So, the food we eat should have the vitamins and nutrients that we need to live healthily. The fact that depleted soils and over-processing makes this near impossible is a serious problem for now and in the future as agri-business continues to over-cultivate the fields, dumping GMOs, pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. For this reason, I’m in favor of food-based vitamins and it’s important, given the growing agricultural crisis, that the they be organic.

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Based on the teachings of Dr. Bernard Jensen, and started by a previous  patient of his, these vitamins are 100%  organic, gluten-free, lactose-free, and have absolutely no fillers like stearates(the possibly unhealthy additive I’ve mentioned before here). Here’s what we carry of their line and the highlights as I see them:

Super Bio Balance

A multivitamin that focuses on the different systems of the body:

Digestive, Heart & Circulation, Glandular, Respiratory, Brain & Nervous, Vision-Eyes, Skeletal-Bone, Kidney & Urinary, Lymphatic, Muscular, Mucosa-Immunity, Immune, Skin, and Gums & Teeth.

And they include foods, such as acai, kelp, royal jelly, and tomatoes.

Bio-Organic Greens

An especially tasty, sugar-free greens powder that tastes fantastic in apple juice, or even water if you prefer. It includes benefits for brain health, the cardiovascular system, and will help clean and replenish during detox regimens.

Bio-Inflamin

Contains 400 mg of Turmeric extract with 95% curcumin, a potent Bowellin extract and 1200 gdu of Bromelain, as well as Ginger with 20% gingerols, all to help ease pain, increase joint comfort, and reduce inflamation.

Prosta-Health

A  powerful formula in an easily assimilated powder mix, including lignan from Norwegian spruce, Scandinavian Rye Pollen, Pumpkin Seed Meal, anti-inflammatory herbs, Lycopene, Maitake mushrooms, and Burdock root.

Detox Multi

Not a multivitamin, but a cleansing formula with added adaptogenic herbs to assist with lost energy during a detox program. Includes Black Walnut, Dandelion, Aloe Vera extract, and Licorice.

Bio-Carotene

A food-source carotenoid complex with 5,000 IU of beta carotene to help with skin and eyes.

so, last week, i trued anise seed.  Pimpinella anisum. i tried and i tried and i tried.  literally.  i burned two batches of the seeds as i attempted to simmer them in a pot on the stove.  theere they were all black and toasty, with not a drop of water left in the saucepan.  luckily, somehow the pot came clean with some scrubbing or i would have been buying a new one for Rainbow.  so, then i just infused the seeds.  i put the seeds in a mason jar and poured boiling water over them and left them for about 30 minutes or more.  turned out the water i used was brown, i couldn’t see as i filled the teapot up, but when i got a glass of water and washed my hands…there it was, brown water.  so, i dumped that tea too.  who knows what was making the water brown that day.  i gave up for the day…no anise tea.

forward to thursday, the following day…and i did the anise seed infusion method again.  and it worked.  clean water, no burnt seeds.  the tea was very pleasant.  sweet and light.  nothing too intense to write about…i mean, not that everything has to be about intensity, but i guess somewhere inside i hope for something really good to write about after i drink the tea every week.  this was not the case with anise, but isn’t that something special too?  just sweet.  pleasant.  light.  and medicinally speaking anise is a digestive remedy.  it is aromatic and good for bloating and gas.

and now this week….artichoke.  Cynara scolymus.  another herb used for the digestive tract, in a way.  but through the liver…which can consequently affect the digestion.  the leaves are used medicinally, as opposed to the immature flower of the globe artichoke, which we are all familiar with as an edible vegetable.  Artichoke is hepatoprotective (protective of the liver), a choleretic and cholegogue (gets the liver to produce bile and gets it flowing)…all of these relate to its very, very bitter taste.   which i can attest to.  i made an infusion of about 2 Tablespoons of the dried herb with 16 oz. of boiling water.  i let it sit for about 20 minutes, strained and drank.  it was really bitter, which i do not mind at all.  but it also had this slight gaggy quality.  i drank it down though, and felt a gurgle in my tummy shortly thereafter.  probably due to the bile flow, which stimulates the rest of the G.I. tract to get going.  and that leads me to remember that it can be an appetite stimulant.

