Dr. Christopher's Herbal Legacy Newsletter

Dr. Christopher's Herbal Legacy Newsletter - February 10, 2010

Published: Wed, 02/10/10

Sponsored by Christopher Websites, The School of Natural Healing & Christopher Publications

February 10, 2010

Dear ,

Last week we featured one of Dr. Duke's top 12 greatest disease-fighting foods - beans. This week we are going to feature another one - bulbs. We hope you enjoy learning about garlic and onions this week!

We also have a recipe that will help you use more of the bulbs in your cooking - Fawn Christopher's famous Onion Soup!

Until next week - be healthy and happy-

-Dr. Christopher's Herbal Legacy Newsletter

ARTICLE: Bulbs

RECIPE: Onion Soup

NEWS/FEATURED PRODUCT: The Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods by Dr. James Duke

ARTICLE: Bulbs

By Dr. James A. Duke in The Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods

I usually don't play favorites, but when it comes to foods, garlic tops my list of healers. Though a recent high-profile study called its cholesterol-lowering ability into question, it still has enough heart-protective benefits to rank high on my list. It has other great qualities as well, including immunity-boosting and antiseptic properties. Onions share many of the properties and healthful benefits of garlic, so they also deserve a mention here. And in my Farmacy, I grow a nice batch of ramps, members of the garlic/onion family that you won't find in many supermarkets (unless it's ramp festival time in West Virginia and Ohio). All of these plants contain the very important compound alliin, which converts to the super-medicinal allicin.

Nutrient Nuts and Bolts: When it comes to the heart, you can thank garlic's many sulfur compounds, including diallyl disulfide, which prevent clotting and allow for smooth blood flow. Of course, garlic also contains over a dozen immunity-boosting compounds that can fight off colds and other infections, maybe even more effectively than popular herbs like echinacea.

Recent research has also shown that several compounds in garlic can prevent cellular changes within the body that lead to cancer.

Onions offer many of the same sulfur compounds as garlic, but they bring even more to the table with their high amounts of flavonoids, specifically quercetin. This flavonoid has been shown in studies to reduce platelet clumping and even prevent some forms of cancer. So far, there is no better food source of quercetin than onion skins.

How to Get More: The other advantage of garlic and onions is just how easy they are to incorporate into your menus. I add both to virtually all my soups and stews. And when it comes to salads, just about the only dressing you'll see me use is vinegar and oil mixed with fresh garlic and fresh diced onion, often with hot sauce or diced hot pepper. That mixture alone has hundreds of healthful compounds. Sometimes I even roast garlic and put it on toast for breakfast.

Making the Most of Them: Now I know what you're thinking: "But Dr. Duke, what about the smell?" Well, as much as it pains me to say it, studies have shown time and again that the more garlic stinks, the better it works. That's why I often use it raw in salads or even eat whole cloves of the stuff if I don't have anything social going on that day.

This isn't to say that you can't get benefits from cooked garlic; you can. But you lose 40 percent of the original potency after garlic is cooked for 10 minutes, and you lose much more after 20 - but you never lose it all. So, if you're making a soup or stew, it might be a good idea to wait until near the end of the cooking time to add garlic. Green tea, parsley, and coriander all have a unique ability to partially quell the smell, so you may want to consider brewing green tea and garlic together or adding parsley to a garlicky salad. Or if you have a new potential client or lover or relative coming over, eat some parsley or coriander and drink some green tea quick!

Other Eating Tips: If you're going for full effect and eating whole cloves of garlic, it's important that you nick the surface of a clove first; that is, don't swallow it intact. I thought that was the way to go until my garlicologist, Larry Lawson, PhD, told me the skin should be broken before garlic enters the GI tract to get its benefits. This ensures that the medicinal compounds of the bulb are released and will begin working more quickly in the body.

Now back to onions for a minute. In one of the funny quirks of nature, most of the helpful flavonoids, such as quercetin, are found in the skin of the onion. That's why I always put the skins in a mesh bag and steep it in soups and stews when I'm making them. Just remove the bag before serving.

Printable Version: http://www.herballegacy.com/Bulbs.pdf

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RECIPE: Onion Soup

Contributed by Fawn Christopher
Serves 6

Ingredients:

* 2 T Olive Oil
* 4 large yellow onions - thinly sliced
*1 t salt
* ½ t dry mustard
* 1-2 dashes of thyme
* 4 cups of water
* 2 vegetable bouillon cubes
* 2 T Tamari or Shoyu (optional)
* Garlic

Directions:

Add Olive Oil, onions and salt into kettle or dutch oven. Cook over medium heat for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mustard and thyme, stir and cover. Reduce heat to low - continue to cook slowly for about 35 minutes. Onions will be exquisitely soft and simmering in their own liquid. Add water, Tamari or Shoyu and bouillon cubes. Simmer about ten minutes. Taste to adjust seasonings. Press garlic into soup after removing from heat (just before serving).

Printable Version: http://www.herballegacy.com/onion_soup.pdf

Do you have a healthy, tasty recipe that you would be willing to share with other health conscious readers, ? Please share your recipes at http://www.herballegacy.com/Recipes.html (this page also has our database of recipes!).

SCHOOL OF NATURAL HEALING FAMILY HERBALIST COURSE

Dr. Christopher's vision was to have a Family Herbalist in every home and a Master Herbalist in every community. To help achieve that vision The School of Natural Healing now offers classes online.

The price for the Family Herbalist course is normally $295 online (it is a $495 value), but as a newsletter subscriber you get $100 off, making the price just $195!

To get this special deal you must sign up through this link:

http://school.snh.cc

NEWS/FEATURED PRODUCT: The Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods

The Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods - Proven Natural Remedies to Treat and Prevent More Than 80 Common Health Concerns by James A. Duke, PhD

Upon its publication more than a decade ago, Dr. James Duke's The Green Pharmacy quickly set the standard for consumer herb references. A favorite of laypeople and professionals alike, the book sold more than a million copies and solidified the author's reputation as one of the world's foremost authorities on medicinal plants.

In his new book, Dr. Duke turns to the broader and even more popular subject of food as medicine, drawing on more than thirty years of research to identify the most powerful healing foods on earth.

Whether he is revealing how to beat high cholesterol with blueberries, combat hot flashes with black beans, bash blood sugar spikes with almonds, or help relieve agonizing back pain with pineapple, Dr. Duke's food remedies help treat and prevent the whole gamut of health concerns, from minor (such as sunburn and the common cold) to more serious (like arthritis and diabetes).

Dr. Duke has assigned a rating to each remedy, according to his evaluation of the available scientific studies and anecdotal reports. Many of the healing foods recommended are proving so effective that they may outperform popular pharmaceuticals--minus the risk (and cost).

To find the Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods and other books by Dr. Duke visit:

http://www.christopherpublications.com/James_Duke.html

A HEALTHIER YOU

Remember that you can always hear the most recent show of David and Fawn Christopher's popular radio show, A Healthier You, for free at http://www.ahealthieryouradio.com/recent_show.html

Have you taken advantage of your free trial membership to A Healthier You Radio yet? As an Herbal Legacy newsletter subscriber you get unlimited access to the site and the archives of A Healthier You for two weeks for free! You don't even have to give your credit card number for this trial. To start your free trial visit:

http://www.ahyradio.com/amember/signup.php?price_group=-15

CHRISTOPHER WEBSITES

Find links to all the Christopher Websites and other sites we recommend at Christopher Websites - www.christopherwebsites.com. Find links to Herbal Legacy, The School of Natural Healing, Christopher Publications, David Hall's Cellerciser, The Herb Shop and more.

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