Potassium is an essential mineral whose ions are vital for the functioning of all living cells. It accumulates in plant cells, meaning that many fresh vegetables and fruits – most famously bananas – are rich in it. Dissolved potassium is also found in sea vegetables, since seawater is approximately 0.04 percent potassium by weight. While most people are aware on some level that potassium is important, few people really understand what it does for us. This article…
Upon hearing the word “superfood,” a number of fruits and vegetables will probably enter your mind. The title has consistently been attached to the blueberry, for instance. There’s also the almond, the sweet potato, the avocado, kale, spirulina, chlorella, and of course, the “original” superfood, broccoli. While these foods are certainly nutritious, several lesser-known foods also match (and in some cases, exceed) them in the health department. Below are six prominent examples. Six Amazing Superfoods…
The doctrine of signatures is an ancient herbalist philosophy attributed to Paracelsus (1491-1541) and later popularized by the German shoemaker Jakob Bohme (1575-1624). It states that all fruits and vegetables share aesthetic properties or “signatures” with the organ they benefit. While allopathic medicine has attempted to write off the doctrine as superstition, studies have repeatedly shown that its core principles are true. The kidney bean, for example, not only resembles a kidney in shape and…
Dietary fiber, also called roughage, is the structural framework of plants and one of the most abundant compounds in nature. While “fiber” is often used as a blanket term, there are actually two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber dissolves in liquid and forms a gel in the body that promotes a feeling of fullness. It does not usually have a laxative effect. Insoluble fiber doesn’t dissolve in liquid and instead passes in…
Proteins are large, complex molecules constructed from a set of 20 amino acids, of which eight must be obtained through diet and are not produced naturally by the body. Each protein’s specific function is determined by its amino acid arrangement, and these arrangements can vary considerably. While most people understand that protein plays a role in the growth and repair of cells, in reality it performs far more functions. This article contains a distillation of…