Artichoke leaf also is known for its hypolipidaemic activity.   in other words, it can inhibit cholesterol biosynthesis.  there have been studies and clinical trials done to support this finding.  a great starting place for source of these articles is www.pubmed.com which is the National Library for Medicine website for scholarly articles and reviews.

that’s all for this week.  and last week too!

see you next time.

xoxomelissa

I’ve sometimes asked bewildered customers, “Why do you want to take a vitamin supplement?” The answer usually translates as some feeling, either real or imagined, that the food they are eating is not supplying what they need. And given the way food is grown these days and the way people are forced to eat quickly and on the run, it may often times be true that they are lacking in necessary nutrients. For many Asian cultures, digestion and proper assimilation begins when you start to assemble the food you will eat for a meal — the colors, the smells, the little tastes of one ingredient or another. These days, most peoples’ meals are assembled for them and little time is given to the pleasure of eating. In my humble opinion, vitamins are best found in a balanced diet of mostly organic foods. But if your 50+ hour work week doesn’t offer you the pleasure of leisurely meals made from scratch and your income doesn’t allow for organic food, then some sort of daily vitamin is probably not a bad idea. I would first try a Food-Based vitamin. This means that the vitamins actually come from food rather than extracted in a lab from food or chemical sources. The body recognizes them as food and thereby assimilates them better. There isn’t the need to pack the vitamin with 5,000% of your daily needs of some vitamins, because more of the vitamin is available. There isn’t that “dark-yellow urine” syndrome from some of these “mega-vitamins” that give you way more than you can use in one day simply so that an ample amount gets absorbed.

We carry several different brands of whole food vitamins, including Megafood, New Chapter, Bio Life Naturals, and Rainbow Light Organics.

Angelica archangelica.  sweet name.

it is a warming bitter…something not easily found in plant medicine.  most bitters are cooling in nature…so if you are chilly person and have digestive issues, this could be a great herb to try.  it also can bring on menses, can be useful for anorexia as it stimulates digestion, is a diaphoretic (induces sweating/moves the excess heat out), and for some that feel herbs have more of a spiritual place in their lives, it can bring protection and angelic presence.

so, this morning, after i had my Rainbow Roast (i am again hooked on the stuff)…i also put on a pot with about a tablespoon or more of angelica root.  and i forgot about it.  when i remembered, the water was gone and the root was a little toasted.  but not burnt…so i figured it was meant to be, and i added more water and set it to a simmer.  20 minutes later i strained it and had a nice hot cup of tea.  i was so pleasantly surprised  by the angelica.  i smelled really good and tasted even better.  it tasted like a broth and i immediately thought it would be a great idea to add this to a bone soup recipe or just a stock for soups.

I drank the whole cup of tea within the half hour, enjoying each sip as much as the last.  no needing to gulp it down like last week.  but then a strange thing happened.  i started to feel uncomfortable.  more emotionally, or energetically, i guess you could say.  i felt i needed to ground myself because i felt too open, too light.  it is hard to explain.  but it reminded me of panic attacks i used to have in my early 20’s…like i was floating.  and back then, i used to think i was dying, because i assumed that being relaxed, open and floating upwards were feeling one would have if they were dying.  the post angelica experience wasn’t as traumatic as those attacks and i know better how to take care of myself now…so, i talked it out with a co-worker, i did some deep breathing and had some five flower flower essence. and i came down.  and it was good to remember what life was like then in my 20’s, to see how far i have come, to see also that i am still me in some quirky ways too.

so…maybe that isn’t the right herb for me, or maybe it is and in jsut need to temper it with other herbs, to balance its strong reaction i had.  see, i don’t think it was a bad thing, those feeling are good for me to process and go through…but maybe in a more gentle way.  or maybe before bed would be nice with some valerian and poppy and mugwort.

thanks for reading along…stop by next week and see what tea is next!