Dandelions are dandy

Wouldn’t you love to be able to go out in your yard and pick something that protects your liver, helps your digestion, promotes weight loss and bone health, boosts your immune system, controls blood pressure and reduces hypertension? And if that’s not enough for you, how about curing dandruff and stimulating hair growth and contributing to anti-ageing?

It’s time for a column on dandelions. Cheerful nutritious dandelions. The bright yellow flower that people love to hate.

I do think that’s changing somewhat. While I, for example, have never hated them, I wasn’t particularly fond of them either. Now I am very fond of them. All it takes is a bit of good PR. Enter the bees. Facts about the abundance of health benefits supplied by dandelion roots, leaves and flowers, well known for centuries, haven’t done anything for the dandelion’s image among urban dwellers but the bees seem to be having an influence.

Dandelions were a familiar and beloved garden flower in Europe. Some sources say dandelions were brought to North America on the Mayflower for their medicinal and nutritional benefits. The familiar meadow flowers were welcomed and highly valued by the early settlers.

Then in 1876, fewer than 150 years ago, The U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced lawns to ordinary people, with lawn-growing displays at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exhibition. Lawns started to become popular as status symbols and part of the American dream.

The once highly valued dandelion became a scourge to be eradicated at all costs, despite all the other costs of establishing and maintaining an ideal lawn. Exit the honey bees and bumblebees.

BUZZ ABOUT BEES

Bee colonies are struggling all over the world and a sharp focus is being put on anything that can harm them. Loss of habitat and pesticides are right up there front and centre. So are diseases and viruses. Anything that provides sustenance to bees is suddenly being encouraged, and that includes dandelions.

Dandelions are one of the first foods of the season for pollinators. Fruits and vegetables need pollinators to produce and the insect that we see most on them at this time of year is the honeybee.

All parts of the dandelion provide health benefits. A cup of dandelion greens provides more than 100 per cent of your recommended daily amount of vitamin A and 535 per cent of your recommended daily amount of vitamin K, and other things like calcium, iron and magnesium.

Cooked dandelion greens are delicious. Raw dandelion leaves are used in mesclun salads. They’re actually commercialized now. People raise them and harvest them. Think what a dandelion harvester could do here!

WONDERFUL WOODS

Examining all the benefits of dandelion would take many columns. Here are just a few that might interest you about your personal appearance rather than your lawn’s appearance.

An article entitled “11 amazing benefits of dandelion tea for women” published in 2019 on the website Parenting Healthy Babies tells us “Dandelion is often used as an essential component of skin treatment. The germicidal and fungicidal properties detoxify your skin and improve its health by killing the bacteria present in your skin. The antioxidant properties of dandelion improve the health of the skin by tightening it and the vitamin C content of dandelion reduces puffiness of skin.

“The iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and calcium content nourish the hair and promote hair growth to give you long and healthy hair fast! Consumption of dandelion tea can reduce excess sebum formation and help with dry and itchy scalp. The rich vitamin and iron content improves the health of your hair by daily consumption.”

Dandelion aids in the removal of excess water and fat in our body. Its low calorie content makes it a healthy alternative beverage instead of caffeinated drinks. In fact you can roast dandelion root to make a coffee substitute.

There are many ways to make dandelion tea. It can be as simple as steeping the stems and flowers in boiling water for 30 minutes. You can add whatever pleases you such as honey, lemon, mint, ginger or tumeric.

Or you can go to health food stores and spend your hard earned money on myriad extractions and concoctions made from dandelions. Again, business opportunities for enterprising Newfoundlanders.

Sure if dandelions didn’t multiply so well here we’d be cultivating them.