Thursday February 5, 2009 Parsley? Who eats parsley? That’s what I used to think until 2001. After an accident in 2000 that caused some nerve damage in my hands, I began researching what natural foods helped repair nerve damage. Parsley was high on the list.
Parsley is the richest vegetable-herb source of Potassium – the muscle mineral, as well as mineral iron and vitamin C. Parsley is also an excellent source of many other essential nutrients. Daily use of parsley is one of the best nerve medicines. Regular use of parsley is one of the best ways to restore the body to a state of physical and mental strength and positive resistance to numerous degenerative disorders.
Parsley’s Many Proven Health-Giving Properties
Parsley contains three times as much vitamin C as oranges, and twice as much iron as spinach. It’s an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A and folate, as well.
Fights cancer. Parsley contains volatile oils that have been found to inhibit tumor formation, particularly in the lungs. The oils are not only cancer-fighting, they’re also known to neutralize carcinogens including those found in cigarette smoke and charcoal grill smoke. Parsley also contains folic acid, which has been found to help prevent colon and cervical cancers.
Antioxidant-rich. Parsley contains beneficial antioxidant compounds called flavonoids. These compounds combine with oxygen-containing molecules and help prevent oxygen-based damage to cells. Parsley extracts have also been found to increase the antioxidant capacity of the blood in animal studies.
Good for the heart. The folic acid in parsley is a critical nutrient in cardiovascular health. Specifically, folic acid helps convert potentially dangerous homocysteine into harmless molecules, a process that protects blood vessels and reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Protects against rheumatoid arthritis. A study published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases found that people who ate the least amount of vitamin-C-rich foods (like parsley) had a three times greater chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis than those who ate the most. (From http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/07/01/23/the-amazing-health-benefits-of-parsley.htm)
But I eat parsley for the flavor. I eat it chopped fine in salads or in stirfrys, and atop my soups. I usually squeeze some fresh lemon into whatever I have parsley in. For me, parsley, lemon, garlic and onion go into everything I cook. I think that is one reason my immune system is so strong and why I heal so fast. Ok, I did lose 50 pounds 5 years ago when I began keeping my fat gram intake to less than 50 per day. But as I slowly changed my eating habits to include less processed foods and more fresh vegetables and fruits, that’s when the real change began.
And I’m not talking about the weight loss, although that was a great byproduct. Just in the way I feel. I have always been a high energy person, but more so when I began having daily fruit and veggie fests. I’ve always had good skin, but it took on a finer quality. I stopped catching colds so often. My chronic sniffles stopped when I stopped eating processed food. “Processed” meaning anything with a label: snacks, chips, cookies, pasta, bread, canned soups, etc. My final holdouts are bread, pasta, and canned soup. I eat them on a pretty regular basis. Yes, then I have the sniffles, but that is the price I pay.
I know changing my eating habits has helped me to look and feel younger. I get lots of vitamin C, which is the synthesis of collagen, so I think I’ll hold up well into my elder years. The women in our family tend to look youthful late into life, and an extra ten pounds helps at that time 🙂
I look my age, but my eyes are bright, my skin glows, my hair and nails have never been longer and stronger. My nails have almost become a nuisance they grow so fast.
Here are some favorite ways I use parsley
A salad under everything. I like to eat everything at home out of one big bowl, and I like to put a salad as the bottom layer. One of my favorite salads is simply equal parts chopped romaine and fresh parsley, maybe 8-10 stems of parsley, or half a bunch since it expands as you chop it. Then some chopped tomato, some red onion slices, and a raw yellow squash or zucchini chopped up. I top it simply with some extra virgin oil oil and squeeze a whole lemon into it. I use coarse ground pepper, sea salt and some dry oregano and mix it all together. sometimes I toss a chopped garlic clove in, raw.
A hearty salad as a meal. Sometimes I will expand the bottom salad layer to fill the entire bowl and have the salad as my meal. I have a favorite large plastic bowl I bought at one of the oriental markets and it is lovely with cherry blossoms and songbirds. This is the bowl I use. It holds a quart of soup or a substantial salad. This is not a bowl you would fill with Mac n Cheese.
I would make a larger version of the above salad, and I would add one or more of:
Garbanzos, Chick Peas I have roasted in the oven with garam masala, 350 degrees for 20-40 minutes, depending on how you like them. Sometimes I like them dry and kind of crunchy. The last 10 minutes in the oven, I toss in another handful of chopped parley so I can have some hot in the salad as well.
Home fries and this is how I make them: I chop 6 cloves of garlic and saute them with a teaspoon of olive oil and a chopped onion. I remove from the pan and set aside. I chop a potato very finely and saute it in the pan until it gets evenly browned. If I add raw onion at this point, it would sog out the potatoes and they wouldn’t be crisp. That’s why I do the onion first with the garlic and set it aside.
When the potatoes are almost done, I throw the onion and garlic in with it and give a good stir. Then toss it on top of the salad.
I’ve also added chicken and turkey to the above, and also added calamata olives and low fat feta cheese or garbanzo beans straight from the can. Sometimes I will top a salad with a cooked egg.
Parsley and eggs. I like parsley cooked in with my eggs, but I also like a simple over easy egg atop a parsley and tomato salad. If I scramble an egg, I like to put 1/3 tsp of tarragon in it. Parsley, eggs, tarragon, don’t forget the lemon squeeze on top of it all. A great nutritious breakfast.
Hmmm, I’ve just talked myself into it. I’m going to go scramble an egg with some parsley and tarragon, and make a romaine and parsley bed for sliced tomatoes and Haas avocado. Parsley – go get you some 🙂