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Recipes with Stinging Nettles: Brown Rice with Nettles, Lemon & Walnut
Sprinkle dried nettles into any soup or stir-fry, and they will impart a rustic, hearty earthiness. This is a rough, tough plant that brings its strength and stamina as a gift for your body. It's deep green color is a sign of its stellar nutritional profile. The cartoon character Popeye may eat spinach to get strong, but perhaps he should be eating nettles! Cooking the nettles in a soup provides many of the wonderful qualities of the nettle plant to your body in a deliciously edible way.
Nettle is the perfect supplement when traveling, or when eating out causes a nutrient poor diet. Adding nettles to your diet offers a delicious way to nourish the body. They are famous as a blood & yang tonic that can be used to fortify your body after menstruation, child birth, or other blood loss.
A Sting that Stimulates Circulation
The compounds found in the nettle sting serve to improve circulation and lymph flow in the joints. While you may shy away from the idea of using a stinging plant, in many traditional societies it was customary to sting oneself with the nettle plant as a way of relieving the pain and inflammation from conditions such as arthritis.
Reduces Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH)
Nettles reduce hormonal stimulation of the prostate gland, and is an anti-inflammatory that significantly reduces fibrosis and proliferation of the prostate gland. It is frequently combined with saw palmetto (serenoa repens) in European prostate formulas.
Nettles is similar to alfalfa in nutritional profile, but is more yang and warming than alfalfa.
Nettles are rich in fiber and have even been used to make durable clothing!
You can often find nettles growing near stream beds wild, or in 'guerilla gardens' due to their popularity. Try growing some on your property. If you don't have access to fresh nettles, dried ones will do.
Cooking Stinging Nettles
Cook with coconut oil or coconut butter. Sprinkle into soups or a stir-fry. Nettles may be consumed dried or cooked. Caution with eating fresh leaves raw as the hairs are irritating.
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Constitutional nutrition is tailored to the individual.
In the kitchen, especially during your family’s formative years,
you shape your family's lifelong health.
Rooted in the insights curated from Ayurveda and Greek medicine,
constitutional medicine teaches you which foods match your body,
so you and your family have true vitality, strength, and balance.
See How it Works.
Medicinal Effects of Stinging Nettles
Constitutional nutrition systems use biocharacteristics to classify the metabolic nature of food, hebs, lifestyle choices, your body, and disease.
METABOLIC NATURE / BIOCHARACTERISTICS
Metabolic Nature / Biocharacteristics
Ayurveda assesses metabolic imbalances through 20 main biocharacteristics
(vital qualtiies).
Aggravating them weakens your body and causes imbalance.
By knowing which biocharacteristics are habitually imbalanced in your body, you will be able to identify and correct metabolic imbalances before you get sick.
Every biocharacteristic has an opposite which balances it (i.e. hot balances cold).
You restore balance by favoring diet and lifestyle choices that increase the opposite biocharacteristic.
Taste is used to sense the most basic properties and effects of food.
Each taste has a specific medicinal effect on your body.
Cravings for food with certain tastes indicate your body is craving specific medicinal results from food.
Taste is experienced on the tongue and represents your body's reaction to foods.
Sweet taste causes physical satisfaction and attraction whereas bitter taste causes discomfort and aversion.
Kapha should use less sweet taste while Vata and Pitta would benefit from using more sweet taste.
One of the first signs of illness is that your taste and appetite for food changes.
The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.
Do you crave foods with any of the tastes below?
Ayurveda is a metabolic theory of medicine that explains individual health, tendencies, and disease patterns through the concept of doshas, which can be understood as your metabolic patterns and tendencies.
Each dosha reflects a distinct metabolic nature and describes strengths & weaknesses in bodily function, and how these affect energy levels, digestion, susceptibility to disease, and many other tendencies.
Your metabolic nature not only affects your physical characteristics, but also influences your mental thought patterns, confidence, and enthusiasm.
Ayurveda balances these metabolic strengths & weaknesses to support your body's vitality and prevent recurrent disease cycles. This support is a critical aid, especially in chronic or incurable disease conditions.
The 3 metabolic body types
(doshas),
are Catabolic (Vata), Metabolic (Pitta), and Anabolic (Kapha).
Through dosha, Ayurveda empowers people to identify metabolic imbalances early, break repetitive patterns of disease, and cultivate habits that support long-term vitality and well-being.
Ultimately, these metabolic patterns also provide a framework for understanding yourself, including body, mind, and spiritual tendencies.
Ayurveda & Greek Medicine were the dominant form of medicine along the Silk Road from England to China and South Asia.
They work by assessing your metabolic type, patterns, and nature.
Greek medicine recognizes 4 metabolic temperaments, Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic.
Cold and dry with a slow, variable or erratic metabolism. Colicky, tense. Withdrawn, pensive, anxious, and hesitant. Analytical, intelligent, detail oriented and creative. Prone to ojas depletion, dehydration, an overactive nervous system, and depression.
A Phlegmatic has a cold and wet metabolic nature. The coldness implies a slow metabolism, the moisture that you are well-nourished. Phlegmatics tend towards sluggishness and thickened fluids, including mucus.
