When using as a detox tea, I make a gallon of dandelion leaf tea, refrigerate, and sip on it throughout the day, sweetening it a bit with liquid stevia.

Precautions:

Dandelion tea may irritate the stomach lining in some individuals. It increases the amount of bile produced. People that have gallstones or gallbladder ailments should not drink dandelion tea. Occasionally, individuals who are allergic to plants in the daisy family may experience skin irritation when handling leaves or extract.

Individuals who are diabetic should carefully monitor their blood sugar  levels when drinking dandelion tea. The tea also counteracts the effects of antacids and drugs that reduce acid production in the stomach.

-Kathleen Roberts, LoveToKnow Herbs

For  more information on this wondeful herb please visit: Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) ~ LuminEarth’s Guide to Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants

Anyhow, Thought you might like to know how I use up all of the dandelion greens in my yard.  I really like this method, because you use everything!

Here’s what I do:

• Get a large kettle, one that holds at least one gallon of water
• Gather enough dandelion greens to fill the kettle at least half full (click here to earn about how to identify and gather dandelion greens)
• Clean and rinse the dandelion leaves, returning them to the kettle
• Fill kettle with one gallon of water
• Bring to a rapid boil
• Boil for 10 minutes

At this point, you have dandelion tea!  (Technically, this is a “decoction” because you have boiled the leaves in the water.  A “tea” is made by bringing the water to a boil, turning off the heat source, and steeping the leaves.)

• Remove the dandelion leaves from the “tea”
• Save the tea, this can be consumed hot or cold.  (I like to place mine in a gallon jug and drink it as iced tea.)
• Sweeten to taste with honey, stevia, or your sweetener of choice.

Here’s how I prepare my dandelion greens:

• Get a large skillet
• Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Add one chopped onion (plus any other yummy veggies you want!)
• Sautee onion until tender
• Add dandelion greens
• Sautee until greens are well heated
• Add freshly ground sea salt and pepper
• Add a couple dashes of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
• Serve on top of brown rice

A few other ways to use the boiled greens:

• prepare as you would canned spinach
• add to a stir-fry after the other veggies have been cooked
• layer into lasagnae
• season the boiled greens with Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, sea salt, and fresh ground pepper, then top with a bit of shredded cheddar or parmesan cheese (another one of my favorites!!)

YUMMY!!

Click Here to Learn More About the Dandelion Plant

Click Here to Visit Our FREE Online Guide to Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants

Click Here to Visit Our FREE Online Herbal Materia Medica

References:

• Dandelion Loose Leaf Tea. (n.d.) LoveToKnow Herbs. Extracted October 10, 2011 from http://herbs.lovetoknow.com/Dandelion_Loose_Leaf_Tea

The Books We Use:

• A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide)
• Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers: When and Where to Find Them by William Hutson
• Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places by “Wildman” Steve Brill
• Jude’s Herbal Home Remedies: Natural Health, Beauty & Home Care Secrets by Jude C. Williams, M.H.
• Ortho’s All About Herbs by Maggie Oster
• Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health by Rosemary Gladstar
• Secrets of the Chinese Herbalists by Richard Lucas
• Sunset Herbs: An Illustrated Guide by The Editors of Sunset Magazine
• The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
• The Herbal Drugstore by Linda B. White, M.D.
• The Natural Physicians’s Healing Therapies: Proven Remedies Medical Doctors Don’t Know by Mark Stengler, ND
• The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine by Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D.
• The Way of Herbs by Michael Tierra, L.Ac., O.M.D.
• Wildflowers of the Land Between the Lakes Region, Kentucky and Tennessee

Glee Gum is all-natural, gluten-free chewing gum with no artificial coloring, flavoring, sweeteners, or preservatives. Glee Gum is the only gum in North America made the old fashioned way, with chicle! Chicle is a natural tree sap harvested sustainably from the rainforests of Central America. Once all chewing gum was made with chicle, but today most gum is made entirely from synthetic stuff. Not Glee Gum! Glee Gum uses chicle because it is an eco-friendly way to help conserve the rainforest. Chicle is also what gives the gum such great, long-lasting chewing texture! Glee Gum is a “green” gum right down to the packaging, which is made from biodegradable, recycled cardboard. Glee Gum is made in the USA by Verve, inc., an independent, family-owned business dedicated to linking world communities and creating environmentally and socially responsible products. To learn more about Verve, inc. or Glee Gum, please feel free to contact info@gleegum.com. And remember: when you give yourself a Glee-ful treat, helping the rainforest tastes so sweet!

