Natural Health Tip – Be WildBy Gary Scott Good food is one of three foundations for good health so Merri and I try to eat as much home grown and wild nutrition as we can. The chickens and geese are continually laying wonderful eggs. They reward us with rich, orange yolks for letting them run loose. There is always venison in the fridge for the rare occasion when we desire red meat. No one puts a trout hook in the creek until Merri has started to heat the grill. We thrive on the explosion of wild blackberries our land gives us without work. This year we have a bumper crop. They are flowering just now and smell of sweet jasmine. Plus we have gobs of tiny wild strawberries that carpet meadows. All natural blackcaps (called black raspberries up here) hide in the bushes on steep banks. The added strawberries and raspberries we grow start in June and last until October. This year the plum, peach and apple trees are also looking good! In the vegetable category we get branch lettuce growing in the creek, dandelions, burdock and other wild bitters. The wild onion called ramps comes later in the year. Plus we plant our organic garden with potatoes, corn, peppers, onions, radishes and lots of pumpkins and squash. We wash this all down with teas of Bergamot (Bee Balm) and mint that grow along the shaded creek bank. With over 250 acres we can be picky about where we plant. We have herbs and lettuce gardens by the house in the shade and the corn, peppers and beans are in a higher meadow that gets early and full sun. Here is a shot from the front porch of our summer house of the squash and pumpkin garden that feeds us from late spring when the zucchini comes in followed by summer gooseneck and straight neck squash. Then later the rich orange beta carotene laden, winter and acorn, spaghetti and other winter squash and pumpkins arrive.
Eating in healthy ways can be easy and fun. We hope that you will join us here to eat and share! This type of eating can add spice to your life and one of the spices to add is turmeric which we began to explore in yesterday’s message. Turmeric, a free-radical-fighting antioxidant-rich spice has many healing qualities that the West is just beginning to appreciate. Some even say it is a defense against both cancer and Alzheimer’s. Most typical recipe sites or old information in the West rates turmeric as a bitter curry flavoring that can add a bit of color and not much more. But check out up-to-date information and wow, this is amazing healing stuff that happens to taste pretty good as well. Here are excerpts from just one site. “Turmeric (Curcuma longa), the bright yellow of the spice rainbow, is a powerful medicine that has long been used in the Chinese and Indian systems of medicine as an anti-inflammatory agent to treat a wide variety of conditions, including flatulence, jaundice, menstrual difficulties, bloody urine, hemorrhage, toothache, bruises, chest pain, and colic.” “A Potent, Yet Safe Anti-Inflammatory: “The volatile oil fraction of turmeric has been demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory activity in a variety of experimental models. Even more potent than its volatile oil is the yellow or orange pigment of turmeric, which is called curcumin. Curcumin is thought to be the primary pharmacological agent in turmeric. In numerous studies, curcumin's anti-inflammatory effects have been shown to be comparable to the potent drugs hydrocortisone and phenylbutazone as well as over-the-counter anti-inflammatory agents such as Motrin. Unlike the drugs, which are associated with significant toxic effects (ulcer formation, decreased white blood cell count, intestinal bleeding), curcumin produces no toxicity. “An Effective Treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease “Clinical studies have substantiated that curcumin also exerts very powerful antioxidant effects. As an antioxidant, curcumin is able to neutralize free radicals, chemicals that can travel through the body and cause great amounts of damage to healthy cells and cell membranes. This is important in many diseases, such as arthritis, where free radicals are responsible for the painful joint inflammation and eventual damage to the joints. Turmeric's combination of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects explains why many people with joint disease find relief when they use the spice regularly. In a recent study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, curcumin was compared to phenylbutazone and produced comparable improvements in shortened duration of morning stiffness, lengthened walking time, and reduced joint swelling. “Help for Cystic Fibrosis Sufferers. Cancer Prevention. Curcumin's antioxidant actions enable it to protect the colon cells from free radicals that can damage cellular DNA--a significant benefit particularly in the colon where cell turnover is quite rapid, approximately every three days. Because of their frequent replication, mutations in the DNA of colon cells can result in the formation of cancerous cells much more quickly. Curcumin also helps the body to destroy mutated cancer cells, so they cannot spread through the body and cause more harm. A primary way in which curcumin does so is by enhancing liver function. Additionally, other suggested mechanisms by which it may protect against cancer development include inhibiting the synthesis of a protein thought to be instrumental in tumor formation and preventing the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth.” You can read much more at about the healing qualities of turmeric http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78 June, 2006 |
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