March 15, 2025 • 31 mins
In part three of our series on the top-selling herbs in the United States, we cover wheatgrass, beet root, and ginger supplements.
As we share our opinions about these popular herbal supplements, our primary goal is to help you understand these herbs in their breadth and depth. They’re too often pigeon-holed into limited ranges of application – the usual answers to “what is it good for?” are too small! There’s plenty more to say about them than their most common selling points.
If you’re an herbalist, it’s good for you to be well-informed about herbal supplements which people take most often. You can learn what is popular, and why it is. You can understand how to answer questions about those plants, how to differentiate hype from health, how to help someone find a better alternative, and which supplements just aren’t worth the cost. This series is intended to help you do that!
If you’re new to herbalism, we’re happy that we get the first chance to form your thoughts around these herbs. At the same time, this will act as a guide to developing ‘marketing literacy’ as applied to herbal supplements – and some good old-fashioned materia medica study, too.
7. Wheatgrass / Barley grass – Triticum aestivum / Hordeum vulgare
8. Beet root – Beta vulgaris
- Beetroot profile at Herbal Reality
9. Ginger – Zingiber off.
Find the previous episode of this series here:
- HHP 240: Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 1): Psyllium, Elderberry, Turmeric, Ashwagandha
- HHP 244: Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 2): Apple Cider Vinegar, Cranberry
Whether you’re a brand-new beginner or an herbalist with experience, it’s always helpful to study the herbs in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 100 medicinal herbs!
Like all our offerings, this self-paced online video course comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi,
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm Ryn and I'm here at Commonwealth Holistic
Urbanism in Boston,Massachusetts, and on the
internet everywhere. Thanks tothe power of the podcast today,
katya's hard at work on somematerial for the business
skills course. Um, and I'mmaking a podcast episode
continuing my series here onthe top, selling herbs in
commercial products, sosupplements, capsules, gummies
(00:38):
, um, big brand tinctures thatare sold in all the stores.
That kind of stuff is whatwe're talking about in this
sequence. If you missed theearlier , uh, this is , uh,
part three in the series.
Previously we addressed the ,um, the, the first of the , uh,
the first six , uh, top sellingherbs , um, in, in the , in the
(01:00):
list. And that was cilium,elderberry, turmeric,
ashwagandha. And then afterthat, it was apple cider
vinegar and cranberry. So thoseare the top six. Today, we're
gonna get through seven, eight,and nine. Those are wheatgrass
and also barley grass , uh,beet root, and ginger. So I'm
(01:23):
gonna be trying to give you theherbalists perspective on these
things, and , uh, help to seeif we can break them outta
their boxes a little bit or addsome context, essentially. Um,
to give you the kind ofresponse that I might give, if
a client of mine came and said,Hey, Ryn , do you think this is
a good supplement? Do you thinkit's worth it? Do you think
it'll do what it claims to do?
(01:43):
Or what people say it will do?
Um, those are the kind of ideaswe're trying to get across in
this sequence. So , uh, withoutany further ado, let me just
remind you that I'm not adoctor. I'm an herbalist and a
holistic health educator. Andso the ideas discussed in this
podcast do not constitutemedical advice. No state or
federal authority licensesherbalist in the us . So these
(02:04):
discussions are for educationalpurposes only. I wanna remind
you that good health doesn'tmean the same thing for
everyone. Good health doesn'texist as an objective standard.
It's influenced by yourindividual needs, experiences,
and goals. So keep in mind, I'mnot attempting to present a
single dogmatic right way thatyou must adhere to. Everyone's
body is different. So thethings that where talking about
(02:26):
may or may not apply directlyto you , but I hope that
they're gonna give you some newinformation to think about,
some new ideas to research, andto experiment with Further
finding your way to betterhealth is both your right and
your own personalresponsibility. This doesn't
mean you're alone on thejourney, and it doesn't mean
that you're to blame for yourcurrent state of health, but it
does mean that the finaldecision, when you're
(02:47):
considering any course ofaction, whether it's discussed
on the internet or prescribedby a physician, that's always
your choice to make. Okay? Andlet's, let's have it be an
informed choice. You know,that's kind of the subtext of
of, of that reclaimer ,uh, leading into an
informational, educational typeof a podcast. So I think you
knew that though, right? Thatwas clear to begin with. All
(03:09):
right , so let's get into it.
Um, we're looking at numberseven on the bestselling list
and recall, these are thenumbers from the year 2023. We
won't have data for 2024 untilprobably October of 2025.
That's usually when this reportcomes out with the, the data
for the preceding year. Sothat's the most current data
we've got to work with, alright? But , um, in that span of
(03:32):
time, wheat, grass , and alsobarley grass , we're hitting at
number seven on the bestsellerlist. And remember, this is all
still in the mainstreamchannel. We'll come to the
so-called natural channel , uh,towards the tail end of this
series. But mainstream channel,you know, we're trying to look
at the maximum possible viewhere. The , the widest , uh,
type of sales, and that is,that is what you call the
(03:55):
mainstream, you know? So , um,just to give a little, little
grounding on that. So, yeah, sonumber seven, wheat grass and
barley grass . Now, these twoare combined. Um, they are
separate plants, but combiningthem makes sense because , um,
they're, they're recommendedand perceived and consumed in
essentially the same way byanybody who's preparing them or
(04:18):
selling them or buying them.
Um, in, in essentially allcircumstances that I've ever
encountered. That's, that's a ,an ident ident , an identity
relation, you know , um, sowheat here we're talking about
tricom, aum and related triumspecies as well. And then
barley, that's Jem vulgar . Um,so with these ones, there was
(04:42):
an increase in sales. Um, saleswere up , uh, about 104% of, of
these from the prior years data, um, which essentially means a
, a doubling in sales, right?
So that's pretty good , uh, forthe people who make it. But
what's the deal with this?
Like, why are people into it?
When you look at some of theclaims about wheat grass or
(05:05):
barley grass , um, some of themare a little over promising, as
far as I can see, right? You'llsee claims about this amp
amping up detox functions inthe body, or providing some
profound kind of nutrition thatyou can't get anywhere else.
And that's not exactly thetruth as I understand it. Okay?
(05:26):
So when I look at wheat grassand barley grass , the benefits
that I see present there, thereare some that exist , right?
They are primarily derived fromthe chlorophyll that they
provide. Um, when you take adark green plant material and
you blenderized it, 'causeusually these are consumed as a
juice or maybe as a powder thatyou're gonna mix with water and
(05:48):
slug back as a drink, right?
Um, anything that has that deepgreen color from chlorophyll
has chlorophyll in it, andchlorophyll is helpful.
Chlorophyll itself serves , uh,a broad array of functions in
human physiology , um,including some
anti-inflammatory action andsome effects to help to
(06:08):
normalize blood sugar levels orto especially to reduce , uh,
unhealthy spikes and crashes inblood sugar. Um, and I, I like
to, to comment on that aboutchlorophyll whenever it comes
up. You know, in my , um, inour course on phyto chemistry,
I spend a while in theretalking about chlorophyll and
(06:29):
how there's a very closestructural similarity between
chlorophyll in plants andhemoglobin in humans. And we
think that that's meaningful.
