How Can This Ayurvedic Food Make You Feel Great?

AYURVEDIC ANALYSIS

Spring Blood Thinner

Spring is softening the soil, and the promise of a lush backyard garden is sweet compensation for the dark days of winter. Are you fantasizing about your culinary herb garden, picking and choosing the green leaves that will flavor and speckle this year's coming meals?

Don't forget about the anise-flavored tarragon. Get it growing in your windowsill as the winter withers. You might need it - tarragon is your springtime friend.

Blood tends to be congested and thick in the spring. Luckily, you can look to flavorful ingredients like raw onions or bright garlicky pestos to help get fluids moving. Try a pesto made with tarragon. Tarragon's aroma relaxes and dilates blood vessels, removing any restriction to circulation. The herb's hot pungency stimulates the heart and destroys a lingering winter chill. Tarragon's drying qualities reduce spring water retention as well, releasing water weight and restoring tone to puffy skin.These blood-moving and pressure reducing properties help reinvigorate the blood and flush the lymphatic system.

Tarragon not only clears the blood and gets it moving, tarragon reduces platelet adhesion and the clogging of blood vessels. It may be beneficial in cardiovascular disorders involving clotting.Tarragon belongs to the Artemisia genus, a genus that features prominently in many worldwide herbal heritages, including Chinese medicine and Western herbalism. The delicious leaves show up in cuisines from France to Russia and beyond. It's common knowledge; tarragon is delicious and good for you.

Cleansing the Blood

Turn to beautifying bitters in springtime, which is the time of year when nature nudges us to flush and cleanse our insides. Tarragon is one bitter-flavored helper. Its bitter taste cleanses the liver, encourages the production of bile, and purifies the blood. Some herbalists recommend soaking the bruised leaves in apple cider vinegar for a few hours, and then taking a spoonful of the medicated vinegar before eating to aid digestion and detoxification.

Famed British gardener John Evelyn said of tarragon, just as it was becoming a favored culinary herb in his homeland: "'Tis highly cordial and friend to the head, heart, and liver."

Historical uses of the herb affirm Evelyn's hunch, and much more. Medieval herbalists regarded tarragon as a treatment for snakebite.The ancient Greeks chewed the leaves and wedged them near a problematic tooth to treat the pain. In Chinese medicine the herb is turned to for menstrual difficulties, digestive support, and to assist with loss of appetite.