In the wellness community, we often expound the benefits of moving and exercising more, and with good reason. Exercise is a crucial part of achieving wellness and health, and it aids in longevity. However, it is also true that many people experience difficulty or discomfort when they move.
Popeye had it all figured out: spinach makes you strong and healthy, equipped to tackle the day. Readily available all year round, this accessible and affordable green leafy vegetable, a member of the amaranthaceae family, is a durable and nutritious addition to almost any meal: breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even as an afternoon snack. While spinach may not always top the charts as a superfood, it warrants a place at the table.
Nourishing your skin from the inside out makes sense, but few of us use this in practice. It’s easy to slap on drugstore sunscreen and spend hours outside but there are unseen, and often unacknowledged, dangers in conventional sunscreen. Protecting yourself from ultraviolet radiation is important in avoiding sunburns, sunspots, wrinkles, and dry, peeling skin, but some unprotected sunshine is also needed for optimal absorption of vitamin D.
Syrups are a great way to take your medicine and to spice things up in the kitchen. Here are a couple of easy syrup-making methods. The first method is the way to go for medicinal syrups that can also be used in recipes. You can use these by the spoonful daily. The second is just for introducing some exciting new flavors into your recipes rather than for medicinal usage.
Superfoods are ubiquitous within the health food world, but it’s often difficult to discern the difference between kale or blueberries and hemp seeds or cacao nibs when we’re talking about nutrition. The easy answer?
“We can think of food in general, as well as the very act of cooking, in a similar vein. Good, fresh, wholesome ingredients have tremendous capacity to support the body and all its systems. Preparing those foods in ways that bring out their best—that make them more nourishing for the body and a feast for the senses—is a powerful form of medicine that cultivates the health of the body, mind, and spirit.”
—Brittany Wood Nickerson, Recipes from the Herbalist’s Kitchen
You might be surprised to learn that boysenberries are so closely related to blackberries that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has no separate listing for them. However, boysenberries are classified in the genus Rubus of the species R. ursinus x idaeus. The plant was originally bred by Rudolph Boysen, a California horticulturist, in 1923, but he ceased his experimentation when he sold his farm. Later that decade George M.
Chard is in the family Chenopodiaceae, commonly known as the goosefoot family, in the genus Beta L. or beet P. This genus contains ten species of beets and two subspecies, one of which is chard, scientifically known as Beta vulgaris L. ssp. cicla (L.) W.D.J. Koch or chard P.
Dandelions are a member of the family Asteraceae, commonly known as the Aster family in the genus Taraxacum F.H. Wigg. or dandelion P., which contains nine species. The greens have been eaten since prehistory and are native to Asia, Europe, and America. The name is derived from the French term “dent-de-lion,” meaning “lion’s tooth” and referring to the serrated edges of the leaves.