We think that there's someinteresting parallels going on
there. Um, but that's not tosay that chlorophyll is like
replacement hemoglobin, or youcan turn your blood green if
you eat enough veggies. Um, itis though to say that this is
(06:51):
something that humans haveconsumed for our entire
evolutionary history, often invery large amounts because we
would be forging on wild greensand , um, and then later of
course, growing and cultivatinggreen leafy veggies and eating
them as a staple part of mostdiets , um, throughout most of
the world, throughout most ofhistory, , right? And
of course , uh, we allunderstand that it's healthy to
(07:13):
eat green leafy veggies and toget not just the chlorophyll,
but also the fiber and otherminerals and nutrients and
vitamins and stuff that theyprovide, right? Um, and so all
of that is true, and that's ,uh, one of the many good
reasons to eat, eat green leafyveggies, right? But it also
means that when we're lookingat wheat grass , um, the
(07:35):
perspective that I've come tois if you eat green leafy
vegetables with any kind ofregularity, any kind of
significant quantity, then youdon't need to drink grass
juice. And that, in fact, it'shealthier for your body to eat
green leafy veggies than it isto drink grass juice. So if you
enjoy drinking grass juice, ifit just tastes good to you and
(07:58):
you like how it feels, and yousqueeze some lemon in there and
make a little grass juicecocktail, cool, go for it.
That's fine. Um, as long as youdon't have a gluten
sensitivity. I'll say moreabout that in a moment. Um ,
but I would not regard this asbeing a uniquely potent source
of nutrition. Honestly, if wewere to line , uh, the nutrient
numbers for wheat grass andbarley grass up against those
(08:20):
for something like nettle , um,I still find that the nettle
comes out on top, right? So , um, so, and the other
element is that these are notlike nettle in the context of
having , uh, a variety of otherinteresting and, and potent ,
uh, phyto constituents at playwith nettle. We're getting not
(08:41):
just a , a high representationof keratin , um, a nice , uh,
anti-inflammatory, antiallergenic , uh, histamine
modulating friend , um, butalso a lot of activity that's
centered on kidney function anddiuretic effects and
anti-inflammatory power throughthe kidney in particular. Um,
and so for most of our greenherbs that we regard on as
(09:03):
being nutritive agents, inaddition to having more
specific medicinal activity ,uh, I , again, I find that the
wheat grass and barley grassisn't super impressive by
comparison. So , um, the noteabout gluten, right? Uh, now a
gluten is a general term for aprotein found in a seed or a
(09:24):
grain. Uh, and so when peoplegrow wheat grass, you are
harvesting it before it canform the grain or the, or the
seed, right? So technicallyspeaking, there shouldn't be
gluten in wheat grass or inbarley grass . However , uh,
there are always issues ofcross-contamination, especially
if this is more of like a massproduced product or something
(09:46):
you're gonna buy that's alreadymade. Um, it is entirely
possible that there could besome cross-contamination or
that could, there could besome, you know, very early
formed , uh, bits of seed thatgot thrown into the mix. And so
if you have, particularly ifyou have a significant, a
strong gluten sensitivity,you're on the celiac end of the
spectrum, as opposed to the nodiscernible symptoms end of
(10:08):
the, of the sensitivityspectrum, right? The closer you
are to that, to that end of it, uh, the less good idea it is
for you to consume wheatgrassor barley grass , because there
can be reactions. And we haveindeed had , um, feedback from
clients and students withstrong gluten sensitivity , um,
who found that they had anegative reaction to consuming
(10:30):
these things. So just in thesame way that we steer people
away from working with oatstraw or milky oats when they
have a gluten sensitivity, samething over here, I would steer
that person away from takingwheat grass or barley grass
shots. Okay, there we go.
Number eight , uh, on thebestseller list was beat , beat
(10:51):
, root , beta vulgaris . Allright ? Um, uh, noteworthy
element here , uh, for be rootin terms of sales over that
period of time, out of all ofthe items that they tracked ,
uh, in, in this investigation,this market study, bee root
supplements had the highestlevel of percentage , uh, sales
growth. So compared to theirprior, you know, sales, they
(11:14):
had the biggest leap forward,right? And , uh, out of , out
of everything on, on all of thelists, this was the biggest,
the biggest jump in that givenyear. Um, when you look back
through the, the priorpublications, what you'll
actually observe is that beetroot supplements have been
rapidly climbing the charts inthe past five years, since like
2018 on forward, it's been likebeet root shows up, and then it
(11:38):
jumps a few places and then afew more, and now it's like all
the way up here at numbereight. Um, so that's all to say
that there's been a trend ofincreasing interests , um, and
increasing sales , uh, forthese products over that, over
that course of time, people arehyped about beets. People are
like, ah, yes, beets , uh, it'sa , it's a good red food. And
also we can do supplements withit. We can make these
(12:00):
concentrated , uh, juice shots.
We can make these isolatedtablets and capsules and stuff
for people to swallow. I'veseen beet root extract gummies
out there now,, youknow, 'cause there's a gummy
for everything these days. Um,and so what's going on? What's,
what's the deal with this? Whenyou check into it, what you'll
find is , uh, often centeredaround blood circulation. Um,
(12:22):
really if we step back, so beetroot is a , a rich source of
these compounds callednitrates, and those are
metabolized in our bodies tosomething called nitric oxide,
nitric oxide, or it's writtenno capital n , capital o nitric
oxide. Um, so nitrates aresupportive to, and these are,
(12:46):
these are like from productclaims, right ? Supports muscle
health, supports metabolichealth supports vascular
function, right? Sospecifically what's going on
here is that nitric oxideserves a vasodilatory function.
So if you think of a vein or ablood vessel like a tube, if
you dilate that tube, youexpand it , uh, that reduces
(13:09):
the pressure on the fluidinside of the tube. Okay? Um,
so this is gonna allow bloodflow to areas where it had been
restricted. Blood flow can berestricted. When those tubes
are too small, they're toosqueezed down, they're too
tense, right? Hypertension is amedical term for high blood
pressure resulting fromtension, too much tightness in
(13:33):
the blood vessels when theydilate, when they open up, then
the blood pressure goes down.
But also you get better bloodflow to the periphery of your
body, to the inner organs, toplaces that need to have that,
that movement in , in, in thecirculation in order to be fed
with blood to clear away wasteproducts and toxins that may be
(13:54):
generated as part of normalmetabolism. Um, so this is
indeed a good thing. Um, nitricoxide effects on blood flow and
circulation and blood movement,those can really account for
much of the observed benefitsof bee root as a food and also
as a, as a supplement. Um,nitrates have this other
(14:16):
interesting thing, and this iswhere we get into more of the
like sports element. And theworkout element is that when
you have more nitrates in yoursystem, like more available to
you , they reduce oxygenconsumption , um, in the
muscles when they are working,when they're under load , when
you're, when you're doingsomething with your muscles.
