Disease Prevention
and
Daily Herbalism

There is one thing about herbalism that is missing in orthodox medicine: prevention. Herbs feed the body and help the body heal itself of dis-ease (illness). Some of them can be used on a daily basis to help the body keep itself healthy and not become dis-eased. Anti-biotics are used to kill the invaders of the body but do nothing to prevent the invasion. Herbs help the body prevent the invasion. Herbs are 'preventative' as well as 'curative'.

Your next question might be: Where are these herbs? Answer: on the shelf of your kitchen. They are the 'culinary' herbs: Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme ... et cetera. These herbs have been used for centuries/millenia as food flavorings but their medicinal qualities are pretty much forgotten. In the last ten years or so this information has come forth again. Here is how I think this happened.

During the Dark Ages the churches killed off the herbalists and with this slaughter the ordinary folks lost knowledge of the medicinal uses of the 'culinaries'. Then, about 1880 (or thereabouts) a German named Ebers, who could read Egyptian hieroglyphics, read a description of the medicinal uses of these plants off the walls of the Physicians Pyramid in Egypt. He translated the text into German and many years later it was translated into English. I found a copy in the Emory University Medical School Library (Atlanta GA) and read it. (One other person had read it in 20 years.) It is titled "The Ebers Papyrus". From this source the medicinal properties of these herbs re-entered common use - through the kitchen.

Other herbs on the kitchen shelves came from the "Spice Islands" of the Orient after 1600. The Chinese and other Orientals used these 'spices' in their cooking and were well aware of the spice's medicinal properties.

As an aside, one author suggested that the 'Sillk Road' (It crosses Asia north of Tibet and Afghanistan between China and Europe.) should have been called the "Ginger Road" because it carried more ginger than silk.

Perhaps you wonder why I wrote all this stuff about history. Well, I think is necessary in order to convince you that these 'culinary' herbs are ancient and honorable medicines. Many thousands of years of use. The way I am going to suggest you use them is based on the habits of cooks for six thousand years or more.

First Step: Go to the Medicinal Herb List and read the list of diseases that this herb has been used to treat. Every time you come to dis-ease you have EVER had at all, put this herb on your shopping list. Include the ailments of the people you cook for also.

Buy an ounce or two of each herb and put them on your shelf in a glass jar with lids. Keep them away from the stove: heat destroys herbs.

Buy your herbs in a health food store. Supermarket herbs are usually crap - irradiated crap at that.

Second Step: As you finish cooking a dish for the meal, put a cup/bowl on the shelf. Open each jar of herbs and smell it good. If you like the smell, put a little of it in the cup/bowl. If you like the smell a lot, put extra herb in the cup/bowl. If you salivate (mouth- watering goodness) put a lot of herb in the cup/bowl so that the mouth-watering herb dominates the flavor of the food. This is aromatherapy in action.

Don't waste too much time in the recipe books. Your nose and tongue know more about what you like/need than the author of the book.

Thrid Step: Just before you set the food on the table, dump the herb cup/bowl onto the food and stir it up real good.

Ahhhhh, the aroma. Aroma therapy at the table!!

Then eat the tastiness and get healthy.

Commentary

1. Fresh herbs are better than dried, tenfold, and tastier. Ask a French Chef. I did.
2. Very few foods require special herbs. Except maybe basil with tomatoes or oregano with spaghetti sauce.
3. If you are sickly, pay a good herbalist to advise you.
4. Recipe books are written to be fashionable, not necessarily healthy. Use your own judgment first. If you botch a dish, so what? Next time do it a little different. You will learn.
5. These three steps are fundamental. The herbalism of Traditional Chinese Medicine uses taste and smell of herbs to make their formulas: complex, efficient formulae. It all began with steps One, Two and Three ten thousand years ago.
6. Everyone who eats needs to cook and learn how to 'spice up' their food this way. Even children can do their food this way and keep themselves healthy. Parents do their children a lifetime service when they educate them how to keep healthy in the kitchen. Parents have done this for thousands and thousands of years: this is how we got this far into history.
7. Husbands need to do this regardless of their attitude towards cooking and health. As a research-minded person I believe that the reason men live fewer years than women is that in the traditional American household men eat what the wife likes and keeps her healthy. Also the aromatherapy of cooking is soaked up by the wife but not the husband at the other end of the house.
8. As an extreme measure, put the herbs in jars and set them on a Lazy Susan in the middle of the table. Then everyone can use what they wish.

Eat well and be well.

(Written: February '07)