Herbs and Spices Taste Good and Are Good for You Too!

Daijo walked over to the refrigerator and took out a glass jar. Something was floating in the jar that looked like a brown carrot. He took the lid off the jar and handed it to me. "Eat it." He said. "What is it?" I asked. I remember the Wasabe I had eaten when Daijo had prepared some Sushi for us. Wasabe was a sort of hot Japanese horseradish that was deceptively bland when you first tasted it and then had the effect of a freight train running up your nose a few seconds later. "Just eat it." He replied. I took the brown tuber out of the jar and bit into it. It felt wet and cold. It was pretty spicy. Not real hot like a pepper but it had a spicy warmth that sort of grew on you the more you ate of it.

Daijo was a Shingon Buddhist monk who was the Soke of a traditional Japanese incense school that I belonged to for a couple of years in the early 2000's. He was very much into herbal medicine, (most incenses contain one kind of herb or another) and raw natural foods. The spicy carrot that I had eaten was a piece of Turmeric root, said to have excellent cancer fighting, antiseptic, and antioxidant properties. Turmeric root is used in quite a few Indian recipes and is the basis for curry. Daijo used a lot of other herbs in cooking as well as in medicine. He maintained that the secret of good health was to use these herbs in your diet as a preventative and a medicine if you got sick. Whenever we had raw fish, we always ate a handful of raw ginger afterwards. He told us that the antiseptic properties killed off any bacteria or parasites that may have been in the fish. It also had a stomach-settling quality. There must have been some truth to what he said because a few weeks later I had some Sushi in a Japanese restaurant and forgot to eat the ginger and had a mild case of nausea for three days afterwards.

Daijo smoked cigarettes but they were primarily made of cloves. Cloves were also one of the secret ingredients in a powdered hand incense called Zuko. Zuko was a pleasant smelling powder that contained cloves and different aloeswoods and was used by the monks to purify their hands before rituals. They also bathed with crushed cloves and used a couple of clove "nails" (what they call the seeds) to soothe their throats after hours of chanting.

According to an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, (www.stltoday.com0) more and more research is showing that all different kinds of herbs and spices may have health benefits. Garlic has been thought for years to promote good cardiovascular health and cinnamon has been recently shown to help prevent diabetes. Hot peppers have been used historically to both flavor foods and fight disease.

Some spices and herbs only have a medicinal effect if they are used in large quantities, so it's best to check with your doctor before starting a specific regimen. But used in moderation, herbs and spices can be a great way to perk up the flavor of healthy meals and give you important phytonutrients that are essential to your good health.