(14:36):
Um, a way to say this is thatit lowers the, the energy cost
, uh, of your body. So, youknow, when you work your
muscles, it's burning fuel, youburn sugars. Um, you, what you
really do is you burn thisthing called a TP at the , down
at the cellular level, right?
But that can be created fromvarious substrates, sugars, and
(14:57):
fats and proteins and, andketones can all be transformed
into a TP and then utilized,right? Um, when we have more
nitrate available, we're ableto run that fire more
efficiently. Um, and at thesame time as that's going on,
we're having that, thatincrease in blood circulation,
right? Um, and so we're notgetting like, restricted blood
(15:20):
flow to a working muscle, whichis never, never a good thing.
Um, that's, that's where we getcramps, that's where we get
spasms. Um, that's one way todescribe a heart attack,
actually restricted blood flowto a muscle that's working over
time . Um , so anyway,nitrates, good blood
circulation, good loweredenergy costs at the, at the
muscles and the metaboliclevel. Good, right? Um , just
(15:42):
as a little side note, youknow, another thing that boosts
nitric oxide production, sunexposure, healthy sun exposure,
of course, right? I'm notsaying go ahead and burn
yourself until you're beat redand then suddenly your , uh,
your nitric oxidepowers will be, will be mighty
and amazing. But some sunexposure does in fact cause
this reaction. And this is onemore reason , uh, if we need
(16:06):
another one to exercise outsideas much as possible. Um, and as
much as you know, your climateand your latitude allows, all
right ? So , uh, all of thistaken into account, we can
understand why beat root waskind of popularized first, like
starting five or even sevenyears back as something like an
energy support supplement.
(16:26):
Something that's gonna bemarketed for performance
benefits towards athletes andpeople who exercise and people
who work out , okay. Um, somebeneficial effects of beat have
also been established even inhealthy young people , uh, now
focusing on endurance andpost-workout recovery. So we
get to you on a treadmill, seehow long you can go , uh, have
(16:50):
you rest for a while . Wesupplement you with Bee Root
for a while . We bring you backin treadmill tests , see your
endurance. We see animprovement. We, we have you do
a hard workout. We give somepeople sibo , some people bee
root supplement, people whotook the bee root , they're
able to bounce back or theyfeel less pain and soreness and
discomfort after their workoutor resulting from it. Um, and
(17:12):
then bee root has been testedin different types of workouts
as well , um, includingendurance type workouts. Ones
that are focused on explosivepower , um, like rapid power
generation, like lift something, uh, heavy as fast as you can
and throw it as far as you can.
That's explosive power, right?
Um, or even like striking,striking power if you're
(17:34):
hitting a bag or you havesomething that can like,
measure the Newtons of forceyou exert with each punch, you
know , um, we can seeimprovements in that kind of
thing. Uh, but also in high,high intensity interval
training or just straight highintensity training , um, with
been improvements found there.
So the , the point to take awayis that this does actually seem
to be a supplement , um, or afood as well. 'cause you can
(17:56):
get most, if not all of thebenefits of be from eating them
as a food in sufficientquantity , um, as you can get
from taking a supplement. But,but it's helpful for multiple
different types of exercise,not just one. There are some
supposed workout boosters orperformance enhancing
supplements that might behelpful for endurance, but not
(18:20):
have much impact on explosivepower generation or sprint type
workouts or things like that,and vice versa. But beet does
seem to be pretty general, sothat's cool. That's cool. What
we're seeing more recently withbeet root supplements is that
they're reaching the generalpopulation. Um, so not just
like athletes and, and, youknow, workout freaks and that
(18:43):
kind of thing, right ? Uh, whoI'm right there with you, right
? But we're seeing thismarketed now for more
generalized cardiovascularsupport and even for cognitive
support. Um, and this is notoff base , right ? Again, if we
just look at that basicfunction of providing nitrates
boosting nitric oxideproduction, we're gonna get
(19:05):
that vasodilation effect thatdoes lower blood pressure. And
since the most commonexpression of cardiovascular
trouble is gonna includeelevated blood pressure, that
makes sense to go ahead andcall that a cardiovascular
support herb. Cool. Um, by theway, there is a question to ask
as always, like, well, if thisis something that can take high
(19:27):
blood pressure and bring itdown, should you avoid it if
you have low blood pressure?
And the answer to that isactually no. Because the things
that tend to be forcing yourblood pressure low are not like
an overabundance of nitricoxide activity or something
that this is gonna exacerbateor, or multiply. Um, so I
wouldn't look at someone withlow blood pressure and say, you
(19:48):
should never touch a beatagain. I don't think that
that's required. I don't thinkthat's necessary. Um, and as
far as cognitive support goes,you know, again, just to say,
increased blood flow includesbetter blood flow to your
brain. Um, and , uh, like it ornot, you know, your, your brain
is a physical organ thatrequires good circulation of
fluids in order to functionwell. A surprising amount of
(20:10):
brain fog and other discomfortscan be mitigated. Um, and
therefore explained , uh, byimproving blood flow and
indicating that poor blood flowwas a major issue there. Um, we
don't wanna leave out otherfactors, of course, right?
There could be a deeperproblem. It could be that your
CO2 levels are getting up intothe two thousands range. You
(20:31):
know, like there's lots ofthings that can give you, give
you a cognitive issue, but ,um, poor blood flow is
certainly among them. And tothe extent that be beet root is
gonna improve circulation, wecould see a , a beneficial
change there. Alright ? So beetroot supplements are fairly
new, but beet of itself as afood is very, very old,
(20:52):
right? Uh, this is a , atraditional food in large swats
of the world for a longstarches of dime. Um, and that
includes both as , uh, as likea , a cooked vegetable. Um, and
even in a lot of circumstancescan be consumed raw , um, but
also fermented. Um, and sofermented foods , uh, with
(21:13):
beet, like if you go to somegrocery stores today, you can
find a jar of sliced beets thathave been fermented, and you
can eat those up. That's agreat way to take them. Um, now
you're getting all the goodstuff we just said about beet
plus some probiotics. Great,fantastic. This is really good.
Um, also fermented drinks likekavas , uh, is like a beet
(21:34):
juice that's been fermented,sometimes even a little fizzy.
