The delicious and vibrant taste and wonderful healing properties of parsley are often ignored in its popular role as a table garnish. Highly nutritious, parsley can be found year round in your local supermarket.
Parsley is the world's most popular herb. It derives its name from the Greek word meaning "rock celery" (parsley is a relative to celery). It is a biennial plant that will return to the garden year after year once it is established, according to medicalnewstoday.com.
According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, 10 sprigs of parsley contains 4 calories, 0.3 grams of protein, 0.1 grams of fat, 0.6 grams of carbohydrate, 0.3 grams of fiber and 0.1 grams of sugar. Just 10 sprigs provide 205% of vitamin K needs for the day, as well as 22% of vitamin C and 17% of vitamin A, according to medicalnewstoday.com.
Possible health benefits of consuming parsley
Lower Your Cancer Risk
Eating parsley can decrease the danger of cancers like skin, alimentary canal, breast and prostate cancer. Parsley has high amounts of the flavonoid known as apigenin. In addition to apigenin possessing remarkable anticancer properties, it's additionally a strong antiinflammatory and antioxidant.
Diabetes prevention
Myricetin has also been evaluated for its effectiveness in the treatment and prevention of diabetes. In vitro and animal studies have showed that myricetin may lower blood sugars as well as decrease insulin resistance and provide anti-inflammatory and anti-hyperlipidemia effects.
Enhance Your Immune System
Parsley might help boost the immune system. Parsley essential oil has been proven to suppress an overstimulated immune response, which makes it a crucial player in the fight against allergies, auto-immune and persistent inflammatory disorders.
Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties:
The volatile oils, eugenol particularly, present in parsley provides antibacterial and anti-fungal properties which is useful for treating acne, pimples, skin infection and to disinfect pores. Parsley oil is easily available in the market. Never apply parsley oil directly to the face as it can burn the skin.
Healthy Skin:
Parsley contains minerals like calcium, potassium, manganese, copper and zinc which are essential for maintaining healthy skin. Extract the juice from the leaves and mix it with 200 ml of water. Drink this concoction daily to get healthy skin.
Protect Your Blood Vessels
Parsley is a great generator of just one of the very significant B vitamins: folic acid. This acid can help you to reduce homocysteine. Homocysteine is just a naturally occurring amino acid within the human body, but blood vessels can be damaged by high levels in the blood, raising the danger of stroke and heart attack.
Urinary Tract Infections
Bastyr University has listed as one of its recommended herbs for remedying urinary tract infections as an antibiotics alternative. Other herbs on the list contain uva-ursi, goldenrod, nettles and horsetail. Ask your physician before making use of parsley to take care of a UTI.
Detox
Apigenin and myristicin (found in parsley) boost the productivity of one of our liver's enzymes that detoxes our bodies. A report on apigenin, specifically, found that the flavone compound also improves the effects of some drugs used to treat colon cancer. This is in line with a study published in the February 2011 journal "Clinical and Experimental Metastasis".
Nutrient Content
Parsley also comprises the flavonoid anti-oxidants apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, and luteolin. Folate in parsley encourages heart health by reducing amounts of proinflammatory homocysteine.
Controls Hair Loss:
Parsley is rich in other important nutrients which address a number of nutritional deficiencies that lead to hair loss or weak hair. Parsley has been traditionally used as a hair tonic to disinfect scalp andcontrol hair loss. It contains apigenin, an antioxidant flavonoid which controls hair fall through the regulation of TGF-beta1 gene.