A hot and oily nature with a moderate metabolism and a well nourished body makes Sanguine individuals vigorous, vivacious, outgoing and generous, and prone to impulsivity and self indulgence. Bullish and intense when out of balance.
Has a hot and dry metabolic nature. Enthusiastic, vibrant and bright. In excess burns up fluids and ojas, irritable. Corresponds to high bilirubin in the blood that irritates and heats up the body and liver.
Medicinal Benefits, Uses & Herbal Actions of Stinging Nettles
Experiences are Personal
Experiences vary according to the person and constitution. Individual results may vary.
The list of herbal-actions below has not be approved by the FDA and should not be used to treat a medical condition.
An herb that strengthens spleen function by improving strength of the blood. Spleen tonics Builds agni, brighten the person's appearances & firms up tissues.
A tonic herb restores function through strengthening tissue. This can happen through a combination of nourishing the tissue, and invigorating tissue metabolism. The tonic should not be withering, as in caffeine.
Strengthens the lungs. Lung tonics include antifibrotic, vessel tonic, or nourishing herbs with an affinity for the lungs. They aid recovery in acute or chronic lung conditions.
Restores the proper function of the body by cleansing the blood and balancing blood chemistry. In Ayurveda terms, they pacify Pitta in rakta. They were traditionally used to revitalize and detoxify after a long winter.
An herb that produces more blood cells in the body, or otherwise improves blood cell quality or hemoglobin content. Helpful for anemia and other types of deficiency.
Herbs that promote urine formation, thereby flushing the kidneys and urinary tract while eliminating any excess water retention. As diuretics reduce water retention, they are often used to reduce blood pressure.
An herb that tonifies and strengthens the urinary system. These can be helpful for urinary incontinence or improving function after a urinary tract infection. They can also strengthen the bladder to ward off a urinary tract infection.
Prepares the uterus for labor & delivery, making contractions more effective. May also relax the mother, reduce pain, improve breast milk, stimulate contractions (oxytocin), build yang, and nourish blood.
Stinging Nettles may temper these symptoms.
The suitability of any food for a condition is highly dependent on the individual.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
We will use this information to better predict food that helps you.
CONTRAINDICATED FOR THESE SYMPTOMS
Stinging Nettles may be harmful or contraindicated for these symptoms.
Note this is not a complete list of all possible contraindications.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
Herb Drug Interaction Risk
Here are some potential herb drug interactions with Stinging Nettles. Please see your health care provider for more information.
Alterative: Anything that strengthens or cleanses the liver can clear drugs more quickly, requiring a higher dose.
Diuretic: Diuretics may clear pharmaceutical drugs more quickly, lowering the effect. Avoid if taking water pills or pharmaceutical diuretics.
View other ingredients for Autumn-Winter
Stinging Nettles is recommended for Autumn-Winter. Check out these other Autumn-Winter foods here.
Constitutional Nutrition: Strengthen Your Health Naturally
When your dietary choices align with your individual nature (constitution), it supports your metabolism, energy, and health naturally.
A personalized diet, fitting to your constitution, leverages your natural strengths while gently supporting your body where it's vulnerable.
Constitutional nutrition is especially beneficial for digestion, a foundational pillar of health influencing your entire well-being.
Balanced digestion fortifies your body's natural defenses against illness and enhances your resilience when illness does arise.
A healthy digestive fire (*agni*) eases discomfort, speeds recovery, and naturally uplifts your mood.
By embracing constitutional nutrition, you will soon experience a profound sense of renewal, vitality, and inner strength.
John Immel, the founder of Joyful Belly, teaches people how to have a
healthy diet and lifestyle through constitutional nutrition (Ayurveda & Greek Medicine).
His approach is clinical, yet exudes an ease which many find enjoyable and insightful.
John also directs the Joyful Belly College of Ayurveda,
offering professional clinical training in Ayurveda for over 15 years.
John's hobbies & specialties include advanced digestive disorders, medieval Catholic philosophy,
& botany. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University.
John, his wife Natalie and their 8 kids live in Asheville, NC
“I know I'm not supposed to love food, however there is a love affair brewing with all the wonderful soups I'm eating and offering my students ,clients and family. Not until now have I found a good use for my Dried nettles and my overly popular VATA KAPHA population. Being pitta kapha sometimes I simply want to sit on my Vata folks (treat em like a rose) but John the nettles in the soup changed my momma, instantly! She has always thought yoga, massage and Ayurveda was cultish activity and this soup can I tell you, sparked a conversation, a healing, a love for life. Blessings to you John Immel. I owe you boss, cheers 10 stars :)"
“I make herbal infusions as Susun Weed teaches: one ounce by weight of dried herb in a quart jar, filled with boiling water and steeped 8-12 hours. Doing this with nettles, i've found that such a very strong nettle tea is a great base for a miso or mushroom soup. It is also yummy by itself with tamari or salt or seaweed and kelp added."
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* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The information and products on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease.
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Constitutional Nutrition Insights
Indications & Uses: What it Improves
Metabolic Effects & Herbal Actions
Contraindications / Aggravates
Similar foods and herbs
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