Easy, Natural Ways to Increase the Available Minerals in Your Diet

The first article in this series discussed the relative nutrition available in supermarket veggies, heirloom veggies from bio-diverse gardens and farms, and edible wild plants. 

In the second article, we explored what’s happened to the availability of minerals in the plant foods we eat as a result of soil management, and also as a result of our food selection and preparation choices. 

This final article for this series explores some ways to maximize our absorption of the minerals that our plant foods offer.

We need “outside help” to digest plant foods

Plant cells have a cell membrane, and then around the outside of that they have a rigid cell wall made out of cellulose and lignin (substances that are particularly hard to digest), which gives plants their structure in the absence of bones to hold them up. We need ways of breaking down this tough cell wall if we are to digest and absorb the nutrients held in plant cells. 

In contrast, animal cells have a thin, permeable cell membrane which can regulate what comes in and out of the cell but provides nothing in the way of structure and is not difficult for our digestive systems to break into¹. 

Cooking with heat, fermenting, pickling, or dressing with an oil and vinegar salad dressing are some examples of preparations that break open plant cell walls² and liberate the nutrients they hold.

All these processes cause plants to lose their crunch and change their color; that’s how you know the cell walls have collapsed and the nutrients inside them are  now available to the human digestive system.

Think of it as pre-digesting tough plant foods that our digestive systems are not equipped to handle without some outside help.

Hot water or vinegar for mineral extraction

In herbalism, a "solvent" or "menstruum" is the liquid used to extract the nutritional or medical constituents out of a plant’s cells and into the liquid so that we can easily digest it. Common choices include alcohol, vinegar, glycerine, hot water, honey, and oils.

Of these, the two that do the best job of extracting minerals for our bodies to assimilate them are vinegar and hot water .

Let’s talk about hot water first.

Infusing nutrients into hot water

If you’re drinking tea for pleasure then by all means drink tea. But if you’re after nourishment, make it an infusion.

What’s the difference? Tea is made with a small amount of dried plant material steeped for a short time. It’s flavorsome and relaxing/invigorating, but not nutritive.

An infusion is a large amount of dried plant material steeped for a long time. Infusions are nutritive. They work cumulatively, just as nourishing foods do – ideally, you’d drink them as a lifelong habit or at least for several months at a time.

An infusion is an efficient way to consume the minerals and other nutrients from nourishing leafy plants, without having to chew through a large volumes of plant material.

Wise Woman Herbalist Susun Weed, as far as I know, is the originator of "nourishing herbal infusions." She certainly has done more to popularize them than any other herbalist, and all of the information in this article about herbal infusions comes from her. 

Here is how to make and use infusions:

• Put a kettle on to boil. While it’s boiling, get out your dried stinging nettle (as in the picture above) or other nourishing herb (read more about which herbs to use, here)  and pour about 1 cup of dried herb per liter of water into a jar.
  
  
• When the kettle sings, pour the boiling water over the herb, stir well, lid it tightly, and leave it for at least 4 hours or overnight. (I like ball mason jars because they can cope with boiling water without the risk of cracking. Another strategy is to warm the jar with warm to hot water first, then pour the boiling water into it.)
  
  
• When it’s finished steeping, I like to put it straight in the fridge, since I like to drink my infusions chilled. As soon as its chilled or whenever you’re ready, strain it (compost worms LOVE the spent herb material) and drink it. There is no overdose. This is nourishment, not medicine. 

It takes me about two days to drink a two-liter jar of infusion (the one in this picture is oat straw infusion). That means I get to digest the nutrients from the equivalent of at least 4 to 6 cups of fresh, leafy plant material two days without having to chew through any of it.

Even the most motivated person would struggle to maintain that rate of consumption of leafy greens if you had to chew them all. And because you’re drinking these herbs rather than eating them (drink between meals, so you don’t dilute your digestive juices at meal time), you get all that extra nutrition ON TOP of all the healthy foods you eat at mealtimes.

Where to get the dried herbs? This website talks about which herbs to use and includes banner links to reputable online herbal suppliers for the US. In Australia, I order from Austral Herbs.  

Can you grow or forage and dry your own herbs to use? You could, but realistically unless you have plenty of spare time, a dry climate, and lots of space to hang drying herbs, its not going to be much fun.

Start by ordering dried herbs online, get in the habit and get committed to drinking infusions, then consider if you want to dry your own herbs.

Next (after the ebook ad) let’s talk about herbal vinegars.

Extracting minerals into vinegar

Vinegar can dissolve minerals from plant materials and hold them in solution, ready for you to digest them.

The addition of an herbal vinegar to your salad dressings or a splash of it on your cooked veggies provides you with any minerals that the vinegar is holding in suspension, and ALSO aides in the digestion of the minerals in your entire meal.

Be aware of the difference between a flavored vinegar and a nutritive vinegar. If you’re making an herbal vinegar for flavor and aroma, all you need is a couple of sprigs of a herb that will still look good after an extended vinegar bath, an attractive jar or bottle with a non-metal lid, about 2 weeks of steeping time, and you’re good to go.

But (as with the difference between tea and infusion) if the goal is to make a nutritive vinegar then you need LOTS of whatever plant you’re using³, and you need more time.  

Flavored vinegars are ready to consume after 2 weeks; nutritive vinegars can benefit from 6 weeks of steeping before you use them.

Here’s how to make a nutritive herbal vinegar:

• Choose a jar with a non-metallic lid. You can also put a piece of grease proof paper or cling wrap between jar and lid, but I find it much easier just to choose a plastic lid.
  
• Choose a dry, sunny day, ideally after rain or after you’ve run the sprinkler the day before, to harvest your fresh plant material (suggestions on which plants to use, plus links to more suggestions, are below). You want leaves that have been recently washed clean and then dried by the sun.  
  
• Pack your jar snugly with chopped fresh plant material (chopping—the finer the better—creates more surface area to expose to the vinegar).
  
• Fill the jar a second time, with vinegar, all the way to the top. Make sure your plant material is fully submerged.
  
• Label your jar and put it on a shelf out of direct sunlight for 6 weeks. (Yes, I start using them sooner if I have nothing else. It takes time to build up your vinegars so that you’re 6 weeks ahead of yourself).

Which plants should you use to make your nutritive vinegars? I use stinging nettle, chickweed, plantain, and dandelion, because that’s what grows in and around my garden.

Wise Woman Herbalist, Susun Weed, shares a much longer list of plants along with lots more wisdom about making herbal vinegars, here and here.

Another good herbal vinegar making tutorial is here.

Raw or pasteurized vinegar? This seems to be a matter of preference. Some herbalists don’t specify which to use; others warn of funky things happening with raw vinegar that might make your final product unappealing.

I’ve been using raw apple cider vinegar because I’m keen on its additional probiotic benefits and so far, I haven’t had anything weird happen in my vinegar jars. But that doesn’t mean it won’t, one day.

I wish you well in maximizing your nutrition while you minimize your visits to the supermarket and the pharmacy!

This was the last in a series of 3 articles. Find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.