Berries are so good for you. We just have to look at nature. Bears stock up on berries just before hibernation. Birds, rabbits, etc. eat them. Also Indigenous peoples have been using elderberries for centuries for its healing and immune boosting effects.
Exactly. I think we have to trust in nature, and in what has sustained humans for thousands of years. The First Nations here have a story about how Grizzly bear taught the people to eat. Bears eat tubers and greens, medicines, a diverse array of meat and plants, and of course, salmon. Pretty yummy diet if you ask me.
Thanks for this essay! I am also wprking on an essay specifically about elderberry. I was wondering why it was difficult to find conclusive online information when my physical books are FULL of information and you shed some light on that! Elderberry tincture is my go-to at the first sign of a sniffle as well.
I was SHOCKED to be honest when Google returned such poor information about elderberry, especially regarding its efficacy. The last time I wrote about elderberry was for a blog post for Physician's Choice (which I do not see online now), and at that time there were lots of research papers that came up easily. I hate to ring the conspiracy bell, but it certainly seems like a case of suppression of information on a highly effective natural medicine.
Anyway this 2023 paper in the journal Molecules (https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/28/7/3148) states that sales of elderberry extra were more than $320 million in 2020 and it's a very rich source of anthocyanins which is the compound that gives elderberry its high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory results. The paper reviews a lot of the recent science.
Thanks for sharing the link! It gets harder to find information on natural health, especially now that remedies are being billed as dangerous and/or useless in Canada and the US. Its difficult to stay away from the label of "conspiracy theorist" when you study natural health!
Thanks, Sue, for another informative essay. Makes my mouth water to think of blackberries and huckleberries. I have a question about elderberry. My daughter has two of them growing at her home, but neither produce any fruit. Should I cut one out and replace with another? But which one? Any suggestions?
Which type of elderberries are they? We have native red or blue, and European black here. And my second question would be have they never produced fruit, or only not producing this year? Mine are terrible this year - it was too cold during the flowering stage. I also suspect that they tend to produce mast crops - sometimes loaded and other times not.
Berries are so good for you. We just have to look at nature. Bears stock up on berries just before hibernation. Birds, rabbits, etc. eat them. Also Indigenous peoples have been using elderberries for centuries for its healing and immune boosting effects.
Exactly. I think we have to trust in nature, and in what has sustained humans for thousands of years. The First Nations here have a story about how Grizzly bear taught the people to eat. Bears eat tubers and greens, medicines, a diverse array of meat and plants, and of course, salmon. Pretty yummy diet if you ask me.
“Big Pharma”…”boosting” immunity with berries?
🙄
enjoy your berries
get vaccinated to boost immunity
Thanks for this essay! I am also wprking on an essay specifically about elderberry. I was wondering why it was difficult to find conclusive online information when my physical books are FULL of information and you shed some light on that! Elderberry tincture is my go-to at the first sign of a sniffle as well.
I was SHOCKED to be honest when Google returned such poor information about elderberry, especially regarding its efficacy. The last time I wrote about elderberry was for a blog post for Physician's Choice (which I do not see online now), and at that time there were lots of research papers that came up easily. I hate to ring the conspiracy bell, but it certainly seems like a case of suppression of information on a highly effective natural medicine.
Anyway this 2023 paper in the journal Molecules (https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/28/7/3148) states that sales of elderberry extra were more than $320 million in 2020 and it's a very rich source of anthocyanins which is the compound that gives elderberry its high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory results. The paper reviews a lot of the recent science.
Thanks for sharing the link! It gets harder to find information on natural health, especially now that remedies are being billed as dangerous and/or useless in Canada and the US. Its difficult to stay away from the label of "conspiracy theorist" when you study natural health!
Thanks, Sue, for another informative essay. Makes my mouth water to think of blackberries and huckleberries. I have a question about elderberry. My daughter has two of them growing at her home, but neither produce any fruit. Should I cut one out and replace with another? But which one? Any suggestions?
Which type of elderberries are they? We have native red or blue, and European black here. And my second question would be have they never produced fruit, or only not producing this year? Mine are terrible this year - it was too cold during the flowering stage. I also suspect that they tend to produce mast crops - sometimes loaded and other times not.