Dandelion, the Super Food
The amazing little dandelion herb is prolific, grows everywhere, starts to show itself in early spring, and continues to flourish throughout our area until the fall—and the entire plant can be consumed. It’s important that when you harvest this amazing weed you do so in an area that you know is free of pesticides, herbicides, and animal waste. This is one reason why I grow my own dandelions and some of my own food: to keep them free of toxic pesticides and herbicides that contain carcinogens, cancer causing agents that are contained in many products we purchase today.
Since discovering the importance of this amazing weed, as so many others have, for my overall good health, as well as my husband’s, I can clearly understand why the Monsanto Company wants to get rid of this incredible plant. My research has shown me that Monsanto is a bedfellow with Big Pharma and that Big Pharma is a bedfellow with doctors and, likewise, doctors with pharmacists. Are you getting the bigger picture? It is a win/win situation for them and a loss for us and Mother Earth.
Many people — and Monsanto — consider this to be a pesky little weed, while most herbalists consider the dandelion to be of the utmost importance as food and medicine, and rightly so. This valuable little herb offers us a multitude of medicinal and health benefits by possessing a host of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. How much healthier this planet and people would be if we grew our own dandelions and ingested them, simple tasks resulting in large returns for all concerned—except Monsanto and their bedfellows.
There is not one good reason not to be growing, harvesting, and consuming this amazing little weed.
This beautiful, little weed contains all the amino acids which are essential for sustaining life and for transporting and storing all the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals the body requires, not to mention its benefits to your lawn. The fragile herb contains vitamins B and D, and is abundant in vitamins A, C, and K. It is rich in iron, potassium, and zinc, and has more carotene than carrots and more protein than spinach. Dandelions contain a large quantity of lecithin and are rich in boron, which helps in raising estrogen levels and so is very helpful for women who are premenopausal or going through menopause. They are also a good source of silicon, which in turn helps to preserve and strengthen bones, hair, nails, and skin. Silicon, along with calcium, is a major player in preventing osteoporosis.
Dandelions also function as a diuretic, and while most diuretics cause a loss of potassium, our plants of interest do just the opposite; with dandelions you receive an increase of potassium, which also helps with high blood pressure. Because of its high content of iron, the weed is great for people with anemia and good for PMS and bladder infections. It helps to increase bile, which in turn helps with constipation, which causes hemorrhoids. It also helps those suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or, IBS. Dandelions are great for water retention and can cleanse the liver and stimulate bile, which in turn helps to improve fat metabolism.
So, there is not one good reason not to be growing, harvesting, and consuming this amazing little weed. Its leaves are great in green smoothies, soups, salads, or stews, and the tap root can be roasted and ground, and then used for a coffee substitute. Current research indicates that the dandelion tap root induces cell death, known as apoptosis, in leukemia cells. The easiest and best way, I feel, to consume this incredible weed is to make a tincture utilizing the whole plant.
We have forgotten the teachings of the past and Monsanto, Big Pharma, and doctors are counting on that. Help heal yourself and Mother Earth. Eat dandelions.
