Learn How Biodiversity Can Improve Your Microbiome!
A recent article dramatically demonstrates the value of diversity in the human diet. A professor from England, whose work entails studying the diversity of the microbiome (primarily the bacteria in the gut), traveled to Northern Tanzania in Africa to live with one of the last groups of hunter-gatherers, the Hadza, for three days. During this time, he ate only what they ate: such foods as baobob "porridge," wild berries, foraged tubers and porcupine organs and meat. Honey is an important food for them as well (above).
13 Vegetables before 8AM!
Dr. Cowan's approach to health has revolved around food since he was a medical student at Michigan State University, where he gave talks to other students on nutrition because they thought he knew more about food than the professors. Since then, he has read and lectured widely on food and counseled thousands of people with such health challenges as cancer, autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease and heart disease on what to eat to heal and thrive.
Here's What You Should Know About Low-Oxalate Greens!
The importance of oxalates in food is a controversial topic. The conventional medical understanding is that oxalates in food are relevant only for people with calcium-oxalate kidney stones and are not a source of concern for anyone else. Other authors have pointed out the role of oxalates in contributing to inflammation, chronic pain and, in particular, fibromyalgia.
10 Easy Ways To Use Horseradish Powder - Dr. Cowan’s Garden
Horseradish is a bona fide super food. It's a particularly good idea to add it to your diet in the winter, as it's high in Vitamin C, which is a potent antioxidant; has antibiotic properties that can kill bacteria in the throat; and can help clear mucous in the sinuses and nose. It also contains glucosinolates, which help the liver detoxify and eliminate carcinogens. We hope you fortify yourself in these remaining winter months with this humble but powerful root, as it has been a nasty flu and cold season.
Sea Vegetables: Help Support Blood Flow
Although most people are aware of the presence of minerals like iodine, potassium, and calcium in most commonly eaten sea vegetables, it turns out that these important minerals are not the only reason to eat these nutritionally powerful vegetables. Most sea vegetables, such as the wakame, dulse, and kelp in our Sea-Vegetables Powder, are also loaded with polyphenols, some of which are unique to sea vegetables.
'Everyone Has a Healing Food; Burdock Root Is Mine'
We share this story from customer Lauren in Vermont to not only celebrate burdock root's detoxifying power, but also to inspire others to turn to food for healing.
Leeks Are a Rich Source of Vitamin K And Disease-Fighting Polyphenols
Leeks are the one vegetable I think everyone should eat nearly every day. In previous blogs, I have written about the high content of prebiotic fibers in leeks, which makes them the single best food for promoting a healthy microbiome. The combination of the promotion of healthy bacteria in our gut and the gentle anti-microbial effect of all the alliums (onion, garlic, ramps, leeks) is probably the most important medicinal effect of daily leek consumption.
We're Partnering With Biodynamic Farms and a State-of-the-Art Production Facility!
If we were to stay alive, we had to find a different solution while still fulfilling our core mission, which is to produce the best-quality, most diverse vegetable powders possible. The other part of our mission is to be active and effective supporters of sustainable farms and farmers.
How Our Perennial Greens Vigorously Choose Life
During our visit to the Napa garden yesterday, I was struck by the diversity of strategies plants use to survive the winter. Our Perennial Greens Powder is made from tree collard leaves, gynura leaves and Malabar spinach leaves that are all harvested from the Napa garden. It also includes moringa leaves that are harvested from the Sonoran desert. In addition to providing perhaps the most nutrition of any commercially available vegetable powder, each of these valuable food and medicinal plants uses a different strategy to become a “perennial.”
Burdock and Turmeric: Important Detoxifiers of Aluminum and Other Toxins
In this first letter of 2018, I would like to turn my attention to an important and often overlooked component of our diet: silica. Silica, known as quartz in its crystalline form, is one of the most ubiquitous elements found in the earth’s crust and in the human body. It exists mostly in the inorganic forms of sand and silicic acid.
How Burdock Root Protects Us From Herbicides and Other Chemicals
As we continue to figure out next steps for the garden after the Napa fires, it makes me think of the many toxic exposures we all face every day. In the past few decades, perhaps one of the most ubiquitous and dangerous chemicals we can encounter is glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and other weed-killing products.
"Red Salt': The Healthy Flavor Enhancer
The first inkling I had that people might be interested in using our vegetable powders came after my daughter, Molly, and my two grandsons, Ben and Sam, tried our Tomato Salt (which they call “red salt”). Two summers ago I had made a small batch of tomato salt from the mixture of heirloom tomatoes from the Napa garden and mixed the dried tomatoes with Celtic sea salt to prevent clumping. I sent Molly a jar to try out. A few weeks later she called and said that she and the boys were putting it on everything, and that as a result, they were happily eating foods that they had been previously hesitant to eat. Tomato Salt, in that moment, became the new “MSG,” an easy-to-use flavor enhancer, one that makes most any food taste better, but thankfully without the devastating health consequences of MSG. It became my quest at that point to find out the combination of tomatoes that produce the best flavor, texture and disease prevention.
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