Um, but, you know, beets have ,uh, a lot of thing , a lot of
appeal to them because they'rea bit sweet, you know. And then
of course there are the sugarbeets , which are, you
know , um, selectively bred tohave more and more sugar
content, and they are a sourcefor, for sugar directly. Um,
but , um, I'm talking moreabout like the food beets. The,
(21:57):
the ones with the dark redcolor red is critical here. Um,
so red isn't like an exactindicator for the amount of
nitrate in your beets, but itis the presence of , um, beta
laan alkaloids , uh, which arepresent in beets as well, and
contribute , uh, a fair amountto some of their medicinal
(22:19):
impacts , um, primarily in theanti-inflammatory range. Um,
but that's complimentary to theeffects of the nitrates. And so
I wouldn't wanna leave thatout. Um, and I'd say the redder
your beats the better. Yeah,there are gold meats , uh, gold
beats. Um, I believe that thoseare more of a carotenoid
presentation, but , um, they'relovely. Uh, they're, they're,
(22:42):
they're just fine. And they ,they do have a , a good strong
representation of the nitricoxide content. So , uh, or the
nitrite content, the precursor,so we can, we can get into that
too. Very good. So that wasbeat. And then here we go with
number nine, ginger. Boy, thereis a lot to say about ginger,
and in fact, we have said a lotabout ginger , um,. So
(23:04):
, uh, I would point you back toepisode 227. That was our
herbs, A to z, A to Z series,and the whole episode was all
about zinger . Um, it was thelast one in the, in the
sequence and , uh, reallyclosed it out with a bang
there. So , um, for theherbalist perspective on
(23:24):
ginger, we took a good chunk ofit there. I think it was an
hour , uh, or more where wewere just talking about that
herb and all the different waysyou can work with it. Um, but
for our purposes in this seriestoday, let's just note that
ginger is very similar toturmeric. You know, one of
those , uh, top four herbs ,uh, turmeric, ginger is also
(23:44):
what I would call a digestivefirst , systemic, second
anti-inflammatory herb. So bythat I mean that when you work
with ginger, the primary effect, the dominant effect, the
first effect you're gonna findis gonna be relieving
inflammation. And also wereleaving tension and warming and
(24:07):
activating this , the , themovement and the , the
metabolism first in the GItract, and then there's some
effects that spill out fromthere and get into your muscles
and other organs and to yourjoints and connective tissues
and so on. Um, so you, you can,and I think should regard
(24:27):
ginger as just as potent, justas multifactorial, just as
beautiful of ananti-inflammatory herb, as
turmeric. Um , because that'swhat we find it to be. Now,
most commercial products aregoing to advertise ginger
simply for digestive support.
And , um, that is the waypeople tend to know this herb
best. Its capacity to relievenausea is fairly common
(24:51):
knowledge. Like even if peopleonly know that about ginger
ale. Um, and when I was a kid,it was like, well, you have to,
if you're, if you're sick withnausea, then you have to open
the ginger ale and pour it outand let it get flat and then go
ahead and drink it. And therewas like some special magic in
letting it get flat. It'sreally just not having the
carbon dioxide bubbles irritate, uh, an already irritated
(25:11):
stomach lining. But, you know,when I was a kid it was some
kind of magic spell,right? Um, but , uh, but ginger
can be taken in lots ofdifferent ways to relieve
nausea. And um, and I thinkthat's a key thing to keep in
mind when considering ginger.
Like, don't only identify itwith the capsules or a little
(25:32):
bit of spice powder that goesinto meals, right? Ginger , um,
can be effective as tincture.
Uh, a few drops might besufficient, and tincture can be
really good when there'snausea, but you don't wanna
swallow a whole lot all atonce. Like, you don't wanna be
taking big sips of tea, a dropor two of ginger on your
tongue, give it 10 or 20minutes and see what we get,
right? Um, that can be reallygood. But, but tea can also be
(25:55):
very effective for nausea. Um,uh, ginger powder mixed with
honey into an ary preparation.
Ginger candy , uh, or candiedginger , um, you know, chunks
or slices of ginger that havebeen soaked in honey or sugar
syrup and dried out. You canprepare your own ginger infused
honey. You've got the, the, theginger flavored honey first,
(26:19):
and then you have your kind oflike homemade candy ginger
towards the end. Um, lots ofdifferent ways to work with
this plant. Really, reallyhandy. A lot of people are
familiar with it already, youknow, from culinary traditions,
from cooking, from familyrecipes and things like that.
Um, but uh, again, we can takeit in lots of ways and we can
work with it for a lot ofdifferent things. Ginger is, I
(26:42):
would consider it afoundational herb. Um, and for
me, you know, that doesn't justmean an herb that is very
powerful or an herb that isvery special in what it does
actually for me, it more oftenmeans herbs that are really
abundant. I would considergarlic another foundational
remedy. Um, I would considerpeppermint one, I would
(27:03):
consider chamomile one. Um, andone thing that these all share
in addition to being widelyavailable, very accessible ,
uh, generally very affordable as well. And those are
all extremely valuablequalities. And in herb , um, is
that this is what we call apoly crest herb . It can do
many different things. Sobeyond being just, oh, take
(27:25):
this when you have nausea,ginger is like deeply, deeply
warming and releasing oftension, relaxant and also
anti-inflammatory to yourviscera, to your blood, to your
muscles, to your mind even,right? Don't neglect ginger for
patterns of, of mental cold.
(27:47):
Um, any more than you wouldneglect ginger for patterns of
digestive cold. 'cause it canaffect both of them. Um, and
then if you fold in topicalremedies as well as ingested
remedies, you know, like theapplications for ginger are
just really extensive, reallyvaried. Um, it's one of the
best herbs to learn , uh, in myopinion because of all these,
(28:07):
these aspects of it that I've,I've just listed off to you. So
, um, so I think it's greatthat Ginger is very popular and
I'm always happy to see it ,uh, on these lists. Um, and ,
uh, doing well and being wellknown in lots of different
formats out there amongst the,amongst the everybody. Yeah.
Okay. So again , um, a littledeeper dive into Ginger. Follow
(28:30):
the link in the show notes overto episode 2 27 and we'll get a
lot more there. We also , uh,have a hour long profile , uh,
a , a different oneokay. About ginger in our
Material Medica course. Um, andin fact on the , uh, the page
for the Material Medica course,there's a preview. And the
(28:50):
preview is that video all aboutginger. So even if you don't go
ahead and buy the MaterialMedica course and dive right
in, you can get that entry onGinger, you can check that out.
But I hope that you will , um,consider , uh, the Ria Medica
course because, you know, it'salways really helpful to study
the herbs in depth , um, tostudy one herb and say, I wanna
(29:12):
know everything that I can dowith that plant. I wanna know
all of its actions really getnuanced about its flavor,
different ways we can apply itand work with it. Different
reasons we might have forcalling on it to just really
dive in. 'cause it helps you tosee an herb not only in one of
those boxes, but to, to breakout and to expand that vision.
So we find this to be a really,really helpful practice. The
(29:34):
material medical course hasdetailed profiles of a hundred
medicinal plants and like allof the things we offer, this is
a self-paced video course,primarily. You can also just
get the audio files , um, anddownload those. Put them on
your phone, take a walk in theforest, or chop some ginger ,
uh, as you prepare that intoyour own honey infusion while
(29:54):
you listen and learn about it.
