccoli sprouts for the cost of less than a dollar.

Here is what you need:

  • Organic broccoli seeds for sprouting (~$15 per pound)
  • A 64-ounce mason jar (~$10 per jar)
  • Strainer sprouting lids that fit the mouth of your jar (~$9 per lid)
  • A glass bowl
  • A cool, dark place
  • Optional: full spectrum light
  • Optional: salad spinner

Estimated yield: 3 tablespoons of seeds will most likely sprout to a half pound of broccoli sprouts in about 5-7 days.

Step by Step Guide to Sprouting Your Broccoli Seeds

Step 1

Put 3 tablespoons of broccoli seeds in your mason jar, cover the seeds with cool, distilled water or spring water (60-70 degrees Fahrenheit), and swish the water around gently. Put your mason jar, with the sprouting lid on, in a cool dark place for 6-12 hours to allow the seeds to soak.

Step 2

Drain off the water by tipping the mason jar to let the water pass through the strainer. Take the glass bowl and rest your mason jar inside of it so that the remaining water can drain. Put it in a cool dark place for 8-12 hours to let the seeds drain and sprout.

Tip: make sure the jar is tipped enough so that the seeds can drain and have adequate airflow. The most common cause of poor sprouting is inadequate drainage.

Step 3

Rinse the seeds 2x daily and put the jar back in the bowl in a cool dark place so it can drain. It might help to set reminders on your phone.

Here’s what mine looked like 60 hours after the beginning of the first rinse:

Tip: Try not to expose them to too much light until most of them are sprouted with tiny yellowish leaves.

Step 4

After 3 to 4 days you will notice white sprouts with tiny yellowish leaves coming from the seeds. When this happens for most of your seeds, you can begin exposing them to indirect sunlight or a full spectrum light bulb so that they can start to green up. Continue to do the same rinsing process as before.

84 hours after the beginning of the first rinse:

Step 5

After a day or two of light exposure, rinse them once again, and let them drain overnight. The next morning they will be ready to eat!

After the first day of sun exposure:

The finished product, about 6 ounces of broccoli sprouts from 2 and a half tablespoons of broccoli seeds:

 

Bonus Step: How to Increase Sulforaphane content by 3.5x

Studies have actually been conducted to find out how to increase the bioavaliability of sulforaphane from broccoli sprouts. One study found that If you want to get the most out of your broccoli sprouts, you must never expose them to temperatures greater than 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit). However, if you let them sit in 65 to 70 degree Celsius (149 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit) water for 10 minutes, you can increase sulforaphane content by around 3.5 fold. The greatest increase was found at 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit) with a rapid decrease when the sprouts were exposed to greater temperatures.

To try this broccoli sprout hack at home all you need is a pot, thermometer, a glass bowl, a timer, water, and your broccoli sprouts. Put your broccoli sprouts in a glass bowl while you heat up the water in the pot until it reaches 70 degrees Celsius. Cover your sprouts with the water and set your timer for ten minutes. Check the temperature of the water that the sprouts are in every couple of minutes and add 70 degree Celsius water to the broccoli sprouts periodically to maintain the temperature between 65 and 70 degrees Celsius. After 10 minutes, drain the sprouts, pat they dry, eat them, add them to a smoothie, or store them in the refrigerator.

If that description was to confusing, check out how Dr. Rhonda Patrick hacks her broccoli sprout sulforaphane content:

How to Store Your Sprouts for up to Six Weeks

To keep the sprouts fresh and nutritious for six weeks follow these steps:

  1. Eight to twelve hours after the final rinse and drain, pat your sprouts dry and/or use a salad spinner until the sprouts are reasonably dry. Nothing kills produce quicker than refrigerating it wet.
  2. Put the sprouts in a plastic bag or container that will ensure minimal exposure to air. If they are exposed to too much air they may dry out completely.
  3. Refrigerate them for up to six weeks and eat them whenever and however you like.

Enjoy!

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Monsanto Wants the Omega-3 Fatty Acids Market

What’s the next phase in omega-3 fatty acid supplementation? If biotechnology and agricultural trading giants like Monsanto, Dow Chemical, and Cargill have anything to say about it, the future is soy and canola.

There is no way to meet the demand we currently have for fish oil.Peru, the world’s leader in fish oil and fish meal production, had a banner year in 2016, getting the highest recorded average price per metric ton. But those record numbers come at a time when production levels have declined 61% from the previous year. The production levels aren’t likely to improve either, as the United Nations reports 90% of the world’s fish are fully or partially overfished. Farm-raised fish are unlikely to be a good source of Omega-3s as they themselves are frequently fed other fish oils to boost their health. We are approaching the point where a big source for Omega-3s, wild-caught fish, will no longer be available, and farm raised fish currently require supplementation instead of providing it.

