According to Alternative Medicine practitioners, food is medicine. Each piece of fruit or vegetable that we eat contains certain nutrients & minerals which contribute to our health.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) each food is categorized as warming, cooling, or neutral to the body. For example, when you eat red pepper, a warming food, you feel hotter, maybe your face gets red or you sweat. By contrast, when you eat watermelon, you cool down and feel refreshed.

One of the staples in our weekly Flagler Organics membership baskets is bananas.

Everyone knows bananas contain potassium (1/4 of our daily needs) but what else? Did you know one banana contains 41% of the US RDA for Vitamin B6? People who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome have been reported to be deficient in B6. One banana provides 20 mg of Vitamin C, 33% of the US RDA. Non-smoking adults should have 75 mg of Vitamin C daily, while women smokers need 110 mg per day and men 125 mg. Vitamin C has powerful anti-inflammatory effects, improves blood flow, and may prevent coronary artery disease.

According to TCM, bananas are cold and sweet, a perfect summertime snack. They lubricate the lungs & soothe cough, lubricate intestines, and lower blood pressure. A Chinese folk remedy for hemorrhoids and constipation is to eat a banana every day on an empty stomach. To reduce hypertension, drink organic banana peel tea.

As Hippocrates said (460-359 BC), “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.” Stay tuned to Flagler Organics for more nutritional information on the tasty food found in our baskets!

Mary Lynn Wieber

Acupuncturist, AP, DOM, NCCAOM, CCH