Um, all of our courses alsocome with access , uh, to twice
week , twice weekly live q anda sessions with me and Katya ,
uh, lifetime access to thecurrent material and any
material we add to the coursein the future. We've got
discussion threads in eachcourse. You ask your questions
right as you learn. We've gotan active student community,
(30:15):
which is like Facebook, butbetter 'cause it's Herbal
. Um , and it's , uh, aseparate app on your phone and
everything. We've got studyguides for you, we've got
quizzes, we've got a capstoneassignment at the end of each
major course. So , um, lots ofdifferent ways to enhance and
to deepen your learning. Um,that's really our goal with the
online program is to make iteasy for you to learn, to reach
(30:38):
people who learn in differentways, to provide material in a,
in a variety of , uh, formats.
And to be available to you toanswer your questions directly
, um, and to, to help you outso you can advance here. So
anyway, there will be a link tothat in the show notes and I do
hope that you check it out. Allright , everybody. That's it
for this episode. Um, take careof yourselves, take care of
(31:00):
each other, drink some tea, eatsome beets, and enjoy all of
the wonders that Ginger canbring and we'll be back soon.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm Ryn and I'm here at Commonwealth Holistic
Urbanism in Boston,Massachusetts, and on the
internet everywhere. Thanks tothe power of the podcast today,
katya's hard at work on somematerial for the business
skills course. Um, and I'mmaking a podcast episode
continuing my series here onthe top, selling herbs in
commercial products, sosupplements, capsules, gummies
(00:38):
, um, big brand tinctures thatare sold in all the stores.
That kind of stuff is whatwe're talking about in this
sequence. If you missed theearlier , uh, this is , uh,
part three in the series.
Previously we addressed the ,um, the, the first of the , uh,
the first six , uh, top sellingherbs , um, in, in the , in the
(01:00):
list. And that was cilium,elderberry, turmeric,
ashwagandha. And then afterthat, it was apple cider
vinegar and cranberry. So thoseare the top six. Today, we're
gonna get through seven, eight,and nine. Those are wheatgrass
and also barley grass , uh,beet root, and ginger. So I'm
(01:23):
gonna be trying to give you theherbalists perspective on these
things, and , uh, help to seeif we can break them outta
their boxes a little bit or addsome context, essentially. Um,
to give you the kind ofresponse that I might give, if
a client of mine came and said,Hey, Ryn , do you think this is
a good supplement? Do you thinkit's worth it? Do you think
it'll do what it claims to do?
(01:43):
Or what people say it will do?
Um, those are the kind of ideaswe're trying to get across in
this sequence. So , uh, withoutany further ado, let me just
remind you that I'm not adoctor. I'm an herbalist and a
holistic health educator. Andso the ideas discussed in this
podcast do not constitutemedical advice. No state or
federal authority licensesherbalist in the us . So these
(02:04):
discussions are for educationalpurposes only. I wanna remind
you that good health doesn'tmean the same thing for
everyone. Good health doesn'texist as an objective standard.
It's influenced by yourindividual needs, experiences,
and goals. So keep in mind, I'mnot attempting to present a
single dogmatic right way thatyou must adhere to. Everyone's
body is different. So thethings that where talking about
(02:26):
may or may not apply directlyto you , but I hope that
they're gonna give you some newinformation to think about,
some new ideas to research, andto experiment with Further
finding your way to betterhealth is both your right and
your own personalresponsibility. This doesn't
mean you're alone on thejourney, and it doesn't mean
that you're to blame for yourcurrent state of health, but it
does mean that the finaldecision, when you're
(02:47):
considering any course ofaction, whether it's discussed
on the internet or prescribedby a physician, that's always
your choice to make. Okay? Andlet's, let's have it be an
informed choice. You know,that's kind of the subtext of
informational, educational typeof a podcast. So I think you
knew that though, right? Thatwas clear to begin with. All
(03:09):
right , so let's get into it.
Um, we're looking at numberseven on the bestselling list
and recall, these are thenumbers from the year 2023. We
won't have data for 2024 untilprobably October of 2025.
That's usually when this reportcomes out with the, the data
for the preceding year. Sothat's the most current data
we've got to work with, alright? But , um, in that span of
(03:32):
time, wheat, grass , and alsobarley grass , we're hitting at
number seven on the bestsellerlist. And remember, this is all
still in the mainstreamchannel. We'll come to the
so-called natural channel , uh,towards the tail end of this
series. But mainstream channel,you know, we're trying to look
at the maximum possible viewhere. The , the widest , uh,
type of sales, and that is,that is what you call the
(03:55):
mainstream, you know? So , um,just to give a little, little
grounding on that. So, yeah, sonumber seven, wheat grass and
barley grass . Now, these twoare combined. Um, they are
separate plants, but combiningthem makes sense because , um,
they're, they're recommendedand perceived and consumed in
essentially the same way byanybody who's preparing them or
(04:18):
selling them or buying them.
Um, in, in essentially allcircumstances that I've ever
encountered. That's, that's a ,an ident ident , an identity
relation, you know , um, sowheat here we're talking about
tricom, aum and related triumspecies as well. And then
barley, that's Jem vulgar . Um,so with these ones, there was
(04:42):
an increase in sales. Um, saleswere up , uh, about 104% of, of
these from the prior years data, um, which essentially means a
, a doubling in sales, right?
So that's pretty good , uh, forthe people who make it. But
what's the deal with this?
Like, why are people into it?
When you look at some of theclaims about wheat grass or
(05:05):
barley grass , um, some of themare a little over promising, as
far as I can see, right? You'llsee claims about this amp
amping up detox functions inthe body, or providing some
profound kind of nutrition thatyou can't get anywhere else.
And that's not exactly thetruth as I understand it. Okay?
(05:26):
So when I look at wheat grassand barley grass , the benefits
that I see present there, thereare some that exist , right?
They are primarily derived fromthe chlorophyll that they
provide. Um, when you take adark green plant material and
you blenderized it, 'causeusually these are consumed as a
juice or maybe as a powder thatyou're gonna mix with water and
(05:48):
slug back as a drink, right?
Um, anything that has that deepgreen color from chlorophyll
has chlorophyll in it, andchlorophyll is helpful.
Chlorophyll itself serves , uh,a broad array of functions in
human physiology , um,including some
anti-inflammatory action andsome effects to help to
(06:08):
normalize blood sugar levels orto especially to reduce , uh,
unhealthy spikes and crashes inblood sugar. Um, and I, I like
to, to comment on that aboutchlorophyll whenever it comes
up. You know, in my , um, inour course on phyto chemistry,
I spend a while in theretalking about chlorophyll and
(06:29):
how there's a very closestructural similarity between
chlorophyll in plants andhemoglobin in humans. And we
think that that's meaningful.
