Hippocrates encouraged us to view food as our medicine, and his words have never rang as true as they do today. Contemporarily, we seemingly have more food choices available to us than ever before, however, this seems to have confused and overwhelmed many of us, and led us astray from our connection with the land that sustains us.

Whole foods are medicinal, nutritious, and free from preservatives and ingredients which are difficult for our body to process. Incorporating whole herbs into our culinary repertoire holistically supports our body’s ability to digest, assimilate, and eliminate. Furthermore, cooking with whole ingredients, encourages our connection and understanding of our internal and external environments, thereby facilitating our ability to support our health through our daily food choices.

Carminatives are the easiest medicinal herbs to incorporate into our cooking, and greatly beneficial, as they increase gastric secretions and encourage peristalsis. Some examples are cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, garlic, fennel, anise, cumin, black cumin, fenugreek, thyme, rosemary, sage, lavender, oregano, cayenne, basil, parsley, mustard, peppermint, ginger, and turmeric. There are endless ways of incorporating these plants into your culinary endeavors, and you can certainly find recipes from many ethnic backgrounds that include these wonderful herbs.

Check out the recent Herbs A to Z class to learn more about the Basic Principles of Ayurveda with Judy Lieblein. This is also a good example of a Combination Water Extraction which our teacher Lori Rose, PhD goes into detail about in the Herbal Medicine Making Intermediate/Advanced course.