The Big Business Solution

The demand for fish oil products has created a 2.4 million dollar market, and many big companies have settled on grains as the solution to the problem left by dwindling fish oil supplies. One of the companies with ambitious plans in this area is Cargill, an agricultural trading company based in Minnesota. In a bid to create a fifth of current fish oil supplies, 159,000 metric tons, they’ve earmarked up to half a million acres of Montana farmland to grow their new strain of canola. Projected to be ready in 2020, the canola will contain long-chain omega-3 fatty acids from algae. Dow Chemicals has also jumped on the canola train, although they plan to grow their canola in Canada.

Monsanto, on the other hand, is sticking with what they know – soy. Soybeans are already a  source of ALA (alpha-linolenic acids), and the company’s plan is to develop a soybean specifically meant to be processed into a soy oil for baked goods and soup. Other companies are launching omega-3 products with algae. Archer Daniels Midland in Chicago, a commodities trading and food processing company, created an algae-based product for fish supplementation. TerraVia Holdings Ltd is another company focused on algae, using it to convert sugar into omega-3s.

A Little People Solution

Omega 3 fatty acids are essential to any healthy diet, but other options are out there? Quality fish and fish oil are hard to find and hard to justify from an environmental perspective. Many of the proposed big businesses solutions focus on GMO crops. Both of these options are problematic.

Getting omega-3s in your diet doesn’t have to be all about fish oil. Algae is a great source of omega-3s, and it’s important to get different colors. Green algae like spirulina and chlorella, are a source of EPA. Brown algae like wakame and hijiki are sources of DHA, a key nutrient in supporting a healthy brain. Other vegetable based sources of omega-3s include flax, chia, and nuts, especially walnuts. The acids are also in a number of vegetables like spinach, winter squash, and brussels sprouts, though the amount is much less than what is found in seaweeds, nuts, and seeds.

The World is Not Enough

This is not the only important part of the food chain disappearing. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, close to 75% of plant diversity has been lost. Six different livestock breeds are lost every month. Our gut bacteria has been slowly losing its variety, leaving us more open to disease. From a health viewpoint and an environmental viewpoint, now is the time to look for different, diverse foods. How long will it be before whole nutrients groups disappear from our world like so many plant varieties or members of our gut flora?

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Invasive Weeds You Can, and Should, Be Eating – Easy Foraging

If you’re a gardener, the single most time-consuming thing you probably do for your greens is to weed them. Unless you have a killer raised bed setup, the odds are good that your wimpy garden plants won’t be able to withstand the onslaught of weeds perfectly optimized to thrive in the conditions you’ve created.

Watching your kale get overrun by chokeweed is enough to make the most seasoned gardener despair, but what if the way you are thinking about these garden nuisances is actually completely wrong?

Weeds aren’t always bad. Ralph Waldo Emerson once famously proclaimed that weeds were simply misunderstood, as “…a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered”. Though it might be hard for you to match his candor, the truth is that there’s a lot to like about common weeds that few of us are aware of.

As it turns out, weeds have far more benefits for our health than you can imagine.

Garden Weeds: Even Healthier Than Your Vegetables?

It takes a tremendous amount of effort to get garden plants to produce food. No matter how carefully you try to coax your tender plants to thrive, the odds are good that without some significant effort on your part, the close-growing weeds will soon take them over. While it’s easy to hate weeds for their effortless abilities to overwhelm your hard work, the truth is that the scrappiness of weeds is part of what makes them so special.

To understand this, keep in mind that every garden plant once started as a weed that was carefully grown over centuries until it came to resemble the plant that it is today. Fruits got bigger, inedible seeds got smaller, and unpleasant bitterness in leaves slowly became reduced. However, as the traits humans enjoyed best slowly became more prominent, the biggest benefits of these plants – their nutritional content – was slowly weeded out.

Wild plants don’t get the benefit of careful gardening to keep them alive, so they’ve adapted to defend themselves. For this reason, weeds are often full of phytonutrients, essentially an “arsenal of chemicals” that helps them fend off diseases and predators. While the bitter taste they produce often keeps the hungry away, these chemicals are full of health benefits for humans that help them fight off diseases like heart disease, dementia, and even cancer. Filled with vitamins and mineral levels that regular vegetables can’t compete with, garden weeds are truly more nutritious than supermarket greens. If you want the easiest, most efficient way to fill your diet with foods as close to nature as possible, chomping on wild weeds is a great place to start.

Types of Edible Weeds

The complete list of edible weeds is far too vast for any web article, but this list of common weeds from around the world should get you started.

Clover

You’ll find yourself lucky in a patch of clover even when four leafed varieties are nowhere to be found. Red clover is full of the phytoestrogen genistein, a substance that has been studied to treat colon and prostate cancers. While you might have to compete with the honeybees for your supply, raw clover can be chopped into salads or sauteed with other greens. However, there is some concern for pregnant women. Studies have shown that the large amounts of the phytoestrogens in clover may increase your risk of breast cancer and possibly birth defects.