We think that there's someinteresting parallels going on
there. Um, but that's not tosay that chlorophyll is like
replacement hemoglobin, or youcan turn your blood green if
you eat enough veggies. Um, itis though to say that this is
(06:51):
something that humans haveconsumed for our entire
evolutionary history, often invery large amounts because we
would be forging on wild greensand , um, and then later of
course, growing and cultivatinggreen leafy veggies and eating
them as a staple part of mostdiets , um, throughout most of
the world, throughout most ofhistory,
of course , uh, we allunderstand that it's healthy to
(07:13):
eat green leafy veggies and toget not just the chlorophyll,
but also the fiber and otherminerals and nutrients and
vitamins and stuff that theyprovide, right? Um, and so all
of that is true, and that's ,uh, one of the many good
reasons to eat, eat green leafyveggies, right? But it also
means that when we're lookingat wheat grass , um, the
(07:35):
perspective that I've come tois if you eat green leafy
vegetables with any kind ofregularity, any kind of
significant quantity, then youdon't need to drink grass
juice. And that, in fact, it'shealthier for your body to eat
green leafy veggies than it isto drink grass juice. So if you
enjoy drinking grass juice, ifit just tastes good to you and
(07:58):
you like how it feels, and yousqueeze some lemon in there and
make a little grass juicecocktail, cool, go for it.
That's fine. Um, as long as youdon't have a gluten
sensitivity. I'll say moreabout that in a moment. Um ,
but I would not regard this asbeing a uniquely potent source
of nutrition. Honestly, if wewere to line , uh, the nutrient
numbers for wheat grass andbarley grass up against those
(08:20):
for something like nettle , um,I still find that the nettle
comes out on top
element is that these are notlike nettle in the context of
having , uh, a variety of otherinteresting and, and potent ,
uh, phyto constituents at playwith nettle. We're getting not
(08:41):
just a , a high representationof keratin , um, a nice , uh,
anti-inflammatory, antiallergenic , uh, histamine
modulating friend , um, butalso a lot of activity that's
centered on kidney function anddiuretic effects and
anti-inflammatory power throughthe kidney in particular. Um,
and so for most of our greenherbs that we regard on as
(09:03):
being nutritive agents, inaddition to having more
specific medicinal activity ,uh, I , again, I find that the
wheat grass and barley grassisn't super impressive by
comparison. So , um, the noteabout gluten, right? Uh, now a
gluten is a general term for aprotein found in a seed or a
(09:24):
grain. Uh, and so when peoplegrow wheat grass, you are
harvesting it before it canform the grain or the, or the
seed, right? So technicallyspeaking, there shouldn't be
gluten in wheat grass or inbarley grass . However , uh,
there are always issues ofcross-contamination, especially
if this is more of like a massproduced product or something
(09:46):
you're gonna buy that's alreadymade. Um, it is entirely
possible that there could besome cross-contamination or
that could, there could besome, you know, very early
formed , uh, bits of seed thatgot thrown into the mix. And so
if you have, particularly ifyou have a significant, a
strong gluten sensitivity,you're on the celiac end of the
spectrum, as opposed to the nodiscernible symptoms end of
(10:08):
the, of the sensitivityspectrum, right? The closer you
are to that, to that end of it, uh, the less good idea it is
for you to consume wheatgrassor barley grass , because there
can be reactions. And we haveindeed had , um, feedback from
clients and students withstrong gluten sensitivity , um,
who found that they had anegative reaction to consuming
(10:30):
these things. So just in thesame way that we steer people
away from working with oatstraw or milky oats when they
have a gluten sensitivity, samething over here, I would steer
that person away from takingwheat grass or barley grass
shots. Okay, there we go.
Number eight , uh, on thebestseller list was beat , beat
(10:51):
, root , beta vulgaris . Allright ? Um, uh, noteworthy
element here , uh, for be rootin terms of sales over that
period of time, out of all ofthe items that they tracked ,
uh, in, in this investigation,this market study, bee root
supplements had the highestlevel of percentage , uh, sales
growth. So compared to theirprior, you know, sales, they
(11:14):
had the biggest leap forward,right? And , uh, out of , out
of everything on, on all of thelists, this was the biggest,
the biggest jump in that givenyear. Um, when you look back
through the, the priorpublications, what you'll
actually observe is that beetroot supplements have been
rapidly climbing the charts inthe past five years, since like
2018 on forward, it's been likebeet root shows up, and then it
(11:38):
jumps a few places and then afew more, and now it's like all
the way up here at numbereight. Um, so that's all to say
that there's been a trend ofincreasing interests , um, and
increasing sales , uh, forthese products over that, over
that course of time, people arehyped about beets. People are
like, ah, yes, beets , uh, it'sa , it's a good red food. And
also we can do supplements withit. We can make these
(12:00):
concentrated , uh, juice shots.
We can make these isolatedtablets and capsules and stuff
for people to swallow. I'veseen beet root extract gummies
out there now,
for everything these days. Um,and so what's going on? What's,
what's the deal with this? Whenyou check into it, what you'll
find is , uh, often centeredaround blood circulation. Um,
(12:22):
really if we step back, so beetroot is a , a rich source of
these compounds callednitrates, and those are
metabolized in our bodies tosomething called nitric oxide,
nitric oxide, or it's writtenno capital n , capital o nitric
oxide. Um, so nitrates aresupportive to, and these are,
(12:46):
these are like from productclaims, right ? Supports muscle
health, supports metabolichealth supports vascular
function, right? Sospecifically what's going on
here is that nitric oxideserves a vasodilatory function.
So if you think of a vein or ablood vessel like a tube, if
you dilate that tube, youexpand it , uh, that reduces
(13:09):
the pressure on the fluidinside of the tube. Okay? Um,
so this is gonna allow bloodflow to areas where it had been
restricted. Blood flow can berestricted. When those tubes
are too small, they're toosqueezed down, they're too
tense, right? Hypertension is amedical term for high blood
pressure resulting fromtension, too much tightness in
(13:33):
the blood vessels when theydilate, when they open up, then
the blood pressure goes down.
But also you get better bloodflow to the periphery of your
body, to the inner organs, toplaces that need to have that,
that movement in , in, in thecirculation in order to be fed
with blood to clear away wasteproducts and toxins that may be
(13:54):
generated as part of normalmetabolism. Um, so this is
indeed a good thing. Um, nitricoxide effects on blood flow and
circulation and blood movement,those can really account for
much of the observed benefitsof bee root as a food and also
as a, as a supplement. Um,nitrates have this other
(14:16):
interesting thing, and this iswhere we get into more of the
like sports element. And theworkout element is that when
you have more nitrates in yoursystem, like more available to
you , they reduce oxygenconsumption , um, in the
muscles when they are working,when they're under load , when
you're, when you're doingsomething with your muscles.
(14:36):
Um, a way to say this is thatit lowers the, the energy cost
, uh, of your body. So, youknow, when you work your
muscles, it's burning fuel, youburn sugars. Um, you, what you
really do is you burn thisthing called a TP at the , down
at the cellular level, right?
But that can be created fromvarious substrates, sugars, and
(14:57):
fats and proteins and, andketones can all be transformed
into a TP and then utilized,right? Um, when we have more
nitrate available, we're ableto run that fire more
efficiently. Um, and at thesame time as that's going on,
we're having that, thatincrease in blood circulation,
right? Um, and so we're notgetting like, restricted blood
(15:20):
flow to a working muscle, whichis never, never a good thing.
