Some herbs and wild plants are ideal for enriching your daily diet. If you consciously choose those that taste good, are easy to prepare and also have a detoxifying and purifying effect, you will benefit much more from consuming them regularly than from a short-term detox or fasting regime. We will introduce you to excellent detox herbs and explain how to prepare them.
Herbs for detoxification
Many people believe that detoxification is something that can be done over a manageable period of time, perhaps a week or two, and then one can continue with the same binge-eating habits that led to the need for detoxification in the first place.
A short rest is certainly better than nothing for the body, but it would of course much prefer a permanent change in some habits. Simply integrate detoxifying herbs and wild vegetables into your daily diet.
Plants are our original food
Wild plants – such as dandelions, nettles, plantains, chickweed, lime leaves, burdock roots and many others – are our original food. They nourish and prevent diseases at the same time. If there is an illness, these plants heal and relieve it.
They therefore always ensure a healthy harmony in our organism.
If wild plants have a certain healing effect on the human body, this does not mean that they are purely MEDICINAL plants that may only be consumed for a special HEALING purpose for certain ailments.
Wild plants are not medicines, which are known to always have harmful side effects.
Wild plants are primarily food. Their nutrient density is far higher than that of cultivated vegetables.
The healing effect of the wild plants is just an additional bonus. There are no side effects (exception: poisonous plants).
Medicinal plants or food plants?
If, due to an unhealthy diet, deficiencies arise in the body, toxins accumulate or even damage is caused and the person concerned now begins to eat powerful wild plants again, then these understandably work as they always have: nourishing, detoxifying, cleansing, healing, repairing.
However, since a person only consciously feels any of these effects when he is ill or feels unwell, many plants have been called MEDICINAL plants.
In reality, however, these plants are the food that nature intended for us. This is what Hippocrates meant some time ago when he spoke the following telling sentence:
“Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”
Of course, this does not include plants such as foxglove, yew, hemlock or lily of the valley, which are definitely poisonous plants and would not be eaten voluntarily by anyone simply because of their disgusting taste.
But which wild plants are particularly suitable for detoxification?
(If you would like to know in advance whether you are poisoned, i.e. whether you are exposed to toxic substances, you can do this very easily with the *Mineral Check. All you need is a hair sample. Your sample will then be checked for 8 pollutants/elements (arsenic, aluminum, lead, mercury, cadmium, silver, tin and nickel). After a few days, you will receive the result by email, which you can discuss with your alternative practitioner if necessary.)
Detoxification with the Greater Burdock
The greater burdock is a very versatile plant. It is extremely robust and grows on roadsides, on banks or on former rubble sites.
Burdock root is often offered in the form of various preparations for hair and skin problems.
In autumn, the root, which tastes like salsify, is also available as a vegetable in some health food stores or at farmers’ markets.
In reality, however, the leaf stalks, the young leaves (the older ones are too bitter), the shoots and the flower stalks are also edible.
The plant parts are eaten either raw in a salad (mixed with other leaf salads) or steamed as a vegetable.
Cleanse blood, lose weight and detoxify with the Greater Burdock
The effects of the greater burdock known in folk medicine are extremely numerous. Root extracts are said to have antibiotic and blood sugar reducing effects.
In the form of an ointment, the large-leaved plant is effective against a number of skin diseases, including dandruff.
However, a particularly highly valued ability of burdock is its blood-cleansing and detoxifying effect.
For this reason, it is recommended by phytotherapeutic doctors and alternative practitioners for bladder and gallstone problems, liver diseases, gout, rheumatism and diabetes.
The burdock root is said to be able to specifically reduce the accumulation of heavy metals in the body. Burdock is also recommended as an accompaniment to diets aimed at losing excess weight due to its detoxifying effect.
To benefit from the detoxifying effects of the greater burdock, it is recommended to prepare a tea from the root and drink it two to three times a day.
Burdock root tea recipe:
Add 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of chopped burdock root to 0.5 liters of cold water and let it steep overnight or for 8 hours.
If you can or only want to drink warm tea warm the burdock root tea shortly before drinking it, but do not let it get too hot.
This tea can also be used externally for washing skin problems.
Detox with Coriander
Coriander is a member of the parsley family and is mainly used in Mexican, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine.
All parts of the plant are edible, but the leaves and seeds of coriander are usually used in cooking.
In the field of heavy metal detoxification, coriander has been used for some time to dissolve mercury in the body, especially in the brain.
However, therapeutic support is recommended for this purpose, as coriander is said to be able to mobilize large amounts of mercury without excreting it.
Therefore, it is also important to ensure that at the same time, for example, chlorella algae or healing clay (bentonite) is administered, a component that actually binds and removes the mercury circulating in the body.
However, if there is no severe mercury poisoning and you just want to get rid of the everyday heavy metal pollution, coriander can be a wonderful help from a folk medicine point of view – in salad, as a tea or in soup.
