Mondays, we build your grocery list with one food, focusing on this month’s main topic.
Today’s food could certainly be found at select grocery stores, but may call on your inner forager to show up for duty.
DANDELION GREENS.
For those who wish to know the ‘why’ behind this idea, I’ll give you three things to think about.
FOR THE VITAMINS + MINERALS
Dandelion greens offer some good plant based vitamins like beta-carotene, vitamins C and K1. They have a small amount of most of the B vitamins, and some of those crucial minerals like zinc, magnesium, phosphorus and copper too. These all play the role of antioxidants here. I like to think of antioxidants as the clean up crew to help undo the damaging effects of low grade inflammation (or a high internal burden of stress on the body). Know which organ feels some of this the most keenly?
The liver. Ergo, nourishing your body with foods from the plant world like say, dandelion greens, you’re providing your body and your liver with those nutrients to help protect against the damaging effects of chronic inflammation. That’s code for a high burden of stress there, honey, and it’s what’s at the root of all those chronic diseases.
FOR THE BITTER FLAVOUR
Historically, bitter foods have been consumed to help support sluggish digestion. Bitter flavours induce the liver to produce bile, which is your body’s way of bagging up the garbage and taking the garbage to the curb. In certain foods, the compound responsible for this bitter flavour is called glucosinolate - a compound that in studies, shows helps your liver move spent metabolic waste and toxins out more effectively. (1)
Coincidentally, those early foods that are the first to show up in spring - think sorrel, dandelions, chives, early growers like spinach and radishes - they’re all bitter in flavour. Waking up digestion is one of those tasks of early spring!
FOR THE CHOLINE
Last week, we dove in to the role choline can play when it comes to the liver, when reaching for egg yolks. (Read the post here.) Choline helps move fat out of the liver, and assists in making bile. That’s your liver’s way of sending the recycling out. Know what has choline in it too? Why, dandelion greens!
Of course they do.
Dandelion. They’re not just for kid bouquets no more!
Dandelion greens are soon to be here (if not already!), so consider this an invitation to get your bitter on.
Find some dandelion greens at your favourite grocery store or farmers’ market. Here in Calgary, I’ve seen them on the shelves at most health food stores for sure.
If you have some dandelions on the land where you live, and you know there is no danger of pesticides (from you or your neighbour or from chemicals on the road), you may wish to start foraging these greens for yourself. Make sure you’re identifying correctly! They’re the same plant than what you’d find at the grocery store, although in much smaller size. They carry the same punch as the cultivated kind you get at the store, if not more nutrients in fact.
HOW TO HAVE THESE: toss a few leaves in your next salad / toss a big handful in your next batch of pesto or chimichurri / toss some in last minute to a stir fry / saute simply in butter with garlic / mince into your next fish cake, burgers or meat balls / dry some and crumble to have on hand for easy add ins to eggs, soups and sauces. Essentially, use these as you would spinach greens or baby kale.
Aiming for a return to overall vitality? Looking to love up your liver, balance blood sugars or hormones, or reduce that chronic inflammation? Got a high burden of stress? Need some help in feeling real good?
Get in touch by clicking here. Let’s meet up to start drawing up your road map to support you in both quantity and quality of life.
*This is not medical advice.