Herbs are full of nutrients and aid the body’s systems in healing; this applies to our animal friends as well. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been around for over 2000 years. TCM practitioners prescribe herbal remedies and food therapeutically as do many other cultures i.e., India Ayurvedic Medicine, Japanese, Kampo Medicine and Native American Medicine in North America. Europeans and many other cultures include fermented and cultured foods in their daily meals resulting in great medicine.

Food and herbs have at least two flavors and there are five flavors: sweet/sour or tart/acrid or pungent/bitter/salty. For example, berries are usually tart/sweet and dark leafy greens taste bitter/spicy (acrid). Despite the fact that most people don’t like the bitter taste, they have benefits for our health and why I began with four bitter herbs listed below. “Let Food Be Thy Medicine and Medicine be Thy Food” By Hippocrates around 400 BC.

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