Grazing for Humans
By Julie Caldwell, MA, Herbalist
Consider: How much of what we eat today is local? Or seasonal? It’s highly likely that most of us throughout the year eat fruits and vegetables from far, far away – tomatoes from Mexico, grapes from Chile – that are available in many supermarkets year-round. When we ingest beneficial plant compounds from local, seasonal plants we receive a vast amount of information that helps direct and optimize our physiological processes, but what happens when that information comes from a totally different ecosystem thousands of miles away?
We also have an astonishing selection of prepackaged and processed foods that are a large part of many typical diets around the world. These “foods” are “fortified” with non-food chemicals that enhance taste, improve texture or extend shelf life yet we don’t know much at all about how these chemicals are behaving in our bodies. For example, the most similar molecular structure to artificial banana flavor is the pheromone that honeybees make when the hive is threatened and they need to sting. What might that synthesized flavor be triggering in the physiology of our bodies?
This is where Grazing comes in, and it’s just what it sounds like. I first learned of this simple practice many years ago from Dr. Jenn Dazey of Bastyr University. She teaches the vital importance of working with beneficial plant phenolic compounds found in the plants growing in your specific bioregion using a form of plant medicine she calls Grazing. It’s free and can be practiced by anyone, anywhere in the world as long as there is access to a plant or two.
This is how it works: Plants contain hundreds of different compounds or constituents that together create the properties of the plant – taste, scent, medicinal benefits, color, root structure, growth patterns, nutritional properties, and more. Fascinatingly, one class of these constituents is known as “secondary metabolites,” and research thus far indicates that these secondary metabolites, created by the plant in their process of environmental adaptation, seem to have no direct benefit to the plant itself. Current belief is that these secondary metabolites are being created specifically for the benefit of animals, including humans, who come in contact with the plants, as part of the complex co-evolved interconnection of life on this planet. Plants are constantly sloughing these phenolic compounds and metabolites into the air from their pollen, leaves, flowers and bark, and animals are inhaling these compounds in very minute amounts into our lungs when we interact with them. When animals, including humans, eat the plant, these compounds are even more concentrated and the effect is amplified. The environmental adaptive response of the plant, which is coded into these secondary metabolites, becomes an important tool for environmental adaptation in animals.
When you see animals grazing, they’re not just stopping in one spot and eating a whole bunch. They take a few little nibbles of the tips and then move on to the next plant, and in the process receive enormous amounts of information about adaptation and how to best physiologically prepare for coming events. We know plants communicate with each other from miles away. A tree being attacked by beetles will release chemicals that alert trees nearby to the threat, and those newly alerted trees will upregulate or downregulate certain constituents to better protect themselves. This chemical communication is the equivalent of the daily news report for both the plants and the animals that share an ecosystem – plants record and broadcast the news, and the animals can “read” that news when they come in contact with the plants.
When we graze as humans, just like deer or bunnies, we go from plant to plant eating just the tiny growing tips. Look for the happiest, tenderest little leaves and buds and eat them, then move on to the next plant. It’s okay to graze from multiple plants of the same species, because different plants may have different information – different points of view as it were. Though it may be too subtle for you to detect, when you ingest those little bits of current news reports from the plants your body has a profound physiological response across all your body’s systems – your immune system, respiratory system, endocrine system, nervous system will all begin to upregulate and downregulate (or increase and decrease) specific cellular activity in response to the news report, strengthening your body’s vital life force.
When you graze you’re getting an accurate report of your local environment. Conversely, when you eat those grapes from Chile that you bought at the Co-Op, you’re receiving locally maladaptive information about the environmental conditions in Chile, and who knows what crazy information we’re receiving from non-food chemicals in processed food products.
Importantly, information transmitted through grazing will come through loud and clear – much clearer than the news from Chile or from synthetic chemicals. Creating a grazing route in your surrounding area will help you adapt and optimally respond physiologically to your environment and any stresses it might be experiencing. It doesn’t take much. Just a few plants a day – any plants growing outside - or even a few plants a week will do the trick. Even if you don’t know what the plant is, you can be reasonably certain of safety because you’re consuming such a minute amount. Of course, it’s important to recognize and avoid seriously poisonous plants in your area. Remember, you’re not ingesting enough plant material to receive the medicinal or nutritional qualities – you’re only enjoying a taste to receive information. If you’re nervous, chew the tiny plant bits just on the tip of your tongue and then spit them out.
To have healthy relationships with the plants in your ecosystem you need to exchange information. By grazing, you can receive some of the information and benefits plants have to offer and in exchange, you can offer your gratitude and appreciation for their many, many gifts. The health of our ecosystems and communities is dependent on the health of all the life forms that participate in them. The always generous, always life-giving plants share a profound path to that health and vitality.
Julie Caldwell is our featured guest for this month’s teleseminar, Connection, Commerce & Vital Life Force- Thoughts from a Community Herb Shop
Julie offers personal sessions, classes and herb walks in the Humboldt County area, and facilitates ongoing retreats in Northern California. To learn more about Julie’s classes, services, and herb shop, you can sign up for the Humboldt Herbals monthly newsletter at www.humboldtherbals.com.
