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Herbal Nutrition
The biochemical and
energetic nutrients which we digest,
absorb, and metabolize from
foodstuffs are the foundation of all
cellular activity in the body,
including growth, repair,
reproduction, resistance to disease,
and maintenance. Good nutrition is
critically important to every form
of life we know. Finding, growing,
preparing, and storing food has been
women's work and women's genius
since time out of mind.
The Spirit of the Food.
Nutrition begins with milk from
mother's breast, from the breast of
the Great Goddess. In earth-centered
cultures, the harvesting and
gathering of food is inter wound
with sacred threads, and the
consumption of the food is a
sacrament. This aspect of nutrition
is invisible, unmeasurable,
undiscussed, but of utmost
importance to the health of the
individual and the ecology.
Healthy Diets .
When food choices are limited,
women eat whatever is available. As
long as adequate carbohydrates,
protein, fats, vitamins, and
minerals are consumed and clean
water is available, health is easily
maintained.(1) Restricted diets
(vegan, vegetarian, impoverished)
generally fail to provide adequately
for women, and the addition of milk
products, eggs, or meat to these
diets optimizes health. When the
food supply is abundant and foods
are highly refined, as is the case
in most Western countries, food
choices may adversely affect health.
This is due in part to an innate
(healthy) craving for sweet, salt,
and fat (which are scarce in nature
but commercially abundant, leading
to overconsumption) and in part to
the degradation of the foodstuffs
themselves
Protein.
After water, protein is the most
plentiful substance in our bodies.
Without protein we cannot create
enzymes, antibodies, milk, menses,
skin, hair, nails, muscle, brain,
heart, or organs. We require
twenty-two different amino acids
(building blocks of protein), of
which eight are considered essential
nutrients. Animal foods contain all
essential amino acids. No one food
of vegetable origin contains them
all, but combinations (such as corn
and beans) do. Each and every amino
acid must be present at once in the
body, and in the correct
proportions, for protein synthesis.
If even one essential amino acid is
low or missing, even temporarily,
protein production slows or stops
altogether.(2) Adult women can be
healthy on low protein diets;
however children, pregnant,
lactating, and menopausal women
require high levels of protein.
Fats.
Fat is the most concentrated
source of energy in the diet. Found
in vegetable seeds, beans, and nuts,
fruits such as olives and avocados,
and in all animal products, fat is
vital to women's health.
Unfortunately, many American women
avoid fat. A recent study (1999)
found 26 percent of women deficient
in vitamin E due to low-fat
diets.Animal fats are more stable
than vegetable oils, which become
rancid within days after pressing.
(Rancid fats promote cancer and
heart disease.) Hydrogenation and
partial-hydrogenation slow rancidity
but create trans-fatty acids that
create deposits on the blood
vessels. Even unhydrogenated
vegetable oils are unhealthy: They
flood the body with omega-6 fatty
acids (the primary fat component of
arterial plaque), and contribute
large amounts of free radicals that
damage the arteries and initiate
plaque deposits. Vitamins.
Vitamins are small organic
compounds made by all living
tissues. They are found in whole,
fresh foods. Vitamins are absorbed
best from dried, fermented, or
cooked foods. Some vitamins are
fat-soluble (A, E, D); some are
water-soluble (B, C). All vitamins
are groups of related enzymes that
function together. Eighteen hundred
carotenes and carotinoids contribute
to the liver's production of vitamin
A, two dozen tocopherols function
together as vitamin E, and only when
ascorbic acid is joined by
bioflavonoids and carotenes does it
function as vitamin C.
Healthy diets supply adequate
vitamins so long as refined foods
are rarely eaten. "Enriched" flour
is really impoverished, as it does
not contain the entire complement of
B vitamins and minerals found in the
whole grain. When vitamins are
synthesized in the laboratory, their
complexity is reduced to one active
ingredient. In situations of
impoverishment and famine,
supplements have health benefits.
They do not replace healthy food,
however, and long-term use of
vitamin supplements poses health
risks including more aggressive
cancers (alpha tocopherol), faster
growing cancers (ascorbic acid), and
increased risk of cancer and heart
disease (beta carotene).
Minerals.
Minerals are inorganic compounds
found in all plant and animal
tissues as well as bones, hair,
teeth, finger and toenails, and, of
course, rocks. Minerals are also
found in, and critical for, optimum
functioning of the nervous, immune,
and hormonal systems, and all
muscles, including the heart. Our
need for some minerals, such as
potassium, magnesium, manganese, and
calcium, is large. But for trace
minerals, such as selenium, iodine,
molybdenum, boron, silicon, and
germanium, our needs are minuscule.
(4)Minerals may be difficult to get,
even in a healthy diet. Overuse of
chemical fertilizers reduces mineral
content. According to US Department
of Agriculture figures, during the
period 1963-1992, the amount of
calcium in fruits and vegetables
declined an average of 30 percent.
In white rice, calcium declined 62.5
percent, iron 32-45 percent, and
magnesium 20-85 percent. (5) Not
only are commercially grown grains
low in minerals, refining removes
what little minerals they do
have.Seaweeds and herbs are
dependable mineral sources when
eaten, brewed (one ounce dried herbs
steeped four hours in a quart of
boiling water in a tightly covered
jar), or infused into vinegar,
rather than taken in capsules or
tinctures. Many herbs, such as
dandelion l-eaves, peppermint, red
clover blossoms, stinging nettle,
and oatstraw, are exceptional
sources of minerals, according to
researchers Mark Pedersen, Paul
Bergner, and the USDA. (6,7) For
instance, there are 3000 mg of
calcium in 100 grams dried nettle. |
