The Importance of Herbs and Spices

Herbs and spices are both delicious and beneficial to our health.

Far too often, people mistake a healthy diet for a tasteless diet or an unenjoyable diet. This simply is a false assumption and one that should be dispelled. A healthy diet has the potential to not just be nutritive, but to be enjoyable too.Changing your diet should not be about eating in a restrictive way for brief periods of time to achieve certain health goals, it should be about making lifelong changes that support health. To that end, there is no doubt we should be including herbs and spices in our food liberally. Herbs and spices go a long way towards making food not just palatable, but delicious.

No doubt, too, that many people going on the Kaufmann Diet are accustom to eating the standard American diet full of fast food and processed foods full of chemical ingredients designed to overwhelm our tastebuds (i.e., MSG, high amounts of unhealthy fats, sodium, unnatural flavors, etc.). There is in an active thrust amongst food purveyors to make their food irresistible, and often they achieve this in unhealthy ways; fast food, processed foods, and even foods at seemingly healthy restaurants are often full of unhealthy fats, sugar, sodium, MSG and other flavoring agents that our bodies are designed to crave, but do not necessarily benefit us.

Ultimately, breaking what amounts to an addiction to these kinds of foods can be difficult. Herbs and spices constitute to one way we can combat this; through the liberal use of herbs and spices as seasonings, we impart wonderful, real, and healthy flavor to food in the way our ancestors have for thousands of years.

That, however, is only one benefit to using herbs and spices liberally in our food; the utility of herbs and spices extends beyond just making food delicious. These ingredients can have powerful benefits for our health, as well.

Herbs and spices have been used medicinally by our ancestors for thousands of years. Before the advent of modern medicine, herbs and spices were among the limited toolset used by physicians in ancient times all the way through the 19th century. While their understanding of how herbs and spices worked was limited, scientific research today affirms that many of our ancestors were on the right track with their use of herbs and spices for various health concerns.

These can truly be used as medicine, and in some cases, perform better than pharmaceutical medicines at some tasks. Because herbs and spices are so effective for some health concerns, many are available in supplement form. These should be a part of our supplement cabinet, in addition to the spice cabinet. Particularly, on the Kaufmann Diet, many herbs and spices provide a tremendous benefit because of their antifungal activity. These should also be used as recommended and rotated regularly. (Always check with your doctor before adding in new foods or supplements to your regimen.)

Ultimately, herbs and spices are an important part of our diet and our health.