Common herbs to make meals healthier
by Christine Yesko
You don’t need supplements to boost your mineral intake just grow a windowsill garden.
What’s the quickest way to load your dinner down with antioxidants? Add oregano. Need more iron? Add lavender. If you’re not cooking with fresh herbs, you’re missing out on nature’s real miracles, tiny-taste enhancers loaded with compounds that add antioxidants and vital minerals to every dish, and some that can even cut down on toxic chemicals that form while cooking. Even if you don’t care about nutrition, they’ll all help you make totally killer meals sure to impress anyone.
Thyme: One of the most commonly used medicinal herbs, it has been used for everything from killing germs to curing colds. Two teaspoons of the herb pack in nearly 20 percent of your daily requirement for iron, and it’s also rich in manganese, a mineral that boosts brain function and aids in healthy bone, skin, and cartilage formation.
Parsley: Two tablespoons of fresh parsley will provide more than 150 percent of your daily requirement for vitamin K, which plays an important role in blood clotting, proper bone formation, and liver function. A super side benefit of eating it is that the herb’s odor-beating chlorophyll will freshen your breath.
Oregano: If you use only one herb in your cooking, make it oregano. This potent herb contains up to 20 times more cancer-fighting antioxidants than other herbs, on average, and holds its own against fruit. According to USDA researches, one tablespoon of fresh oregano has the same antioxidant power as an entire apple. And gram for gram, the herb has twice the antioxidant activity of blueberries.
Cilantro: Love it or hate it, you may want to make sure you always throw a few sprigs of cilantro into your next chicken dish. Researchers from the University of California have found that a compound in cilantro called dodecanal is nearly twice as effective at killing salmonella bacteria as commercial antibiotics, and they isolated a dozen other antibiotic compounds that were also effective at killing other foodborne bacteria. These same compounds were also found in coriander, the spice made from the seeds of the cilantro plant.
These are just a few of the many varieties of herbs available for us to use and experiment. I hope you give them a try. Remember to think spring.
