Health is more than simply not being sick. My old, and slightly dusty, print dictionary defines it thusly: “Health is the condition of being sound in body, in mind, and in spirit. It includes this as well: “freedom from physical disease and pain.”

Food is Key

Hippocrates famously said “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” Hippocrates also admonished physicians to “First, do no harm,” but we are not here to talk about doctors. We are here to talk about foods and savoring the Southwest.

Native Peoples and Native Plants

It is estimated that before contact with Europeans, the Southwest had over three million inhabitants.    These people grew or harvested their food from the land around them, and were, on the whole, remarkably healthy.    The picture has changed.    Modern European foods have been introduced to Native cultures, and medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and obesity are prevalent in the Native populations.      The solution to these medical problems lies just outside our door.    Step into the Sonoran and Mohave Deserts and harvest the desert foods that help the body stay healthy.

European Diseases

Diabetes, and complications from the disease, is the number three killer of adults in America today.    Diabetes is especially prevalent in Native desert peoples.    The local Tohono O’odham and Akimel O’odham have the dubious distinction of suffering the highest incidence of adult-onset diabetes in the world.    Australian Aborigines and fully genetic Ethiopians are not far behind.    In all cases, those that hold to the old ways and eat the traditional desert foods do not develop the disease.    So what is so healthy about desert plants?

Desert Plants Offer Health Solutions

Desert plants are naturally high in soluble fibers which help them store water.        Soluble fibers include gums, pectins, and complex carbohydrates.    Complex carbohydrates break down slowly in the body, thus the body can more easily secrete the correct amounts of insulin and glucagon to maintain proper blood sugar levels.    Pectins and gums appear to help slow the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates as well.   

Slow Release Foods

Foods high in soluble fibers are considered “slow release foods.”     The term refers to the fact that any sugars in these foods are released into the blood, but are slowly absorbed by the body.

Psyllium, flax seeds, fenugreek, and many desert plants contain related soluble fibers and mucilage that slow absorption of carbohydrates.    This is measured as the glycemic index of a food.    Tests indicate that a diet high in slow release foods helps protect people prone to the disease from developing diabetes.    Slow release foods are very important to diabetics as well, as they help keep blood sugar from rising suddenly, or “spiking.”     

Foods high in soluble fibers have also been show to lower cholesterol.    Studies show that compounds in these fibers bind with fats and move them undigested out of the intestinal tract.    The fibers may also increase liver activity to remove “bad” cholesterol from the blood.   

Healthy Minerals

Desert plants grow in mineral rich soils, and are generally rich healthy sources of magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper, iron, selenium, and calcium.    These minerals are important for normal functioning of the body.    The following notes on minerals were gleaned from a number of studies done in the last decade.    In all cases there are further studies under way.    Thus far, studies show an average higher maintained blood serum level of minerals when these minerals are consumed daily from plant food sources as opposed to supplements.  

Magnesium

The human body needs magnesium for many aspects of health.    Magnesium works with calcium and plays a major role in keeping bones stable and reducing osteoporosis.  Research shows that magnesium from natural sources can help reduce hypertension.  Magnesium helps the pancreas secrete insulin.    Many diabetics are deficient in magnesium, and the deficiency can exacerbate the disease.   

Low dietary intake of  magnesium has been linked with impaired lung function and wheezing in asthmatics.   Reduced blood levels of copper also appear to play a role in severe asthma attacks.     

Zinc

This mineral has been proven to help support immune function.    It’s needed in the manufacture of immune cells.    Higher blood levels of zinc appear to be a factor in why people at risk for hereditary cancers do not develop the disease.    Zinc levels in the blood are often lower in diabetics.    Zinc appears to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels, although the mechanism is not fully understood.

Selenium

A trace mineral, selenium in higher levels in the blood is linked to lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and lower cancer rates.    In one small study, it was linked to reduction of insomnia.

Vitamins

We all know that vitamins are important.    Desert plants are good sources of vitamins A, C, beta carotene, thiamine, folic acid, riboflavin, and niacin.    These last four, considered parts of the B vitamin complex, have demonstrated usefulness in reducing high cholesterol, and in maintaining good cholesterol levels in healthy individuals.    Folic acid is arguably not a B vitamin, but is required for the absorption and utilization of the B complex.

