If you already use a variety of herbs and spices in your cooking – good on you! You’re on the way to improving your and your family’s health. If you don’t use herbs and spices, read on to find out how you can boost the flavour of your meals and give your health a boost at the same time!
It may surprise you to learn that many of the herbs and spices we use in cooking for flavour are actually potent medicines in their own right. Have you ever wondered why certain herbs or spices come to be associated with certain foods (apart from the fact they taste good!) Let’s take a look at something we may have had recently over Easter weekend – roast lamb with rosemary.
This is a very traditional meal. Lamb and rosemary have been paired together for probably millenia. Why?
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a member of the mint family. The leaves and twigs are the parts used. Rosemary has many actions, but the ones that are important in a meal are:
- anti-oxidant,
- anti-parasitic,
- anti-spasmodic,
- carminative/digestive,
- circulatory stimulant and
- hepatic.
Knowing about these properties means we can see why rosemary would be paired with a fatty meat like lamb.
Being a carminative/digestive herb means it aids digestion, reducing the likelihood of bloating, indigestion and gas. As a circulatory stimulant, it helps to bring blood to the digestive system, helping improve digestion and assimilation of nutrients. As a hepatic, it supports the liver in digesting fats and as an anti-oxidant and anti-parasitic it would have been used to help preserve meat in the absence of refrigeration in ancient times, and also help kill off any parasites lurking within it.
So we can see how useful rosemary is and how it came to be used as a culinary herb.
Many other herbs that are commonly used in the kitchen are digestive aids. We’ve looked at rosemary, but mint, fennel, sage, thyme and even the humble parsley are all herbs that aid our digestive health.
Do you like pepper on your meals? Many of us wouldn’t dream of a meal without a grind of pepper over our food. Black pepper has been described by Kami McBride, author of The Herbal Kitchen, as “the emperor of all digestive aids”. It has anti-microbial, antioxidant, antispasmodic, carminative and circulatory stimulant actions, so we can see straight away that it has many of the same benefits as rosemary.
Black pepper also has an amazing property of being able to increase the amount of nutrients absorbed from our food. Studies have also shown that it can protect against liver damage and may even help lessen the risk of cancer by increasing the metabolism of carcinogens through the liver.
Get that pepper grinder working and grind plenty of fresh black pepper over your meals!
Many people think of parsley as ‘just a garnish’ on the side of your plate at a restaurant, but parsley is a herb that has many benefits on all the systems of the body, not just digestion (as in fact, pretty much all herbs and spices do). Some of its most important properties are:
- anti-microbial
- antioxidant
- anti-spasmodic
- diuretic
- emmenagogic
- laxative
- nutritive
Looking at these properties, we can see which ones are useful in digestion – anti-microbial, anti-spasmodic, nutritive, laxative. Parsley stimulates the release of stomach acid due to its slightly bitter taste and it also contains high amounts of chlorophyll which helps to cleanse the palate and reduce bad breath, so it is useful at both the beginning and end of a meal!
Parsley is full of vitamins and minerals – iron, potassium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, vitamins C, B-complex, K, and oleic and palmitic fatty acids. It really is a food 🙂
Parsley root and seed have oestrogenic effects, and so use of these parts is contra-indicated in pregnancy; however using the leaves in food is perfectly fine, just don’t go overboard and eat cupsful at one sitting!
Let’s take a look at a spice that most people know at least one thing about – it’s good for relieving nausea and vomiting. Yes, that’s right – ginger. Ginger’s anti-emetic and anti-nausea properties have been well-known for millenia. In fact it is so good at it, that it can even relieve hyperemesis gravidarum, or severe vomiting in pregnancy. A double-blind, randomised controlled trial showed that women taking 1g of dried ginger daily, in divided doses, had significant relief from their symptoms. Ginger has also been shown to help in sea- and motion-sickness, and also for nausea after chemotherapy.
As well as it’s anti-emetic activity, ginger has many other properties.
- anti-inflammatory
- antimicrobial
- antioxidant
- anti-spasmodic
- carminative/digestive
- diaphoretic (brings on a sweat to break a fever)
- hypoglycaemic
- hypotensive
- stimulant
Ginger is very effective at relieving coughs, sore throats and fevers, especially when used in conjuction with lemon. It can also help to relieve migraine headaches, period pain and muscle aches, spasms and strains. When used in a herbal formula it enhances the healing properties of the other herbs.
It can be used in cooking and in healing in either fresh or dried form, although usually fresh ginger is used externally and dried internally in healing applications. Caution should be taken as ginger is hot and some people may not be able to tolerate much. Fresh ginger may also irritate the skin if used topically.