This is What You are Demanding, page 3

originally posted by: TrulyColorBlind

originally posted by: rickymouse
a reply to: TheRedneck

People used to eat dandelions in the spring before the lettuce came out. Dandelions have some similar detox chemistry as the thistles

Interesting! I know you can make the dandelion leaves into a salad, and I use the roots to grind up and make chai with and the flowers I also use to make dandelion wine. Do you know which part of the dandelion they would eat for this benefit? I might have to try that myself. I'm always looking for healthy alternatives.

The roots have some medicinal chemistry but some people are intolerant to them. The same with the flowers. The leaves from tender young plants have just the right amount of chemistry, the bitterness forms as plant defense chemicals get stronger when they mature...still medicinal but too bitter for a salad, especially if there are a lot of pests around because they boost production if they are chewed on or mowed. I only throw a few torn up leaves into the salad in the spring, I do not eat a salad with only them.

The greater plantain is another thing that grows wild that is edible. But that should be cooked, it looks like spinach in the yard. I was told from young when I was a boy scout that it is good, but should be cooked. So I researched it extensively, you can take a leave and wrap a cut with it and it will cause agglutination to stop the bleeding....in the army it was called the soldiers bandage because in war they used it to stop bleeding. Trouble is that this can cause blood clots if too much is eaten, but heat destroys that chemistry, a similar chemistry but less potent is found in Spinach which looks just like it. Spinach should not be eaten raw in excess, our bodies can increase blood thinning capability a little, but there is a limit, and you have to build up the enzymes meaning slowly increasing consumption till our bodies adjust is important. But again, stopping can also be a problem, never just stop cold turkey or you can wind up with too thin blood which can be a problem too, caused by your own metabolism that you changed.

There are so many variables and reverting back can be a problem. Plant defense chemistry is potent medicine, but you need to use medicine properly and in the right dosage. I like mostly ice berg lettuce for my salads, but might toss in a little dandelion greens if available, and I always put onions on my salad, most leafy greens tend to add clotting factors and for some reason all my life I have had to regulate my clotting with food. I was diagnosed with an unknown bleeding disorder when I was around thirteen or fourteen, not hemophilia but some kind of problem. I have since figured out what caused it...like ten years ago. I used to eat a whole bag of onion and garlic chips almost every day, probably sensing that I needed the blood thinning but then it sometimes got too thin. So they called me a bleeder, that stopped when I quit eating the chips. But then I would get thrombosis like problems occasionally, so I started with putting onions on all meat and in salads, and garlic salt on things but I had no clue I was actually doing this for a reason, I thought I just liked it. Onion rings are great too, instead of french fries. Never had a clue that I was treating myself for a medical condition that easily showed up in my genetics and is related to my blood type too.