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Right place, right time, right plant. Don't eat weeds from places where they may have been sprayed by pesticides or pets. I put dandelion (literally "teeth of t
by danhodgins 12y ago
Right place, right time, right plant. Don't eat weeds from places where they may have been sprayed by pesticides or pets. I put dandelion (literally "teeth of the lion" or dans de lion in french) in my smoothies weekly. It's pretty bitter and tastes of the earth, so if you make a smoothie use copious amounts of lemon juice and/or orange juice to make it taste a little bit better. There are all sorts of little-known health benefits to dandelion. They are PACKED with all sorts of nutrients. People even grow them deliberately in gardens in Europe. Some people also make dandelion wine and dandelion coffee. Google this stuff - you might be surprised. In an abstract sense weeds are a bit like startups because they take unwanted resources (heat, light, soil, space) and 'add value' through unique processes e.g. photosynthesis to turn them into something else. In a strange way I find weeds inspiring.
- DanBC 12y agoAnd some weeds are great at removing heavy metals from the ground -- you probably don't want to eat too many of those leaves. I used to have nettle soup and tea and dandelion coffee. Dandelion is also called "piss the bed" because it's a mild diuretic. (Just in case anyone from that website is reading: the page is totally broken on mobile. I would have left a comment over there, but the page was so broken I wasn't able to. http://imgur.com/QyjXRg0 http://imgur.com/QyjXRg0 )
- vram22 12y agoI had read a little earlier about people using nettles and dandelion as food. Did you stop eating them because of the chance of heavy metals or for some other reason?
- DanBC 12y agoI moved from a rural to an urban location. It's quite a lot of work digging dandelion roots; washing them; roasting them. And it's not that tasty. And I'm gently worried about the pollution - I live near roads and I have no idea what the soil is like here. The nettles were a by product from clearing a path to the wood hut. That path had to be cleared so using those nettles was good.
- vram22 12y agoGot it now. I agree about the point of pollution near roads - air as well as soil.
- jp555 12y agoPacked with micronutrients. There is almost no macronutrient in dandelion, as besides water it's almost entirely indigestible cellulose fibre. But that fibre is actually the most beneficial aspect by far. By "packed" we mean a few micrograms of calcium, asorbic acid, & other micros dandelion offers, which is completely drowned out by the micros found in the other food one eats. Unless you're eating kilograms of it every week? Not that the reason you're eating it matters, the fibre is good for you no matter what you believe.
- shin_lao 12y agoSorry to correct you, but Dandelion was used as medicine for centuries and is packed with vitamins (A especially) and B1, B2, C and E as well as a lot of minerals. OP was correct. I would however advise against eating too much of it because of its notorious laxative effect. :-)
- jp555 12y agoPacked? A lot? In 100g of dandelion, how much vitamins & minerals do you think there are? I'd be surprised if it was more than 1 gram in total. It's more likely a lot less than 1%. The fibre is the most beneficial component by mass by a huge margin.
- primroot 12y agohttp://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2441/2 http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable...
- swsieber 12y agoI don't think mass is the right way to measure things. I think the correct way to measure things would be by % of daily target. What if you only need 1/100 by mass of some other nutrient vs fiber?
- jp555 12y agoRecommend daily amount is tricky because it may not reflect our most current understanding, but it is a good starting point. For example the RDA of vitamin D is 600IU/day, but there has been evidence that up to 10x this dose continues to provide benefit. While once you have your RDA of other vitamins, any more will just be flushed out of you so it's irrelevant.
- seszett 12y agoSome dandelion varieties are less bitter than others. Those with larger, wider leaves become bitter when the leaves grow, but some species narrow leaves (I think, Taraxacum eriophorum) never get bitter, they just taste like salad. You can also make jam from dandelion flowers, though I don't find the taste really worth it. By the way, the modern French name for dandelion is pissenlit. Meaning, "piss in bed".
- slau 12y agoNot to be pedantic, but the correct French version would be "dents de lion", "dans" translating to "in" (for non-francophone readers: "dents", singular "dent" and "dans" are pronounced the same).