Herbs and Vegetables - Benefits or Taste?

Originally posted in holistic herbalism web blog on OCTOBER 16, 2008

“Errggh….. ! Mummy. It’s so bitter!”

That’s a typical response almost every time I administer my eldest daughter a bitter herb concoction.

“You don’t have something taste pleasant, dad?”

“The bitter the better,” I normally reply with a smile.

Besides herbal medicine, it happens to vegetables as well. Most kids nowadays do not find vegetable palatable. Most of them find vegetables taste bland. They choose only few types that are appealing to their taste bud. There are several vegetables which are quite universally accepted such as carrot, broccoli, and iceberg lettuce (accompanies burgers, with very least available nutrients). They are positioned on top of the list as types of vegetables that children like the most.

There are children who dislike taking any type of vegetables. They always remind waitresses not to include any types of vegetables in their food they order. Do you think only children behave or have that kind of habit? The answer is there are adults who eat little vegetables. In fact, I know several persons who rarely take vegetables during large meals.

In several cases, I recommend friends and clients to take combination of raw vegetables. When I mention specific types of vegetables they have to take, some of them frown. Now, it’s not only the taste as main concern. Some people do not have ‘time’ to prepare it.

So, how would we tackle this type of situation?

Modernization has to do with the habit mentioned. People who live in rural areas consider vegetables as very palatable. They eat boiled corn, cassava or organic rice with vegetable soup. Nothing else. Recently, I watched a television program depicting how ethnic minorities of Vietnam and Cambodia live and conserve their culture.

These ethnics use firewood stoves to prepare their meal. Besides rice, they prepare leaves either from the surrounding jungle or from vegetables they plant around their house. They prepare the vegetable soup simply by boiling them in little water. They use no garlic, onion, chili, dried shrimp or small dried anchovy as normally used as condiments by people exposed to modernization.

My late grandmothers, her sisters, and many other older generations used to take a lot of bitter herbs and vegetables. I personally saw them taking herbal decoctions or eating vegetables of different kinds of taste. Once in a while they took slices of bitter gourd or bitter leaves as ‘ulam’. Ulam is raw or boiled (water removed) vegetables taken with ‘sambal belacan’or ‘sambal tempoyak’.

They knew that most herbs and vegetables especially bitter ones act as blood purifier. They also mentioned that frequent bitter herbs/vegetables intake would lessen the likelihood to get infected. It would also deter mosquitoes. I personally saw old folks who are used to taking bitter herbal concoctions received less mosquito bites.

As an herbalist, I love any kind of taste or after taste of herbs or vegetable I take. Local herb such as ‘Akar Seruntun’ or also known as ‘Putrawali’ (Guduchi, Tinosporia cordifolia) is very bitter and it leaves very unpleasant after taste. So does ‘Mambu’ (Neem, Azadiracta indica).

The fact that we will not be able to train everybody in this world to have the same taste bud as what we have as herbalists!

Modernization!

What’s wrong with modernization?

Nowadays most people exposed to modernization are used to take foods that suit their taste bud. Ethnic groups and people live in rural areas have no such choice as modern people do.

Most modern people expect to take herbs in encapsulated from without worrying about the taste of the herbs. They are willing to take herbal juices only when their original taste is modified. One such example is ‘mangosteen pericarp’ juice.

Why are herbalists or holistic healers so concern about taking herbs or vegetables even though most of them taste awful? Subtracting AIDS, chronic cancers, lethal epidemics, accidents, wars everybody knows that Homo sapiens has lived a wonderful life. Some lives to their eighties or seventies and some of whom seldom take vegetables or herbs.

One of the possible answers would be to prevent is better than to cure. Vegetables are not only known for its fiber contents. It provides carotenoids, bioflavonoids, terpenes, alkaloids, and sterols besides other beneficial nutrients including vitamins and minerals. Different species offer different proportions of the aforementioned phytochemicals.

These chemicals are not only beneficial to the plants to protect themselves from insects or weather but when ingested by humans, they result in various health benefits either in term of preventing illnesses, maintaining general health or curing diseases.

Am I anti-modernization then? No. I personally see that modern people should expand their perspective towards many uses as well as benefits of herbs and vegetables. They may be able to do so by feeling more responsible of their own well-being.

Herbalist Bahrain, RH (AHG)
HOLISTIC HEALTH AVENUE
www.holistic-avenue.blogspot.com