Lambs Quarters (Goosefoot)

Young, tender, and very versatile, lambs quarters can be used as a substitute for spinach in any recipe. This is great news for salad lovers, as lambs quarters peak right when spinach is winding down for the summer. Loaded with vitamins A, C, and K and full of calcium and protein, you are actually better off eating this wild spinach over the cultivated variety. If you are filled with patience, the seeds from lambs quarters can also be collected and cooked as a quinoa-like grain filled with 16% protein.

Dandelions

Though you might cringe at the sight of their sunny-hued flowers blanketing your lawn, dandelions are actually nutritious and surprisingly delicious when used well. In fact, European settlers first brought the dandelion to the U.S. for use as a salad green. One cup of raw dandelion greens contains well over your daily needs of vitamin A and vitamin K.  The best ways to eat dandelions tends to be raw in salads or dried into herbal teas. For those feeling a little more adventurous, the yellow flowers can be breaded and fried for a tasty snack.

Catnip

Not simply a treat for cats, catnip actually has some fascinating health benefits for humans, too. Native to Europe, catnip easily grows around the world and makes for a great herbal tea that encourages relaxation. The mild mint flavor is tasty when snacked on raw or sauteed with other greens

Plantain

Though it has little resemblance to the tropical fruit with the same name, plantain weeds grow all over the world and make for a stellar medicinal plant that can be used topically to soothe skin ailments like rashes or burns. Even better, the younger leaves are tasty in salads and can be steamed, boiled, or sauteed. If you take the time to harvest the seeds, they can be ground into a nutritious flour that’s great for baking.

Bamboo

Though bamboo’s versatility has been put to use on everything from flooring to kitchen cutting boards, few people are aware that this fibrous plant is also edible. Often described as tasting like corn, bamboo shoots can be harvested when they are less than two weeks old and added to your favorite stir fry. Simply peel off the outer leaves and cut the tender middle into one-eighth inch slices before boiling them in an uncovered pan for twenty minutes. After the bitterness has been boiled out, you can eat bamboo any way you choose.

Garlic Mustard

Though it’s highly invasive throughout much of the world, garlic mustard originally came from Europe. The flowers, leaves, seeds, and roots of garlic plants make them great for weight loss and controlling cholesterol levels, and their faint garlic scent makes them a tasty addition to any dish. You can harvest garlic mustard all season long, but the tastiest roots need to be collected in the early spring.

Green Amaranth

Similar to lambs quarters but with a more mild taste, green amaranth is also known as redroot, pigweed, and wild beet. Because of the detergent-like qualities of the saponon on raw leaves, green amaranth is best cooked before eating to eliminate the strange aftertaste. For this reason, it’s often best to serve green amaranth with a stronger tasting vegetable to offset its mild flavor.

Watercress

There’s no avoiding the high price tag of watercress in classy grocery stores, but you can harvest it yourself for free. This weed can be found throughout the U.S. Adding it to your salads is a foolproof way to boost up your daily antioxidants.

Kudzu

While “the weed that ate the south” is a symbol of despair for millions in America, this voracious plant is actually edible itself. Simple to make into jams and jellies and tasty when the flowers are pickled, there’s a lot of ways to experiment with this tricky vine. Commonly used as a digestive aid in China, you can also chop up a cup of kudzu leaves and boil them for thirty minutes before drinking the health-infused creation.

Mallow (Cheeseweed)

Common to see in yards around the world, mallow is a blessing for adventurous eaters to enjoy. Both the leaves and seed pods are edible and can be enjoyed steamed, boiled, or raw as a salad green. Mallow is full of vitamins and minerals that make it useful as an herbal medicine, especially when used as an anti-inflammatory, diuretic, or laxative.

Purslane

If you only choose to eat one weed from your garden bed, purslane should be the one. This succulent looking plant grows close to the ground and in between the cracks of the sidewalk. If you find some, you’re in luck. This juicy, lemon-tasting green is filled with omega-3 fatty acids. It is tasty eaten raw, cooked or blended in a smoothie. Because every part of the plant can be eaten, you won’t have to worry about shoving it all in your mouth at once. As an extra benefit, purslane consistently produces a bumper crop of edible seeds, which can be used for baking. All you need to do is dry out the seeds for several weeks on a sheet of plastic before winnowing out the tiny, black seeds.

In Summary

The benefits of spending your summer days wrist deep in garden dirt cannot be underestimated, but there’s a lot you can do to enjoy fresh grown produce without the effort. Garden weeds are equipped to thrive where your vegetables suffer, and most of them actually contain more vitamins and minerals than conventionally grown produce. If you’re ready to enjoy the benefits of these long-valued “famine foods”, give your garden weeds a try and see how they make you feel. You might be amazed at the results.

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