A BETTER WAY TO HEAL

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Clear Thinking with Ginkgo

Ginkgo leaves and nuts have been used in the Orient for centuries, and are one of the new popular herbal medications in the U.S. Some researchers suggest that ginkgo may help Alzheimer's patients, and that it should help anyone increase mental alertness. And there are several processed bottles of ginkgo pills on the shelf with the expensive price tag.

Guess what? Ginkgo is widely planted as a street and park tree! It is very common, and you can simply take the leaves and brew your own tea. Never mind that the pill manufacturers report that you shouldn't do this-you can! Make an infusion of the leaves, or if you prefer, simply powder the dried leaves and fill gelatin capsules if you prefer to take your herbs in pill form.

And don't overlook the nuts which fall in September and October. The fleshy outer layer of these nuts have a foul odor, but it is easily cleaned off. The nuts can be dried or roasted, then eaten. Many of the same qualities of the leaves have been attributed to these nuts.

Get Your Daily Vitamin C

Roses are great to grow in any garden because they provide beauty and fragrance. Also, if you let the fruits mature (referred to as the "hips"), you'll have a rich source of vitamin C. The only known source of vitamin C that is richer is the acerola. Rose hips contain about 7,000 mg of vitamin C per pound, a remarkable amount. By contrast, a pound of oranges (depending on the type of orange) contains anywhere between 100 to 250 mg of vitamin C.

To use rose hips, first snip off the orange-red mature fruit. Once you cut it in half and remove the fibrous seeds, you could just eat it raw. However, most people find it more enjoyable to simmer into tea, or to make it into jams, jellies, or blended nutritional drinks.

Is Milk the Best Calcium Source?

One hundred grams of the edible portion of the carob pod (about a cup of the entire pod, minus the seeds) contains 352 mg of calcium. That makes carob one of the very richest non-meat calcium sources. Even when that same volume is compared to milk-generally considered a good calcium source-carob is nearly three times richer in calcium. Carob is also a good source of B vitamins. Though not a complete protein, it is said that this is the food that sustained John the Baptist in the desert for 40 days (hence the name, Saint John's bread).

You can simply eat the pods and spit out the seeds. Also, you can crack the pods, remove the seeds, and grind the pods into a flour, which you can add to bread and pasty products, or blend into liquids like rice or soy milk.

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