Have you ever seen a little girl or boy excited about a lawn filled with these yellow dots? I sure have! As a father of three girls, this has been time and again a magical moment for them! Now, dandelions are not so magical for my wife, and getting rid of them presents some real challenges.
Dandelions are herbaceous and perennial plants; they love warm climates and reproduce extremely quickly. They come from the same family as sunflowers, and their Latin name is Taraxacum. Dandelions are high in luteolin which is a potent detoxifier. They are also rich in fiber, high in antioxidants, and high in vitamin C. Dandelions boost the immune system and help prevent anemia. On top of that, they are high in potassium, making them a fantastic blood pressure regulator! It is amazing what this tiny flower-herb can do!
The entire dandelion plant is edible. They can be added to salad greens, soups, or juiced. In addition, dandelions have been used as a medicine for thousands of years. Often used as a laxative, they promote liver and gallbladder health by regulating bile production. Dandelions are also known to help people with diabetes improve their overall health thanks to their natural diuretic properties and their ability to help the body remove excess sugar.
The next time you see a dandelion, give it all of your admiration. Then, if you are in a pesticide-free area where dandelions are growing wild, take some for your salad or make a tea out of them! Enjoy them; they are great for you!
On the other hand, if you're like my wife and you're struggling with having too many dandelions dotting your yard, there are natural ways to get rid of them without the harmful effects of chemicals like Glyphosate. Here is a popular recipe shared by Natural News for an all-natural weed-be-gone solution that is every bit as effective but doesn't have the lasting negative effects on your soil and your body that some of the popular chemical options do.
Most people don't think that spraying pesticides in their yard is harmful. However, our body is like a sponge, and we absorb many things through our skin, and they can bioaccumulate in our system. Summer is around the corner, and walking barefoot is one of the best things about it. In our book Detox for Life, on page 35, I wrote about the toxic chemical called Glyphosate and how it disrupts our entire system. Glyphosate is found in many weed killers. This toxic chemical can travel up to four city blocks through the fungal/mycobiome in the soil (as an attempt to dissipate this toxic chemical), and unfortunately, Glyphosate is not being regulated! It is contaminating unsuspecting yards and vegetables everywhere this terrible cancer-causing chemical is being applied. The same lawn you walk in and your kids play in very well may harm your body and infiltrate your fresh-grown produce.
Glyphosate is a patented chelating agent and antibiotic. It bonds to the elements (minerals) in your body and turns the healthy usable organic ions into inorganic salts. Your body then reacts to these inorganic salts as if they were heavy metals, regardless of the mineral. In plants, you see them dry up and die, but it doesn't work that fast in our system, so its effects are not immediately apparent.
As the water you drink and the food that you eat that is laced with this known carcinogen (multiple court cases have proven this now) moves through your digestive system, it is consumed by the bacteria in the gut. As it poisons the first line of microbes, those microbes are eaten by the following line, and this goes on until the gut has lost a vast majority of the microbe population. You have nothing left to digest and aid in the absorption of your food, supplements, medications, etc.
This re-uptake of this carcinogen by the gut bacteria is both a function of the microbiome, trying to protect you from this poison, and an unfortunate thing since it continually poisons the microbiome until there is nothing left. "In my opinion, the accumulation of this toxic chemical(among other pesticides) is responsible for many cases of leaky gut."
Fortunately, God gave us Fulvic and Humic acid compounds that will detoxify this from our systems, as well as probiotics that can replenish what we have lost due to glyphosate exposure.
Now, I am known to eat bitter foods, I love all types of roots, and I'm not afraid of vegetables either. Still, although I want to eat dandelions to take advantage of their healing powers, I am too concerned about the soil quality in our neighborhood due to the use of Glyphosate. We live in a city filled with perfect-looking weedless lawns. I know to achieve these beautiful lawns, most people use toxic chemicals in their yards. So, we came up with an idea to reduce the toxicity on our street (and hopefully the entire neighborhood). We are making several batches of this toxic-free weed killer to share with our neighbors! With the bottle, we will include a note that talks about going toxic-free for the health of our neighborhood. (Let's see how that goes!) In the letter, we will encourage them to make a bottle and pay it forward. We are committed to bringing awareness to the health of our families, pets, and planet! We figured this was the perfect opportunity to open up the door for these conversations with our neighbors. A simple act of kindness, like sharing a bottle of homemade toxic-free-weed-free spray, can be a seed for knowledge. It might be something worth trying in your neighborhood.
If you want to learn more about the impacts of Glyphosate on your health, I have a full article available on my blog at https://www.drnuzum.com/articles/pesticide-round-...