Nourishing Herbal Infusions
Nourishing Herbal Infusions are made with nutritive herbs. Nutritive herbs contain vitamins, minerals, and other compounds your body needs for optimal function. Nutritive herbs nourish your body and help bring your body into balance. When your body is balanced, you have more energy, brain functioning, and a robust immune system.
When people hear or think about herbs, they often think about using culinary herbs to flavor and spice their foods or using the herbs medicinally as a replacement for modern medicines. These practices, the culinary and medicinal use of herbs, are becoming more widely accepted in mainstream society, and each has entire professional disciplines dedicated to them.
One area that needs to be considered in learning about herbs is using specific herbs for their nutritional value. In our own experience and opinion, this is the ideal starting place when introducing herbs into your life. The idea of food as medicine is not a new concept. Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” When we are adequately nourished, our bodies function at their best and are balanced; thus, we experience less illness and disease.
Our families, friends, and customers have shown that many health problems can be fixed by adding nourishing herbs to the diet alone. Nutritive herbs provide “all the good stuff,” such as protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals necessary for general nutrition and health. These nutritive herbs provide the body with a source of easily assimilated nutrients to make us feel stronger, more energetic and help prevent diseases. Nutritive herbs and quality foods can easily be added to any diet rather than pills common in modern medicine. Processed vitamin/supplement pills only contain a simplified version of complex substances (vitamins and minerals) that nature offers in the nutritive herbs.
Nourishing Herbal Infusions (NHI) are more potent than regular steeped herbal teas. They are made from nutrient-dense herbs that are always dried and steeped for an extended period, usually at least four hours. The NHIs also use a large quantity of dried plant material to give us a vitamin and mineral-packed drink.
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For a Tea:
Pour one cup boiling water over 2 tbsp. of herb tea mix. Let steep for 10 minutes, strain and enjoy.
How to Make a Nourishing Herbal Infusion:
1. Place four tablespoons (or one tablespoon for every cup) of dried plant material in a canning jar or French Press.
2. Pour one quart (4 cups) of boiling water over the herbs and cap with a canning jar lid or use a French press.
3. Let this steep for 4 hours or overnight. If you prepare your infusion before bedtime, your NHI will be ready in the morning.
4. After steeping, strain out the herbs and drink throughout the day. Ideally, an adult would drink one quart (4 cups) of NHI daily. Children aged ten and under would drink up to 2 cups a day.
5. NHIs have a short shelf life (due to the high protein content) and should be used within 48 hours of straining them. Refrigerate when not drinking to obtain the freshest quality.