Detoxification with Nettle
The stinging nettle is probably one of the best known blood-purifying plants.
It has very good detoxifying properties.
The nettle removes toxins and metabolic waste products by stimulating kidney function. More water is now excreted, and with the water, a higher proportion of toxins and pollutants are also excreted.
Nettle tea is said to have an extremely cleansing and regenerating effect on the digestive system, while at the same time activating the body’s natural defense mechanisms.
Drink the nettle tea pure or with some fresh lemon juice.
Nettle leaves (especially the young leaves from the shoot tip) can be used to make many other wonderful dishes – apart from tea.
You can use nettles practically anywhere you would use spinach or chard.
Nettles are suitable for use in soups, vegetable dishes, casseroles, stuffings or can be processed into a fine pesto.
Even in green smoothies, you can use small amounts of nettle leaves to create a fruity, healthy drink.
It is even easier to use nettle leaf powder. This can be used as a spice or as a smoothie ingredient. You can also simply stir it into juice and easily spice it up with an extra portion of antioxidants, calcium, iron and vitamin K.
Detoxification with Milk Thistle
Milk thistle is used more as a dietary supplement in capsule form than as a food.
Milk thistle is a famous liver-protecting plant. It prevents liver-toxic substances from penetrating the liver cells, promotes liver regeneration and the formation of new liver cells.
Since the liver is our number one detoxification organ, milk thistle can safely be described as a particularly outstanding medicinal plant that supports detoxification.
Milk thistle is used in cases of liver damage caused by environmental toxins, alcohol or some medications (e.g. synthetic estrogens, chemotherapy, etc.) to restore the liver and thus the body’s detoxification mechanisms.
Milk thistle is also prescribed for hepatitis to protect the liver from the threat of cirrhosis. These areas of use alone show how great the beneficial effect of milk thistle on the liver is.
Milk thistle can be drunk as a tea. However, in order to obtain sufficient active ingredients, the milk thistle seeds must be ground and then brewed (leave for 10 minutes, drink a cup three times a day half an hour before meals).
The seeds can also be chewed (about 2 tablespoons daily).
It is even easier to take milk thistle in the form of ready-made preparations that contain guaranteed and standardized amounts of active ingredients. However, cheap products from drugstores or supermarkets are not recommended due to their low dosages.
Make sure that the active ingredients are high – at least 70 mg of silymarin per capsule (“calculated as silibinin” – this is what it says in the package insert; the daily dose can be 200 to 400 mg of silymarin.)
Detoxification with Dandelion
The Japanese George Ohsawa, founder of macrobiotics, is said to have been almost ecstatic at the sight of the blooming dandelion meadows and exclaimed:
“Where this wonderful plant grows, there is no need for ginseng anymore!”
Apparently he had intuitively sensed the power inherent in the dandelion. Unfortunately, today we may still pick dandelions for our pet rabbits, but hardly ever for ourselves.
Dandelion – a blood purifier of the highest class
The root of the dandelion in particular is a first-class blood and kidney cleanser, at the same time a great remedy for improving liver and gall bladder function, helpful for healthy digestive activity and ultimately a strengthening tonic for the entire organism.
Dandelion is full of minerals and antioxidants
The dandelion root is harvested from September to March, chopped and prepared as a salad.
The leaves, flowers and flower stems of the dandelion are also extremely helpful. Their high protein and mineral content and their abundance of secondary plant substances – compared to cultivated salads – are an enormous enrichment to the daily diet.
Apart from dandelion salad, you can also make dandelion tea by adding four cups of boiling water to one cup of fresh dandelion leaves.
Let the tea brew for 10-15 minutes and then strain it.
Once the roots have been harvested and cleaned, a tea made from dandelion root is also easy to prepare. To do this, use the recipe for burdock root tea (see above).
Another quick and easy way to benefit from the detoxifying and excretory properties of dandelion is to use freshly pressed dandelion juice or a high-quality dandelion root extract. One pinch of the latter should be salivated up to three times a day.
Also easy to use is the detoxifying dandelion leaf powder, which – like the nettle leaf powder described above – can simply be stirred into drinks and smoothies or used as a spice.
Use detoxifying wild plants!
If you consume just one or two of the plants mentioned daily or drink them regularly in the form of a tea, you will achieve a continuous activation of your metabolism and your detoxification organs.
In this way, you can immediately excrete a large proportion of the toxins that enter your body every day via the environment or your diet, so that they cannot even accumulate in your tissues and organs.
If you are suffering from an illness, the plants mentioned above can contribute significantly to healing or relief, as they relieve the organism, vitalize the detoxification organs and support the immune system.
Therefore, use the power of wild plants that our body has known for millions of years – both as high-quality food and as wholesome medicine.
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