Um, that's, that's where we getcramps, that's where we get
spasms. Um, that's one way todescribe a heart attack,
actually restricted blood flowto a muscle that's working over
time . Um , so anyway,nitrates, good blood
circulation, good loweredenergy costs at the, at the
muscles and the metaboliclevel. Good, right? Um , just
(15:42):
as a little side note, youknow, another thing that boosts
nitric oxide production, sunexposure, healthy sun exposure,
of course, right? I'm notsaying go ahead and burn
yourself until you're beat redand then suddenly your , uh,
and amazing. But some sunexposure does in fact cause
this reaction. And this is onemore reason , uh, if we need
(16:06):
another one to exercise outsideas much as possible. Um, and as
much as you know, your climateand your latitude allows, all
right ? So , uh, all of thistaken into account, we can
understand why beat root waskind of popularized first, like
starting five or even sevenyears back as something like an
energy support supplement.
(16:26):
Something that's gonna bemarketed for performance
benefits towards athletes andpeople who exercise and people
who work out , okay. Um, somebeneficial effects of beat have
also been established even inhealthy young people , uh, now
focusing on endurance andpost-workout recovery. So we
get to you on a treadmill, seehow long you can go , uh, have
(16:50):
you rest for a while . Wesupplement you with Bee Root
for a while . We bring you backin treadmill tests , see your
endurance. We see animprovement. We, we have you do
a hard workout. We give somepeople sibo , some people bee
root supplement, people whotook the bee root , they're
able to bounce back or theyfeel less pain and soreness and
discomfort after their workoutor resulting from it. Um, and
(17:12):
then bee root has been testedin different types of workouts
as well , um, includingendurance type workouts. Ones
that are focused on explosivepower , um, like rapid power
generation, like lift something, uh, heavy as fast as you can
and throw it as far as you can.
That's explosive power, right?
Um, or even like striking,striking power if you're
(17:34):
hitting a bag or you havesomething that can like,
measure the Newtons of forceyou exert with each punch, you
know , um, we can seeimprovements in that kind of
thing. Uh, but also in high,high intensity interval
training or just straight highintensity training , um, with
been improvements found there.
So the , the point to take awayis that this does actually seem
to be a supplement , um, or afood as well. 'cause you can
(17:56):
get most, if not all of thebenefits of be from eating them
as a food in sufficientquantity , um, as you can get
from taking a supplement. But,but it's helpful for multiple
different types of exercise,not just one. There are some
supposed workout boosters orperformance enhancing
supplements that might behelpful for endurance, but not
(18:20):
have much impact on explosivepower generation or sprint type
workouts or things like that,and vice versa. But beet does
seem to be pretty general, sothat's cool. That's cool. What
we're seeing more recently withbeet root supplements is that
they're reaching the generalpopulation. Um, so not just
like athletes and, and, youknow, workout freaks and that
(18:43):
kind of thing, right ? Uh, whoI'm right there with you, right
? But we're seeing thismarketed now for more
generalized cardiovascularsupport and even for cognitive
support. Um, and this is notoff base , right ? Again, if we
just look at that basicfunction of providing nitrates
boosting nitric oxideproduction, we're gonna get
(19:05):
that vasodilation effect thatdoes lower blood pressure. And
since the most commonexpression of cardiovascular
trouble is gonna includeelevated blood pressure, that
makes sense to go ahead andcall that a cardiovascular
support herb. Cool. Um, by theway, there is a question to ask
as always, like, well, if thisis something that can take high
(19:27):
blood pressure and bring itdown, should you avoid it if
you have low blood pressure?
And the answer to that isactually no. Because the things
that tend to be forcing yourblood pressure low are not like
an overabundance of nitricoxide activity or something
that this is gonna exacerbateor, or multiply. Um, so I
wouldn't look at someone withlow blood pressure and say, you
(19:48):
should never touch a beatagain. I don't think that
that's required. I don't thinkthat's necessary. Um, and as
far as cognitive support goes,you know, again, just to say,
increased blood flow includesbetter blood flow to your
brain. Um, and , uh, like it ornot, you know, your, your brain
is a physical organ thatrequires good circulation of
fluids in order to functionwell. A surprising amount of
(20:10):
brain fog and other discomfortscan be mitigated. Um, and
therefore explained , uh, byimproving blood flow and
indicating that poor blood flowwas a major issue there. Um, we
don't wanna leave out otherfactors, of course, right?
There could be a deeperproblem. It could be that your
CO2 levels are getting up intothe two thousands range. You
(20:31):
know, like there's lots ofthings that can give you, give
you a cognitive issue, but ,um, poor blood flow is
certainly among them. And tothe extent that be beet root is
gonna improve circulation, wecould see a , a beneficial
change there. Alright ? So beetroot supplements are fairly
new, but beet of itself as afood is very, very old
(20:52):
right? Uh, this is a , atraditional food in large swats
of the world for a longstarches of dime. Um, and that
includes both as , uh, as likea , a cooked vegetable. Um, and
even in a lot of circumstancescan be consumed raw , um, but
also fermented. Um, and sofermented foods , uh, with
(21:13):
beet, like if you go to somegrocery stores today, you can
find a jar of sliced beets thathave been fermented, and you
can eat those up. That's agreat way to take them. Um, now
you're getting all the goodstuff we just said about beet
plus some probiotics. Great,fantastic. This is really good.
Um, also fermented drinks likekavas , uh, is like a beet
(21:34):
juice that's been fermented,sometimes even a little fizzy.
Um, but, you know, beets have ,uh, a lot of thing , a lot of
appeal to them because they'rea bit sweet, you know. And then
of course there are the sugarbeets
know , um, selectively bred tohave more and more sugar
content, and they are a sourcefor, for sugar directly. Um,
but , um, I'm talking moreabout like the food beets. The,
(21:57):
the ones with the dark redcolor red is critical here. Um,
so red isn't like an exactindicator for the amount of
nitrate in your beets, but itis the presence of , um, beta
laan alkaloids , uh, which arepresent in beets as well, and
contribute , uh, a fair amountto some of their medicinal
(22:19):
impacts , um, primarily in theanti-inflammatory range. Um,
but that's complimentary to theeffects of the nitrates. And so
I wouldn't wanna leave thatout. Um, and I'd say the redder
your beats the better. Yeah,there are gold meats , uh, gold
beats. Um, I believe that thoseare more of a carotenoid
presentation, but , um, they'relovely. Uh, they're, they're,
(22:42):
they're just fine. And they ,they do have a , a good strong
representation of the nitricoxide content. So , uh, or the
nitrite content, the precursor,so we can, we can get into that
too. Very good. So that wasbeat. And then here we go with
number nine, ginger. Boy, thereis a lot to say about ginger,
and in fact, we have said a lotabout ginger , um,
(23:04):
, uh, I would point you back toepisode 227. That was our
herbs, A to z, A to Z series,and the whole episode was all
about zinger . Um, it was thelast one in the, in the
sequence and , uh, reallyclosed it out with a bang
there. So , um, for theherbalist perspective on
(23:24):
ginger, we took a good chunk ofit there. I think it was an
hour , uh, or more where wewere just talking about that
herb and all the different waysyou can work with it. Um, but
for our purposes in this seriestoday, let's just note that
ginger is very similar toturmeric. You know, one of
those , uh, top four herbs ,uh, turmeric, ginger is also
(23:44):
what I would call a digestivefirst , systemic, second
anti-inflammatory herb. So bythat I mean that when you work
with ginger, the primary effect, the dominant effect, the
first effect you're gonna findis gonna be relieving
inflammation. And also wereleaving tension and warming and
(24:07):
activating this , the , themovement and the , the
metabolism first in the GItract, and then there's some
effects that spill out fromthere and get into your muscles
and other organs and to yourjoints and connective tissues
and so on. Um, so you, you can,and I think should regard
(24:27):
ginger as just as potent, justas multifactorial, just as
beautiful of ananti-inflammatory herb, as
turmeric. Um , because that'swhat we find it to be. Now,
most commercial products aregoing to advertise ginger
simply for digestive support.