A lot of people I know chew sugar-free gum. People chew it to help prevent cavities and to prevent bad breath. People chew it to help prevent weight gain. No matter why you chew sugar free gum, you should know that almost all major brands of sugar free gum contain aspartame.

In case you don’t know much about aspartame, let me give you some background. Aspartame is a food additive, approved by the FDA that makes foods tastes sweet without adding calories. The NBC television show The Biggest Loser promotes the use of Extra Sugarfree gum as a snack substitute. Which is kind of scary considering that Extra contains aspartame, and aspartame is poison.

What? Yeah, you heard me right. Aspartame is poison. Federal government approved poison. Our friends at Monsanto are eye-brow deep in aspartame, well they do produce almost all of the food we eat – but that is a horror story for another day.

Glee Gum is Aspartame Free!

Background on Aspartame

from www.dorway.com, Poison for the Masses:

Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names, NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. Aspartame was discovered by accident in 1965, when James Schlatter, a chemist of G.D. Searle Company was testing an anti-ulcer drug.

Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated beverages in 1983. It was originally approved for dry goods on July 26, 1974, but objections filed by neuroscience researcher Dr John W. Olney and Consumer attorney James Turner in August 1974 as well as investigations of G.D. Searle’s research practices caused the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put approval of aspartame on hold (December 5, 1974). In 1985, Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle and made Searle Pharmaceuticals and The NutraSweet Company separate subsidiaries.

Aspartame is, by far, the most dangerous substance on the market that is added to foods. Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death as recently disclosed in a February 1994 Department of Health and Human Services report.(1) A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame include:

Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.

According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by ingesting of aspartame:(2)

Brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, parkinson’s disease, alzheimer’s, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, and diabetes.

Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: Aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol.

You don’t have to look far to find information about aspartame. Do a search on Google and thousands of sites pop up. Aspartame and its poisonous side effects are no secret. So why do so many people just mindless consume it?

Well this post started out as a product review for Glee Gum. Like a good deed in a naughty world, Glee Gum offers an all natural chew. In all honesty, the flavor does not last as long as many other gums. But how long can you chew a piece of gum? I like Glee because I chew it just long enough to freshen my breath and I’m good to go.

Glee comes in several delicious flavors and is available at most health food stores and health food chains. Don’t look for it at Stop N Shop, Publix or Kroger – Monsanto won’t allow it.

If you can’t find it locally and want to give it a try, here is a link to buy Glee Gum from Amazon: Buy Glee Gum from Amazon.com

The new juice is called (M)mun (pronounced “mune”, as in “immune”) and it joins a family of some of the most potent antioxidant juices available on the market today. MonaVie products are known for being thoughtfully and conscientiously developed health and wellness products backed by solid science.

Like the rest of its impressive family (M)mun tastes great and if it delivers on the health benefits it is said to have, I predict a big winner for MonaVie drinkers and distributors.

What Makes (M)mun So Special?

Optimize your body’s natural defenses. MonaVie (M)mun is a beneficial blend of 19 fruits and Wellmune® —clinically shown to promote proper immune function. Formulated with antioxidant rich MVao², a proprietary complex featuring the superfruits açai and maqui, this delicious juice helps protect your body year-round. It’s your daily defense for a healthier life.

What is Wellmune®?

Wellmune® is a natural ingredient that supports the body’s natural defenses by promoting healthy immune function. This unique, patent-protected compound, a beta-glucan polysaccharide (or complex carbohydrate), is produced from a proprietary strain of baker’s yeast. In several clinical trials involving hundreds of participants, Wellmune has been shown to support the immune system’s innate ability to fight a wide range of challenges.

How does Wellmune® work in the body?

The immune system is a highly complex network of specialized cells that protect against opposing elements foreign to the body. Wellmune^® works by preparing key immune cells for action. These special immune cells called neutrophils require beta-glucan polysaccharides to properly function. By introducing a nutritional source of beta-glucan to the body, the immune system is better prepared to identify and neutralize these challenges.

A New Choice for A New Millennium

We are the future. The choices we make today will lead the way into the next millennium and beyond. Do we really want to continue masking our symptoms with drugs? Do we really want to keep risking our health in the name of saving our health, as we do with the immunizations that are pushed on us? All we need to sustain our health and well being exists in nature. MonaVie products, including the new (M)mun are all natural alternatives.

Of course I’m not suggesting that you drop your prescriptions and stop listening to your doctors, only that you open your minds to natural alternatives. Our bodies are amazing instruments and with the right nutrients, they will sustains into fit and fruitful golden years. I believe the MonaVie family of products can go a long way in getting us back on track to great health – naturally – oh, and did I mention that they taste great?

If you’re interested in trying (M)mun, or any MonaVie product, please click here.