Week after week, headlines roll, announcing with great flourish how different foods are good for us:  Acai berries!  Kale!  Blueberries!  Quinoa!   I just read an article from the Land Animal blog, describing  the many nutritional benefits of parsley.  Yes, you read that right.  Even lowly parsley has now been recognized as a nutritional powerhouse.  That’s what got me thinking there should be an article with this headline:

Sound odd and surprising?  It really isn’t.  Why wouldn’t all the fruits of the earth be good for us?  They were all designed to be our nurture and nourishment, and our bodies were designed to put them all to good use.  Just like every other critter on the planet, we’ve been given a perfect food source.

What’s actually odd and surprising is how impressed and awed we are when a “scientific study” discovers the obvious.  Equally odd and surprising is that despite the obvious rightness of real foods, we knowingly feed ourselves food-grade  factory products that bear no resemblance to what the earth gladly supplies us.

Parsley is just one more example in a long string of evidence that the earth will gladly take care of us.  All we have to do is eat what the earth gives us instead of sugar-laden, fat-filled, over-salted, additive-addled factory products.   With all due respect to all the scientific studies, healthful eating  just isn’t as hard as we’ve been led to believe.

More parsley benefits: It's always cheap and always available. Keep some on hand and store in a vase so it can double as nice winter greenery.

Another interesting thing happens as you begin eating consistently from the seasonal fruits of the earth:  When a study comes out proclaiming the benefits of, say, beets, or celery, or millet or grassfed beef, the chances are good that you’re already eating the latest miracle food!  You don’t have to run out to the store and e.g., buy a bushel of parsley then gag it down in smoothies.  Instead, you’ve already been buying parsley every week or two, sprinkling it over casseroles for color, adding it to salads for flavor, or turning it into pestos (like the one in the next post.)

Shopping Tip:  If you’re ready to start weaving parsley into your diet, try the flat-leafed, or Italian, variety (pictured to the right.)  I prefer it’s taste to curly-leafed parsley, the other main variety available in stores.

Cooking Tips: Wash parsley well in advance of using so it can dry completely.  (I wash right when I get it home from the store, then let it dry in a colander for 30 minutes to an hour before bagging and refrigerating.)    Also, don’t throw out the stems.  See how they are used in Parsley Pesto.

Come find out more about how easy it can be to eat in rhythm with nature, which is healthful automatically.  Whole Kitchen Cooking Classes are all about learning to easily cook and enjoy the cornucopia of food the earth supplies us:  from fruits, vegetables and grains to proteins, nuts, beans and all sorts of herbs, spices and flavorings–like parsley!  Next session begins Thursday, January 13.