Category: herbs

Can Herbs Help with Blood Sugar Imbalances?

Blood sugar imbalance has short and long-term effects on the body. When blood sugar is well controlled, we have better control over our energy, mood, cravings, weight, and overall performance. In the short term, poorly controlled blood sugar levels can cause brain fog, low energy, and make us feel grumpy. Over time, out-of-control blood sugar…


Functional Beverages for Your Health

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”—Hippocrates With the increased interest in healthy diets to support wellness, people are trying new beverages that contain nutrients that help to calm, soothe, and energize. Manufacturers claim these drinks can reduce anxiety, improve sleep, sharpen focus, and more. What Are Functional Beverages? Functional beverages are…


Cooking for Healing: The Pungent Potency of Ginger | Eat Better

Herbs and spices were used by ancient cultures to heal the body, mind, and spirit. The Western world has largely replaced these natural remedies with pharmaceuticals. But that said, around 80 percent of people worldwide still use traditional or ancient medicine. This isn’t surprising. That’s because more than 80 percent of pharmaceuticals are derived or…


6 Medicinal Herbs You Should Be Growing in Your Garden

Not that long ago, people knew the healing properties of plants that grew in the fields and forests where they lived. This knowledge was invaluable when doctors might be hours or even days away. It was also a way of life. Today, knowing we can treat the most common ailments with plants grown in our…


The Best Thing to Do With Fresh Herbs, Hot Peppers: Make This Put-It-on-Anything Condiment

Some of the best chefs I know are vegetable farmers, preparing their own produce in their home kitchens during the heat of summer. With a hungry crew grumbling in the fields, time is of the essence, but the rush won’t diminish the farm cook’s determination to serve fresh, high-quality produce at its absolute best. Cooking…


The Noble Bay Leaf

That single leathery leaf you occasionally find in your soup, it’s called bay. Bay leaf has a unique and complex taste—hints of clove, pepper, and eucalyptus with a pleasant woody bitterness. It is not poisonous, as many believe, just really hard to chew. Once bay imparts its subtle flavor to a recipe, the stiff leaf…


The Pleasures of Curly Parsley

Curly parsley is widely scorned by the culinary elite. Aspiring chefs absorb this disdain from a young age, and quickly understand that getting ahead in this game requires committing instead to the flat-leafed version, also called Italian parsley. But in my parsley potato salad recipe, curly parsley does the heavy lifting. Typecast as a garnish,…


A Very Green—and Greedy—Salad

Tabbouleh is a bulgur salad; in fact, it’s also a very green salad. It consists of an abundance of fresh garden herbs jumbled together with bulgur, citrus, and olive oil, which paint this salad an unmistakable green. You might also call tabbouleh a very greedy salad, since there seems to be no limit to the…


If You Haven’t Tried Lovage—an Herb With the Flavor of Supercharged Celery—You’re Missing Out

I first felt the power of lovage in a box of Rapunzel brand Vegetable Bouillon With Herbs. After my first taste, I had to double-check the label to make sure that it was, indeed, meat-free. Then I read the fine print to figure out why. Along with some familiar suspects—garlic, celery, parsley, dill, basil, turmeric,…


Herb Gardening Is a Perfect Project for Beginners

Question: I have never tried planting herbs in my garden, so I don’t know what to do or how to get the seasonings from them. Is an herb garden too complicated for an ordinary gardener like me? Answer: You may have heard of herb gardens or kitchen gardens, or even gardens of herbs where the…