Mint: For Health & Enjoyment

By Cassie McCully

Growing mint is as easy as throwing seeds and watching them turn into wildflowers--my kind of gardening!

Did you forget to water...for a week?  No problem!  With a lot of sunlight, mint will continue to grow and grow, and if you're not careful, it may just grow outside of its pot, into the ground and up the porch. 

Mint can be highly invasive. 

The good news is that growing mint can be purposeful and enjoyed in various ways.

The use of herbs and essential oils are becoming more popular with health care professionals, and even Dr. Davis.  Especially since we live in a day and age where our grocery store shelves are filled with processed foods that lose their essential nutrients through their processing.  Essential oils are the concentrated and complex heart of the plant.  The heart of mint, is in fact its leaves. 

MINT FOR HEALTH: 

• Digestive Process: The menthol in peppermint aids the digestive process by creating bile, an essential digestive fluid, to soothe the digestive lining.
• Nasal, Sinus and Chest Congestion: Menthol vapors are widely used for relieving nasal, sinus and chest congestion.  Just as Vick's Vapor Rub is marketed to give soothing effects, a cup of mint tea can do the same.
• Cough: Drinking cold peppermint tea has been known to help with coughs. 
• Colic: Peppermint tea has been used to soothe colic.  Talk with your pediatrician about soothing colic with peppermint.
• Nausea, Gas and Tension Headaches:  Mint can ease nausea and excess gas when taken orally, and soothe tension headaches by rubbing peppermint oil on the temples.
• Anti-inflammatory, Pain-Reducer, Counterirritant: Mint, in its essential oil form helps create white cells
• Mental Fatigue: Mint has been used to re-energize the mind, and lift the mood.
• Mint contains Vitamin C and Vitamin A.

Using mint for the above mentioned remedies call for mint in either the concentrated essential oil form or in its natural-grown form.  You can find the essential oil of mint at your local health section in your grocery store or at your health food store.  Ask your health foods expert how to incorporate mint as a remedy for your health.

MINT IN THE KITCHEN:

• Mint Tea
• Moroccan Mint Tea  "It's so popular, it is served all day long..."
• Lemon Mint Cucumber Water
• Mint Smoothie
• Tropical Fruit Salad With a Hint of Mint
• Mint Rice
• Fried Eggplant With Walnut and Mint Sauce
• Salad With Lime-Mint Dressing
• Ina Garten's Middle Eastern Vegetable Salad

I could keep linking, but you get the picture. 

Mint can also be dried and stored for later usage. 

Perhaps now you are looking at those mint plants a little differently? 

I know I am.

Health references and more information: mintrubbing.org/themintplant.pdf 

Photos by Cassie McCully