Wheat

Wheat is a type of grass grown all over the world for its highly nutritious and useful grain. It is one of the top three most produced crops in the world, along with corn and rice. Wheat has been cultivated for over 10,000 years and probably originates in the Fertile Crescent, along with other staple crops. A wide range of wheat products are made by humans, including most famously flour, which is made from the grain itself.

The health benefits of wheat depend entirely on the form in which you eat it. These benefits will be few if you select wheat that has been processed into 60% extraction, bleached white flour. 60% extraction—the standard for most wheat products in the United States, including breads, noodles and pastas, baked goods like rolls or biscuits, and cookies—means that 40% of the original wheat grain was removed, and only 60% is left. Unfortunately, the 40% that gets removed includes the bran and the germ of the wheat grain—its most nutrient-rich parts. In the process of making 60% extraction flour, over half of the vitamin B1, B2, B3, E, folic acid, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, iron, and fiber are lost.

Whole wheat is a perfect food. In the form of white flour, however, it is an imperfect, unbalanced food, on account of its deprivation of the valuable phosphates which exist in the bran. Rickets and malnutrition generally are the outcome of the habitual use of white flour, unless the loss of mineral matter is counter balanced by other foods.

Only the very finest wholemeal, such as "Artox," for example, should be used for making bread, etc. The ordinary coarse wholemeals are apt to produce intestinal irritation.

Plum

A plum or gage is a stone fruit tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. Mature plum fruit may have a dusty-white coating that gives them a glaucous  appearance and is easily rubbed off. This is an epicuticular wax coating and is known as "wax bloom". Dried plum fruits are called dried plums or prunes, although prunes are a distinct type of plum, and may have antedated the fruits now commonly known as plums.

Plum benefits are many, and they make a cheap and easy way of turning back the clock and looking younger. The health benefits of plums have certainly gained them the label of superfood. And the amount of plum recipes is endless, such as stewed plums, plum jam recipe, plum sauce recipe, you can even make plum wine and the list goes on.

Here are some profits of using plum :

•     Natural way for helping with constipation
•     Cleanse your intestine
•     Help keep a healthy heart
•     Maintain blood sugar levels
•     Help keep wrinkles at bay
•     Maintain digestive health

The prune, a variety of dried plum, has been recommended as a remedy against viciousness and irritability. An American doctor declares that there is a certain medicinal property in the prune which acts directly upon the nervous system, and that is where the evil passions have their seat. He reports that he tried the experiment of including prunes in the meals of the vicious, intractable youths of a reformatory, and that by the end of a week they were peaceable as lambs. Most writers who comment on this seem to suggest that any fruit which is mildly aperient would produce the same effect. But the mother of a large family tells me that she has observed that prunes seem to possess a soothing property that is all their own.

Pineapple

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. Pineapple can be consumed fresh, canned or juiced and can be used in a variety of ways. It is popularly used in desserts, salads (usually tropical fruit salads, but it can vary), jams, yogurts, ice creams, various candies, as a complement to meat dishes and in fruit cocktail. The popularity of the pineapple is due to its sweet-sour taste.

Pineapple is used for many other things aside from consumption.

Pine-apple juice is the specific for diphtheria. This seems to have been first brought to the notice of Europeans by the fact that negroes living round about the swamps of Louisiana were observed to use it with great success. A writer who records this says: "The patient should be forced to swallow the juice. This fluid is of so pungent and corrosive a nature that it cuts out the diphtheria mucous and causes it to disappear."

Dr. Hillier, writing in the "Herald of Health" in 1897, says "Sliced pineapples, laid in pure honey for a day or two, when used in moderation, will relieve the human being from chronic impaction of the bowels, reestablish peristaltic motion, and induce perfect digestion."

"A slice of fresh pine-apple," writes Dr. Fernie, "is about as wise a thing as one can take by way of dessert after a substantial meal." This is because fresh pine-apple juice has been found to act upon animal food in very much the same way that the gastric juice acts within the stomach. But vegetarians should eat fresh fruit at the beginning of meals rather than at the end.

Oat

Oat is generally cited as the most nourishing of all the cereals, and a good nerve food. The fine oatmeal gruel of our grandmothers has gone almost entirely out of fashion, but its use might be revived with advantage. Like wheat, it is a complete food. A good preparation of groats (ground oats from which the husk has been entirely removed) may be taken by those who find other preparations indigestible.

It's been more than a decade since the FDA approved a heart-health claim for oatmeal and other foods made from whole oats, such as oat bran and oat flour.

The new research review confirms those benefits. It also includes more recent data showing that oats may also do the following :

•     Help dieters' cholesterol. Weight loss lowers LDL cholesterol, and oatmeal may lower it even further.
•     Improve LDL cholesterol profile. Oatmeal may curb small LDL cholesterol particles, which may be riskier than bigger LDL particles.
•     Curb inflammation. Lab tests show that antioxidants in oats have anti-inflammatory properties. It would be impractical to try to eat the amount of oatmeal needed to get the antioxidant levels used in those tests, but smaller doses over time may have benefits.
•     Reap whole-grain perks against high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and weight gain.

Lavender

Many people appreciate lavender for its fragrance, used in soaps, shampoos, and sachets for scenting clothes. The name lavender comes from the Latin root lavare, which means "to wash." Lavender may have earned this name because it was frequently used in baths to help purify the body and spirit. However, this herb has also been used as a remedy for a range of ailments from insomnia and anxiety to depression and fatigue. Research has confirmed that lavender produces slight calming, soothing, and sedative effects when its scent is inhaled.

