Amaranth is a broad-leafed plant that is native to the southern half of North America. It is part of the Amaranthaceae family of flowering plants, which also includes beets, Swiss chard, spinach, and quinoa, and is characterized by its rapid growing speed and competitive nature. In fact, amaranth is so aggressive that many American gardeners regard it as nothing more than a noxious weed that does little but threaten the livelihood of other, less invasive…
Few plants have been as revered throughout recorded history as hemp. This green herbaceous plant, which is a high-growing variety of Cannabis sativa, has been cultivated for centuries to make durable clothing fibers, nutritious oils, building material, and even paper. Traditional medicine, particularly ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, also prized the plant for its significant medicinal properties. Since hemp does not contain large amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the mind-altering ingredient found in regular marijuana, hemp…
Barley is a major grain that was one of the first cultivated grains, and remains the fourth most cultivated cereal grain in the world. Matured barley is commonly used in beer production, and as animal feed. Young barley shoots, however, are consumed almost exclusively as a health food, and for good reason: research suggests that these gluten-free shoots, which are called barley grass and typically consumed in juiced for powdered form, contain a huge number…
Along with coconut oil, eggs were one of the biggest victims of Dr. Ancel Keys’s popular “lipid hypothesis” of the 1950s, which claimed a link between high fat consumption and heart disease. A decade thereafter, the humble egg shifted from being a staple breakfast item of Westerners to public enemy number #1 – a food so radiant with Lovecraftian malevolence that even being in the same room as one could induce atherosclerosis by proxy. Okay,…
Spirulina is a type of green algae that grows in fresh water bodies. It is a survivor plant which, unlike most flora, is able to withstand considerable temperature variations and still thrive. It is cultivated worldwide and has been harvested as a food source for thousands of years. According to David Wolfe, author of the excellent book, Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future, spirulina is one of the most nutritious foods in the…