Which Native Plants?

So which native plants did the Native peoples eat?      Depending on the tribe and clan, almost every plant growing in their area provided food in some season.    There are numerous books by tribe (Seri, Apache) or by biogeographic region (Sonoran Desert).    A single source for the entire Southwest would fill an encyclopedia – since there are well over 10,000 plants in the area, not even counting the Old World introductions (like cheeseweed or tumbleweeds).

Here at Savor the Southwest, we tend to focus on the foods used by the tribes in Southern Arizona – especially the O’odham and Yoeme (Yaqui).    Their foods included plants found in the desert as well as those found in wet canyons and upper mountain slopes. 

A partial list includes: acorn, agarita, agave, amaranth greens and amaranth seeds, Arizona fan palm fruits, barrel cactus seeds, chia seeds, chilitepins, cholla buds, devils claw, goosefoot greens, wild grapes, graythorn berries, hackberry fruits, ironwood green seeds, i’waki greens, jojoba nuts, juniper cones, mammalaria cactus fruit, mesquite pods and gum, (mesquite flour), (mesquite as a drink), mistletoe fruit, ocotillo flowers, oxalis, palo verde green beans, passion fruit, pinyon pine nuts, prickly pear fruits and pads, purslane, saguaro fruits, saltbush, tepary beans, wolfberry fruits (desert goji), and yucca flowers.    The O’odham also grew many crops, primarily corn, tepary and other beans, squash, (the Three Sisters) along with sunflowers, cotton, and tobacco.

We aim to cover all of these as time goes by.  Blue is on this site, red is on our YouTube, green is on Gardening With Soule.

Do Proceed With Care

While many desert foods are healthy, some desert plants are toxic.    Some plants can cause intestinal distress if you are unused to them.    Moderation is key, as is proper plant identification.    Enjoy, but do so carefully.    The information provided in this article is for your reference and is not to be used as a substitute for qualified medical attention.   

Side Note – So Many Health Concerns

May is National (insert health concern here) Month. There are so many aspects of health we could focus on. The Food Industry has national days and months as well, but this article is focused on health.

  Allergy/Asthma Awareness Month
  Arthritis Month
  Better Sleep Month
  Correct Posture Month
  Foot Health Month
  High Blood Pressure Month 
  Mediterranean Diet Month 
  Mental Health Month
  Older Americans Month
  Physical Fitness and Sports Month 
  Senior Health Month

There are individual days in May for health concerns as well.  This is just a sampling.  There are so many more!

  first Monday is Melanoma Monday (Skin Month is November)
  first Tuesday is World Asthma Day 
  May 1 is Therapeutic Massage Awareness Day
  May 11 is National Eat What You Want Day
  last Wednesday of May is National Senior Health and Fitness Day 
  last Friday of May is National Heat Awareness Day

Every month and almost every day of the year has some aspect on health and health awareness in the USA. It gives all specialists of western medicine a chance to try to sell you how important their aspect of health care is. But let’s remember again what Hippocrates said.

“Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”

Thanks for Reading!

The Savorists

“Olde Style” Canning Guide

Ball Brothers has been publishing their “Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving Recipes” for many years.  The “modern” USDA has not tested some of the methods in this guide.  That means they do not “approve” of them.  If you are an experienced canner there are some tasty recipes in here to make.

This is a downloadable PDF offered for sale on my Gardening With Soule classes site.  You may see some other classes in there that interest you.

Legal Notes

© Article copyright Savor the Southwest // Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. You must ask permission to republish an entire blog post or article. Okay to use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit. You must include a link back to the original post on our site. No stealing photos.

Disclaimer

The authors of this website have researched the edibility of the materials we discuss, however, humans vary in their ability to tolerate different foods, drinks, and herbs. Individuals consuming flowers, plants, animals, or derivatives mentioned in this blog do so entirely at their own risk. The authors on this site cannot be held responsible for any adverse reaction. In case of doubt please consult your medical practitioner.