Sprouts

For variety, we include several kinds of sprouts in our diet, but never more than a handful and only one or two times a week. Approximately from the third to the sixth day of their life, sprouts contain higher levels of alkaloids, as a means of protection from animals nipping them off and killing them.[1] That doesn’t mean that sprouts are poisonous or dangerous, but only that we cannot live on sprouts alone. Most sprouts are rich in B-vitamins and have a hundred times more nutrients than a fully developed plant because sprouts need more nutrition for their fast growing period.

Toxins in greens

Once in a while I read in the news or receive an e-mail about kale or spinach or parsley or any other green having a toxic ingredient and therefore being dangerous for human consumption. This is all true but not to a degree as to exclude any particular green from our diet. Let us learn to increase the variety of greens in our diet and to constantly rotate them for better nutritional results.

Medicinal herbs

The medicinal herbs are edible but contain higher than usual levels of alkaloids, and have to be used in smaller amounts. I enjoy a variety of medicinal herbs in my green smoothies in the summer, but I always put them in my smoothie with other greens, and not very often. Please use them with caution. The following are medicinal herbs:

aloe leaf

borage leaves and flowers

calendula flowers and leaves

cardoon leaves

chervil

cleaver (bedstraw)

clover

comfrey flowers and leaves

fig leaves

filaree

gingko

hollyhock flowers and leaves

horsetail

hosta

Japanese maple young leaves

lamium weed

lapsana communis (nipplewort)

lavatera flowers and leaves

milk thistle

oca

pine and spruce needles

salsify

sweet cicely

You may find these sites useful for medicinal herb pictures and information: www.liveandfeel.com and www.altnatural.com