While I am sitting in my office typing this this post I look around and I find mason jars filled with herbs from my gardens. I've come a long way in my journey with herbs and tea and they hold so many fond memories for me and an added plus is their nutritional benefits to my diet.
I imagine when you think of herbs the first things you think of are Italian spices such as, oregano and basil, or the ever present Thanksgiving herb, rosemary. I started with these myself, and then I started exploring the other herbs my great-grandmother kept in her garden, such as spearmint, lavender, sage, lemon verbena, and many others. Mamaw grew up during a time when herbs were used for medicine around the home and for cooking, and she had several large brick beds that contained many different herbs, flowers and vegetables. I was lucky enough to have many women in my family that loved gardening and preserving foods and I had a well of knowledge to pull from as I began learning. One of the first books I remember reading was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and I still pull this book out every year and go for a journey with Mary, Dickon, Colin, and their cheeky little Robin, in the garden.
Herbs, and tea, have always been a large part of my life and my garden is where I find peace. There is nothing like the smell of fresh clipped herbs as you hang them to dry, or the smell of rosemary and lavender as you brush the plants when weeding. I have a life long passion for herbs and am happy to finally be comfortable with calling myself an herbalist. With this in mind and my goal of helping people lead healthier lives I wanted to share with you some beneficial herbs and teas.
I am thankful to see many modern medical practitioners finally accept and support the healing benefits of these amazing plants and I hope the trend towards more natural healing methods continues. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of herbal knowledge from the assault traditional healers took to eradicate them in history and we are know slowly rebuilding the knowledge, but some we may never know of again. I would urge you to know your history, good and bad, and do your best to ensure the bad is never allowed to repeat itself. Now let us begin our journey.
Before I highlight these medicinal herbs I want to make sure that you understand many herbs can have side effects with other medications and you should speak with your healthcare provider before adding them to your diet. Some herbs will alter the effects of the medications and your provider needs to be aware they are being used.
While researching this blog I came across an article written by the University of Rochester Medical Center titles A Guide to Common Medicinal Herbs and I would like to share some of the herbs they highlighted in this article.
Chamomile: This herb helps with reducing anxiety and helping with relaxation. In the past it has been used to heal wounds and reduce inflammation as well. Yes, many herbs can be used in poultices and compresses for wound healing.
Feverfew was traditionally used to treat fevers and more recently to help with migraines.
Garlic is known for having antimicrobial, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties and can be good for your heart. This is a good thing because in my kitchen it is in about everything I make.
Ginger is an herb I use frequently for nausea and stomach issues.
Valerian is commonly used for sleeplessness and anxiety and I will occasionally use it before bed if I am having trouble sleeping.
In an article I found on Healthline by Joe Leech titled 10 delicious herbs & spices with powerful health benefits, I found many herbs most of us have in our kitchens.
Cinnamon can be very beneficial in lowering blood sugar and helping with the effects of diabetes. I would strongly urge you to make sure your doctor knows you are taking this to help so they can take that into consideration with Insulin dosages and A1C counts.
Sage helps with memory function and brain health. This is a huge discovery and hopefully it can be found to help with dementia, alzheimers disease and any other memory/brain function issues. I look forward to seeing the progress of this research.
These are just a few on the many different kinds of medicinal and healing herbs and if it's something you're interested in I strongly suggest starting with a kitchen herb garden. Many of these herbs have healing properties as you've seen and can be used in cooking and teas!
Now, on to tea. I love tea about as much as I love coffee and since I am slowly taking coffee out of my diet due to the effects of caffeine on me I am turning more to tea. There are many different kinds of teas and many of us are used to black tea which has caffeine so use caution if you are watching your caffeine intake.
You might ask how tea can be beneficial to your health and I found an article by Harvard Health that discusses the following benefits, tea is has been shown to lower the risks for cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease and it contains polyphenols which helps promote health.
Your next question is probably which tea is best for me? Well that depends on your medical history and current needs. In an article from Penn Medicine titled, The Hidden Health Benefits of Tea, they discussed the different types of tea and their benefits. Among these were:
White tea which is the least processed and has the least amount of caffeine. White tea has also been shown to be good for your teeth.
Herbal tea is caffeine free and has many varieties. I myself use chamomile & lavender, or valerian tea before bed to help me sleep.
Green tea is high in flavonoids and helps with heart health and cholesterol.
Oolong tea has the amino acid I-theanine in it and has been proven to help lower anxiety and increase alertness.
I hope this blog has provided information on how to incorporate herbs and tea into your diet and why they might be beneficial. Next week I will be discussing the affects of caffeine on our bodies.
References:
Garilli, B., Foley, M., Sather, R. A Guide to Common Medicinal Herbs. University of Rochester Medical Center. www.urmc.rochester.edu
Leech, J. (2017). 10 Delicious Herbs & Spices with Powerful Health Benefits. Healthline. www.healthline.com
Harvard Health. Health benefits linked to drinking tea. www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/health-benefits-linked-to-drinking-tea
Penn Medicine. The Hidden Health Benefits of Tea.
www.pennmedicine.org December 09, 2019.

Informative
Nice