Medicinal Herbs & Spices

You are what you what eat. This proverbial adage has served to guide our eating habits as early as most of us can remember. Used by adults to encourage us as kids to eat more fruits and finish our vegetables, the saying is without doubt ubiquitous across our modern socio-cultural fabric. Those of us with Caribbean heritage might also recall the added emphasis on the benefits of finishing a cup of tea first thing in the morning, usually peppermint. But whether it be teas brewed when tummy's are upset or a concoction of ginger, garlic, citrus peels, and bushes turned swampy from soaking in a jar of rum - a remedy for your ailments could always been found in kitchen cupboards. Sometimes marinating at the back of a closet too. My favourite family recipe includes the addition of live scorpions or snakes to the aforementioned jar of rum in order to give the tincture an analgesic/ painkilling effect. If you haven't hit ESC yet and are still with me, have no fear - the meals I am going to share with you do not feature insects, scorpions, snakes or anything of the sort. You can achieve analgesic as well as antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal, immune boosting, stress reducing, and many other effects with herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables. Using these medicinal powerhouses to intentionally craft meals for healing is something we all could benefit from doing mindfully. In the same breath we encourage healthy eating for a more nutrient rich diet, we should also encourage a medicinal approach for a more resilient dietary lifestyle.

Issues with high blood pressure? There's a tea for that! Managing high blood sugars? There are herbs, spices, as well as low glycemic foods that can help with that. Is IBS stressing you out? Remember that cup of peppermint tea? It turns out peppermint is a safe and effective treatment for IBS. Are you feeling the physiological symptoms have been a stressed mess for longer than you care to be? There is an incredibly powerful adaptogenic herb for that. Is your libido on the down-low? Yes, there is a herb for that too. This is not a radical new discovery. Before the advent of Western Medicine, humans found the remedies to their ailments in nature. With the earliest record dating back to 1500 BC, plant-based medicines have long been part of our tradition as humans beings. The Caribbean Edition of Medicinal Herbs & Spices was written to help reconnect us with these practices through exploring a region whose medicinally minded culinary traditions hail from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

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