And , um, that is the waypeople tend to know this herb
best. Its capacity to relievenausea is fairly common
(24:51):
knowledge. Like even if peopleonly know that about ginger
ale. Um, and when I was a kid,it was like, well, you have to,
if you're, if you're sick withnausea, then you have to open
the ginger ale and pour it outand let it get flat and then go
ahead and drink it. And therewas like some special magic in
letting it get flat. It'sreally just not having the
carbon dioxide bubbles irritate, uh, an already irritated
(25:11):
stomach lining. But, you know,when I was a kid it was some
kind of magic spell
can be taken in lots ofdifferent ways to relieve
nausea. And um, and I thinkthat's a key thing to keep in
mind when considering ginger.
Like, don't only identify itwith the capsules or a little
(25:32):
bit of spice powder that goesinto meals, right? Ginger , um,
can be effective as tincture.
Uh, a few drops might besufficient, and tincture can be
really good when there'snausea, but you don't wanna
swallow a whole lot all atonce. Like, you don't wanna be
taking big sips of tea, a dropor two of ginger on your
tongue, give it 10 or 20minutes and see what we get,
right? Um, that can be reallygood. But, but tea can also be
(25:55):
very effective for nausea. Um,uh, ginger powder mixed with
honey into an ary preparation.
Ginger candy , uh, or candiedginger , um, you know, chunks
or slices of ginger that havebeen soaked in honey or sugar
syrup and dried out. You canprepare your own ginger infused
honey. You've got the, the, theginger flavored honey first,
(26:19):
and then you have your kind oflike homemade candy ginger
towards the end. Um, lots ofdifferent ways to work with
this plant. Really, reallyhandy. A lot of people are
familiar with it already, youknow, from culinary traditions,
from cooking, from familyrecipes and things like that.
Um, but uh, again, we can takeit in lots of ways and we can
work with it for a lot ofdifferent things. Ginger is, I
(26:42):
would consider it afoundational herb. Um, and for
me, you know, that doesn't justmean an herb that is very
powerful or an herb that isvery special in what it does
actually for me, it more oftenmeans herbs that are really
abundant. I would considergarlic another foundational
remedy. Um, I would considerpeppermint one, I would
(27:03):
consider chamomile one. Um, andone thing that these all share
in addition to being widelyavailable, very accessible ,
uh, generally very affordable
all extremely valuablequalities. And in herb , um, is
that this is what we call apoly crest herb . It can do
many different things. Sobeyond being just, oh, take
(27:25):
this when you have nausea,ginger is like deeply, deeply
warming and releasing oftension, relaxant and also
anti-inflammatory to yourviscera, to your blood, to your
muscles, to your mind even,right? Don't neglect ginger for
patterns of, of mental cold.
(27:47):
Um, any more than you wouldneglect ginger for patterns of
digestive cold. 'cause it canaffect both of them. Um, and
then if you fold in topicalremedies as well as ingested
remedies, you know, like theapplications for ginger are
just really extensive, reallyvaried. Um, it's one of the
best herbs to learn , uh, in myopinion because of all these,
(28:07):
these aspects of it that I've,I've just listed off to you. So
, um, so I think it's greatthat Ginger is very popular and
I'm always happy to see it ,uh, on these lists. Um, and ,
uh, doing well and being wellknown in lots of different
formats out there amongst the,amongst the everybody. Yeah.
Okay. So again , um, a littledeeper dive into Ginger. Follow
(28:30):
the link in the show notes overto episode 2 27 and we'll get a
lot more there. We also , uh,have a hour long profile , uh,
a , a different one
Material Medica course. Um, andin fact on the , uh, the page
for the Material Medica course,there's a preview. And the
(28:50):
preview is that video all aboutginger. So even if you don't go
ahead and buy the MaterialMedica course and dive right
in, you can get that entry onGinger, you can check that out.
But I hope that you will , um,consider , uh, the Ria Medica
course because, you know, it'salways really helpful to study
the herbs in depth , um, tostudy one herb and say, I wanna
(29:12):
know everything that I can dowith that plant. I wanna know
all of its actions really getnuanced about its flavor,
different ways we can apply itand work with it. Different
reasons we might have forcalling on it to just really
dive in. 'cause it helps you tosee an herb not only in one of
those boxes, but to, to breakout and to expand that vision.
So we find this to be a really,really helpful practice. The
(29:34):
material medical course hasdetailed profiles of a hundred
medicinal plants and like allof the things we offer, this is
a self-paced video course,primarily. You can also just
get the audio files , um, anddownload those. Put them on
your phone, take a walk in theforest, or chop some ginger ,
uh, as you prepare that intoyour own honey infusion while
(29:54):
you listen and learn about it.
Um, all of our courses alsocome with access , uh, to twice
week , twice weekly live q anda sessions with me and Katya ,
uh, lifetime access to thecurrent material and any
material we add to the coursein the future. We've got
discussion threads in eachcourse. You ask your questions
right as you learn. We've gotan active student community,
(30:15):
which is like Facebook, butbetter 'cause it's Herbal
everything. We've got studyguides for you, we've got
quizzes, we've got a capstoneassignment at the end of each
major course. So , um, lots ofdifferent ways to enhance and
to deepen your learning. Um,that's really our goal with the
online program is to make iteasy for you to learn, to reach
(30:38):
people who learn in differentways, to provide material in a,
in a variety of , uh, formats.
And to be available to you toanswer your questions directly
, um, and to, to help you outso you can advance here. So
anyway, there will be a link tothat in the show notes and I do
hope that you check it out. Allright , everybody. That's it
for this episode. Um, take careof yourselves, take care of
(31:00):
each other, drink some tea, eatsome beets, and enjoy all of
the wonders that Ginger canbring and we'll be back soon.
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