Vegetables!

I'm so excited about artichokes.

Not only are they delicately delicious, they are powerful little medicinaries, just waiting to cleanse, restore, and protect our digestive, circulatory, and cardiovascular systems!

The Globe Artichoke, Cynara scolymus, is full of nutrients.Really. Eat one medium sized globe artichoke and you'll ingest dietary fiber, magnesium, chromium, vitamin c, folic acid, biotin, manganese, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin A, and potassium. This is only part of the artichoke's goodness. In addition to getting all these vitamins and minerals, the artichoke eater consumes phytochemicals such as inulin and cynarin, which have affinities to the liver.

These phytochemicals are found in higher concentrations in the leaves, but they can also be found in the bracts and the artichoke heart. Extracted, juiced, or eaten, they stimulate bile flow and have the ability to clear out a congested liver by moving bile to and fro the gallbladder.

Called choleretics (chemicals that promote bile flow), cynarin and inulin have the ability to lower cholesterol levels because they increase excretion of cholesterol and also reduce its production in the liver. This is great for the cardiovascular system, as well as the circulatory system because artichoke leaf supports and improves the functioning of the endothelial cells (these line the arteries).

Beets. Yummy. These tasty vegetables are in the same family as spinach and swiss chard, and both the roots and leaves can be eaten. The greens are higher in calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C, but the roots are nutritional as well. They contain folic acid, fiber, manganese, and potassium, and both the roots and greens are high in magnesium, phosphorous, iron, and vitamin B6.

I was unaware, but apparently beet roots stimulate the liver's ability to detox, but I don't know much about why. The roots are high in the bioflavanoid betacyanin, which is a strong antioxidant. Because of the high fiber content in beet roots, combined with it's high betacyanin content, beets are known to have a protective quality against colon cancer.

Bitter melon is a popular food and medicine in most subtropical areas of the world, from South America to India to parts of Africa. I'm very interested in using this vegetable in the future for my own personal care, and I'm excited to share it with people I know who have diabetes, digestive issue, and women who have reproductive concerns.

The unripe bitter melon is low calorie yet very high in quite a few important nutritents, including vitamin C, folic acid, zinc, potassium, dietary fiber, thiamine,riboflavin, vitamin E, magnesium, manganese, pantothenic acid, and copper.

Bitter melon contains Popypeptide P, a vegetable insulin that can be utilized by juicing the melon, and used the same way injectible insulin would to treat people with diabetes. In addition to being able to lower blood sugar for hyperglycemics, Bitter Melon is known as a useful emmenegogue around the world, and for that reason should not be used by pregnant women (an emmenegogue is a plant used to start menstruation). It also has antiviral properties that inhibit the AIDS virus (in vitro, nothing mentioned abouthow it can be used to treat people infected with AIDS already), herpes simplex virus, and other viruses. The ripened fruit also shows some anticancer effects (spec. Leukemia).