Lavender is native to the mountainous zones of the Mediterranean where it grows in sunny, stony habitats.

A number of studies have reported that lavender essential oil may be beneficial in a variety of conditions, including insomnia, alopecia (hair loss), anxiety, stress, and postoperative pain.

Lavender is also being studied for antibacterial and antiviral properties. Lavender oil is often used in other forms of integrative medicine, such as massage, acupuncture, and chiropractic manipulation.

The scent of lavender is also keep away flies, fleas, and moths.

Garlic

Garlic have long been claimed and it has been used extensively in herbal medicine (phytotherapy). Amongst other things raw garlic is used by some to treat the symptoms of acne and there is some evidence that it can assist in managing high cholesterol levels. It also can be effective as a natural mosquito repellent.

Garlic is a sulphurous compound and in general a stronger tasting clove has more sulphur content and hence more potential medicinal value. Some people have suggested that organically grown garlic tends towards a higher sulphur level and hence greater benefit to health.

Modern science has shown that garlic is a powerful natural antibiotic, albeit broad-spectrum rather than targeted. The bacteria in the body do not appear to evolve resistance to the garlic as they do to many modern pharmaceutical antibiotics. This means that its positive health benefits can continue over time rather than helping to breed antibiotic resistant "superbugs".

Nettle

Nettle has been used for centuries to treat allergy symptoms, particularly hayfever which is the most common allergy problem. It contains biologically active compounds that reduce inflammation.

The tender tops of young nettles picked in the spring make a delicious vegetable, somewhat resembling spinach. They are excellent for sufferers from gout and skin eruptions.

Nettle has been studied extensively and has shown promise in treating Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, asthma, bladder infections, bronchitis, bursitis, gingivitis, gout, hives, kidney stones, laryngitis, multiple sclerosis, PMS, prostate enlargement, sciatica, and tendinitis!

This herb should be used for a minimum of 30 days for full effects. Our Nettle is organically grown and cryogenically ground (minus 70 degrees) to preserve potency.

Cress

Cress is a common name given to small-leafed plants in the Mustard family. All have a peppery tang obtained from the mustard side of the family.

Cress is the most important of the eighty or so different species of the genus Lepidium of the Mustard family. This fast-growing plant is never allowed to grow to its full capacity of one or two feet, but is always harvested two to three days after germination. Cress is a single species of African origin, but known by a myriad of common names, leaf shapes, and sizes. What they do have in common is their hot-sweet, peppery bite distinct from watercress and tasting more like fresh horseradish than greens.

All the cresses are anti-scorbutic, that is, useful against the scurvy. The ancient Greeks also believed them to be good for the brain.

The ordinary "mustard and cress" of our salads is good for rheumatic patients, while the water-cress is valuable in cases of tubercular disease. Anemic patients may also eat freely of it on account of the iron it contains. Care should be taken, however, from whence it is procured, as a disease peculiar to sheep but communicable to man may be carried by it. It should not be gathered from streams running through meadows inhabited by sheep.

Date

The nourishing properties of dates are well known. They are easily digested, and for this reason are often recommended to consumptive patients.

Dates have a sweet taste that can be described as a mixture of honey and sugar syrup. Apart from its sweet taste, the fruit is highly nutritious as it is rich in vitamins A1, B1, B2, B3, B5 and has around twenty essential amino acids. If you are looking for dates fruit calories, then, it is around 500 per cup (178 grams) of pitted dates.

Dates fruits is also known to boost sexual stamina. Being rich in beta-carotene and other flavonoids, dates protect the cells from the damage that can be caused by free radicals.

According to Dr. Fernie half a pound of dates and half a pint of new milk will make a satisfying repast for a person engaged in sedentary work.

Gooseberry

The gooseberry is a small round fruit that comes in hundreds of varieties. Most plant experts suggest the earliest cultivars of gooseberry plants were in Northern Africa. However, the gooseberry  is now grown widely throughout Northern Europe and in North America.

The fruit itself is usually comparable in size to blueberries. Gooseberries can be round, oblong or teardrop shaped depending upon their variety. They also come in a delightful color range, from green to red to purple. The interior flesh of the berry will match the color of the skin, but has a slightly translucent appearance.

Most liken the unripe gooseberry in taste to a sour grape. The ripened gooseberry is harder to find, but is often compared to the Muscat grape in flavor. Since it is difficult to obtain riper gooseberries, the fruit is often used with sugar in dessert recipes.

The juice of green gooseberries "cure the all inflammations," while the red gooseberry is good for bilious subjects. But it has been said that gooseberries are not good for melancholy persons.

Gooseberries are an excellent "spring medicine."

Parsley

Parsley is a short-lived perennial with bright green leaves. Tiny, yellow-green flowers are produced which are followed by small ribbed, oval seeds. Parsley is a bitter, aromatic and diuretic herb.

Parsley is useful in cases of menstrual obstruction and diseases of the kidneys. The bruised leaves applied to the breasts of nursing mothers are said to cure painful lumps and threatened abscess. It may also be taken with advantage by cancerous patients. In all these cases parsley may be taken in the form of a soup, in common use among members of the physical regeneration Society, which consists of onions, tomatoes, celery, and parsley, stewed together in distilled water.

A doctor remarks that when uncooked parsley has been eaten to excess it has been observed to produce epilepsy in certain bodily systems. The oil of parsley has also been found useful in cases of epilepsy. This would naturally follow on the homeopathic principle of similar.