The humans has in all eras used plants for food, raw material, firewood, medicin and even magic. But as we eat or drink, how many of us actually thinks about what that particular plant influence our body? The herbs you put in your food or in tea, what can they do? This article is written to make you start wondering about what you put into your body, maybe search for more information about what is in your food and see what it do to/for your body.

The body needs vitamins and minerals and we get that from food and beverages. Therefor it’s important that you eat in a way that you can absorb the vitamins and minerals. To preserve the nourish in the vegetables you can rinse them hastily, dry them and put them in the fridge in the vegetable compartment. If you manage to eat a little peel, you can use them unpeeled and brush them instead of peel them. Lemon is an old friend to use to prevent the cutting areas or peeled vegetables from getting darker. You can boil broth from the peel. If you steem instead of cook, you minimize the loss of many vitamins. If you don’t mind using a microwave oven, do that. You can use the stock to soups and sauces.

Vitamins

• Vitamin B – I put all vitamin B in a group. They’re needed in order to break down the food. The nervous system also needs vitamin B, in order to function in a good way. There are B1, B2, B6, Folic acid is the name of B9, and B12.
• Vitamin C – is good for the immune system It also helps the body to absorb iron that is in the food.
• Vitamins A, D, E och K – are fat soluble and deficiency is considered rare, even if vitamin D is something that can be a lack of during the winter in the Nordic countries, because the sunlight is scares. Vitamin D is needed to be able to absorb calcium. Vitamin A is good for sight, skin, hair, nail and mucous. Vitamin E is an antioxidant and prevents damages on the cells. Vitamin K helps the blood to coagulate.

Some minerals

• Iron – makes red blood cells. are you tired, has an unnormal mental fatigue, are pale or problem breathing, then you may have an iron deficiency.
• Calcium – teeth, the sceleton, the muscles, the heart and the nerves need calcium to function. Women has a greater need for calcium than men.
• Zink – the body needs it for growth, healing and food processing of protein and carbo hydrates. If you have white dots on your nails and skin problems, you may have xink deficiency.
• Magnesium – helps with food processing of carbo hydrates. Deficiency of  magnesium is considered rare.
• Iodine – we need it for the thyroid glands to function and it’s onle needed in small quantities.

Some examples of what plants can contain

• Spinach is something most of us eat. Spinach is rich on fibres, containd 53 mg calcium/100 g, 3,2 mg iron/100 g, 0,6 mg zink/100 g and 120 µg folic acid/100 g.
• Dried apricots, I prefer unsulfurised, contains 67 mg calcium/100 g, 3,1 mg iron/100 g and 0,8 mg zink/100 g.
• Almond is a tree within the plum family and  rose family. It has stone fruits and inside the core is a seed that is the almond. It contains 54,7 g fat/100 g, 20 g protein/100 g, 250 mg calcium/100 g, 3,9 mg iron/100 g, 3,8 mg zink/100 g and 96 µg folic acid/100 g.
• Parsley contains 5 g fibres/100 g, 200 mg calcium/100 g and 9,4 mg iron/100 g.

So, you can get calcium without drinking milk, even if I like a cup of hot chocolate now and then.

Take a look at your plate and start to question what it contains and what it gives the body. And also question why you are drawn to that type of food and beverages and why the body wants it.

Something I like is herbs. Maria Treben writes in her book “Health through God’s Pharmacy” about different herbs. The different methods, she goes through, on how to use herbs are drying, making tea, tincture, fresh juice, plant porridge, steem compress, ointments, oils and steem bath. I will not give up any recipies here, if you want them you can buy the book. Some of the herbs are:

Chamomile – Maria calles it for a “cure-all” especially for everything concerning cramp and stomach ache. Tea made from chamomile can calm the system and sleep better.

Dandelion – Is seen as a weed, but is healing for the liver and help diabetes. In the book, it also says that people that is weak and feel tired can do a cure with fresh dandelion stems. When she lived, she made dandelion syrup and made gingerbread on this syrup.

Marigold – It clears the blood and can be drunk without risk. It is also purifying, stimulates the cirkulation and is a help when healing open sore. Why not try a marigold ointment?

Sage – Maria says that the power if you drink tea on sage. It clears the blood and good for the stomach and respiratory organs. If you’ve had a bug bite you can try to put some ripped sage on it. Within magic they clear places and energies with sage.

Mint is not in the book, but is one of my absolute favourite. It has a good influence on the respiratory organs and stomach and tastes good as tea and in salads.

That was a little about plants. It is a vast area and I could blog for years about it. I have always had a huge interest for body, soul and nature. I hope that I have gotten you interested to dig deeper in how plants work and why they work. You don’t have to believe in what is said, men don’t discard it before you have tried it and seen if it is something for you.