Herbal Nutrition

When we think of nutrition, what do you think of?were used as food include clover, yarrow,
Due to modern academic training, many peoplechamomile, cinquefoil, pokeweed, chickweed,
think of vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins,violet, mustard, mint, lamb's quarter, cocklebur
carbohydrates. But why? Long before we startedand bee pollen.
breaking down our foods into their componentIn my own study of wildflowers and edible and
parts, people were nourishing themselves, andmedicinal herbs I have noted that many of the
staying fairly healthy in the process. They did soherbs I use as medicines were utilized as foods
by eating whole foods.by Native Americans. I have tasted some of
Our modern concepts of nutrition remind me ofthese plants and wonder how they could be
an old Oriental saying:considered edible, because they are so bitter, but
"When a man is young and knows nothing, treeseven truly bitter herbs have been used as food
are trees, mountains are mountains and watersor "spring tonics" by many people. We can find an
are waters; but when he has studied and knowsexample of this in the Bible. The children of Israel
a little, trees no longer trees, mountains are nopartook of bitter herbs with their passover lamb.
longer mountains, and waters are no longerThe taste of bitter is helpful in stimulating the flow
waters; but when he has thoroughly studied andof bile, which is helpful for digesting the fat in
finally understands, trees are once again trees,lamb.
mountains are mountains and waters are waters."These herbal foods have lost favor in the taste
We are in the position of having studied "a little"buds of civilized man because they tend to have
about nutrition. At first, scientists thought wea strong flavor. We are accustomed to the highly
needed only fats, carbohydrates, protein andrefined, bland foods of modern civilization. Our
certain major minerals. Then, in the early 20thvegetables have been bred to be mild tasting.
century researchers learned that minute quantitiesMany people have noted that that there own
of other substances in food were essential togarden vegetables have a stronger taste and
health. They called these compounds vitamins. Ineven regular vegetables such as carrots and
the later half of the 20th century the importanceturnips will develop this slightly bitter or "wild"
of trace minerals started to emerge. Have wetaste when allowed to grow in a semi-wild
finished learning all there is to no about themanner.
nutrients in our foods? Obviously not, as now weMasanobu Fukuoka, a retiree from the Japanese
are being told about numerous phytochemicalsMinistry of Agriculture, is also a farmer who
which help protect the body against disease ordeveloped methods of growing grain, fruits and
even help it to heal.vegetables without cultivation, weeding or
Ten years ago, I predicted that the next greatfertilizing. He claims that vegetables grown in this
discovery in the field of nutrition would besemi-wild manner have better flavor than those
recognizing that the "drug-like" constituents ofgrown in gardens with the aid of chemical
herbs are important nutrients that are essential tofertilizers. The taste, he says, is richer and
human health when taken in their natural form.completely different from the cultivated
With nutritionists talking about sulforaphane andvegetable. He also claims that edible herbs and
indole-3-carbinol in broccoli, flavonoids in fruits andwild vegetables are higher in nutritional value. In his
berries, p-coumaric acid and cholorogenic acid inbook, The One Straw Revolution, he says:
tomatoes and allylic sulfides in garlic and onions. I"Edible herbs and wild vegetables, plants growing
believe my predication is now coming to pass.on the mountain and in the meadow, are very
In fact, nutriceuticals are increasingly popularhigh in nutritional value and are also useful as
supplements. Nutriceuticals are phytochemicals likemedicine. Food and medicine are not two different
lycopine from tomatoes that are extracted andthings: they are the front and back of one body.
sold as supplements. But why are we soChemically grown vegetables may be eaten for
obsessed with taking our food apart?food, but they cannot be used as medicine." [The
All foods contain numerous phytochemicals. Take,One-Straw Revolution Masanobu Fukuoka.
potatoes for example. We think of these asEmmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1978. p.100]
simple basic food, a source of carbohydratesAnyone who has eaten edible wild plants would
(starch) for fuel. However, potatoes are notreadily note that they have a more "wild" or "rich"
chemically simple. About 150 different chemicalor "slightly bitter" flavor (depending on your point
substances have been identified in this commonof view) than foods grown under modern
vegetable including: solanine alkaloids, oxalic acid,cultivation. This stronger taste is mostly due to
arsenic, tannins and nitrate. None of thesethe increased content of "medicinal" components
substances has any recognized nutritionallike volatile oils, saponins, tannins, alkaloids and the
significance, but many are considered medicines orlike. Many of these chemical components are
drugs in their isolated form, or "active"produced as part of the plant's own immune
compounds in medicinal plants.system. The protect the plant from insect
In fact, herbs are considered medicines onlydamage and disease. The more nourished the
because they contain more of these "drug-like"plant is with the proper trace elements in the soil,
phytochemicals and less of the common nutrients.the stronger the plant's immunity to the weather
However, is this a valid distinction? Just whereand other environmental hazards.
does nutrition end and medicine begin? In manyMost grocery store foods have weak taste and
traditional systems of medicine, such as Traditionalsmell due to a lack of these phytochemicals. I
Chinese Medicine (TCM) the medicine and nutritionconsider this a sign of weak and sickly,
are not considered separate fields of study. Theymalnourished plants. Is it possible that many of
are interlinked.our health problems arise from a lack of these
They are even interlinked in traditional Westernphytochemicals? That is what I believe. If we
medicine. Remember it was Hippocrates, thewant to be healthy and strong, then we need to
famous Greek physician, who said, "Let your foodeat plants which are healthy and strong. Most
be your medicine and your medicine be yourcommercially grown vegetables and fruits have
food."been bred and cultivated until they are so weak
Many of the "medicinal" herbs used in the Westand sickly that they cannot resist attacks from
today have been used as food stuffs byinsects and diseases without heavy doses of
"hunter-gatherer" peoples. For example, dandelions,chemicals. As a result of eating such plants we
burdock, marshmallow, comfrey and alfalfa havehave also become weak and sickly and our
all been used as food and still are by somenatural resistance has disappeared.
people, but today are sold primarily as medicinalWe have studied a little and we no longer think
herbs. In his travels around the world, studyingthat nutrition is apples, potatoes, etc. Instead, we
the habits of long-lived people, Bernard Jensenthink that nutrition is carbohydrates, fats, proteins,
noted that "These elderly people used foods wevitamins, phytonutrients, etc. We also keep
don't even think of too much" such as garlic, roseisolating "active constituents" from plants and
hips and chamomile (more "medicinal" herbs).calling them drugs. However, I think when we
Even herbs considered strictly medicinal byhave thoroughly studied and finally understand, we
today's herbalists may have been food for somewill realize that nutrition is indeed everything that
people. One report suggests that the ancientthe Creator put into apples, potatoes and so
inhabitants of the Lower Illinois Valley used suchforth. We will also realize, like the Chinese, that
herbs as milkweed, wild strawberry, yellow oxalis,herbal medicine rightly belongs to the field of
spidenard, columbine, amaranth, cleavers, hopsnutrition. Our bodies were designed to require a
and watercress as a part of their regular diet.whole complex of phytochemicals present in a
Other herbs that archaeologists have discoveredwide variety of natural foods and herbs.