Prelude to Good Health: The Organic Wild Gooseberry Diet

Most people have a goal of good health and a long life, which even becomes a priority as one gets older. We can plan for a healthy life while enjoying delicious meals with a significant focus on healthy berries. The small deciduous gooseberry plants, growing wild in the temperate climates of the northern hemisphere, provide berries, low in calories, with a significant amount of vitamin C, as well as A, B-1, B-5, B-6, C, calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and potassium. They are delicious in pies, muffins, jams and jellies. While this is basically a diet book emphasizing plant foods (fruits, vegetables and fiber) and some meat and seafood, we give gooseberries, wild Maine blueberries, aronia berries (chokeberries) and Saskatoon berries particular attention because they are extremely healthy fruits. For anyone brought up picking low-bush blueberries or eating gooseberry pie or cobbler, this may warm the cockles of your heart.

In the US, gooseberry pies were included in the list of favorite dishes by at least three presidents: John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and James Buchanan. The aronia berry or choke berry is regarded a super-berry because of its huge health benefits. Saskatoon berries are described by the Saskatoon Berry Institute as looking like blueberries, but more closely related to the apple family. The berries are an excellent source of manganese, iron, calcium, potassium, copper and carotene and have high. Blueberries, especially the small low-bush wild blueberry(vaccinium angustifolium), are most healthy and delicious. Blueberries are said to be one of the oldest living plants on earth.

For your diet, old-fashioned gooseberries move in mysterious ways, their wonders to perform. While assembling these healthy and somewhat unique recipes, a recollection of gooseberries in an area of diverse berry plants and nut trees came to mind from a time three quarters of a century ago. While growing up on a small farm(by today’s standards) in Missouri, there were green fields, crop-fields and a creek, filled with fish, frogs, muskrats and snakes. The woods and meadows contained gooseberries, blackberries, elderberries, dewberries, small wild strawberries, wild mulberries and hickory trees (usually filled with red squirrels), large black walnut trees, and a maple tree with large hollow limbs full of honey-comb and possibly racoons. There was also a wild plum tree, mulberry tree, wild cherry trees and a grove of hazelnuts(filberts). There was a two-acre cane field, sometimes stripped, then with a wagon-load of bare canes taken to a neighbor’s facility where a tank of the cane sap was boiled(an annual event for some) resulting in a several gallons of sorghum molasses.The leafy woods called for my introduction to gooseberry bushes with small thorns and lots of small, tart green berries.

Now we turn our attention to good health. Here, in addition to the following delicious berry and other fruit recipes, various appetizer and condiments, soups, salads, meat, seafood dishes and other health routines are presented. Berries and other fruits and vegetables, plant foods, are best sources of proteins and antioxidants, such as vitamin C, E and a variety of other nutrients, protecting against heart disease, cancer, obesity, bone weakness and premature aging. Good sources of proteins are seafood, eggs, meat(like pork tenderloin), nuts and soybeans. Fresh papayas contain many nutrients, healthy minerals and an enzyme called papain, that helps in the digestion of proteins. Berries, rich in antioxidants, slow down oxidation leading to free-radicals, a destructive force causing healthy cells in our bodies to become unstable. Berries are rich in anthocyanins, a type of flavonoid, even having a positive effect on the brain. Flavonoids are a group of plant-based anti-oxidants. All four berries ward off heart disease with a high level of antioxidants, potassium, vitamin C, other vitamins, minerals, fiber and a lack of cholesterol. Other berries include many of the same nutrients. For example, the indigenous cranberries fend off urinary tract infections.

Hardening of the arteries can be avoided with berries strewn with vitamins C, A, other antioxidants, fiber, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin E, iron and anthocyanins(blue pigments that are antioxidants) included in one’s diet. The small wild blueberries emphasized here are about one-third the size of the domestic high-bush blueberries and as a result contain more nutrients and antioxidants largely found in the skin.

Most of the following forty-eight recipes focus on diets for 1)weight-loss, indicated by(W), 2)vegetarian(V), 3) diabetics(D) and 4)gluten intolerance(G). Maple syrup, honey, date sugar and black strap molasses (and fruit) are more healthy sweeteners, sometimes aided by ground cinnamon. These sweeteners contain calories but they also add nutrients to our diets.

Instead of relying on supplements, the berries and others foods and recipes discussed here can provide many health benefits such as protection against heart disease, obesity, cancer, bone weakness, premature aging and fending off urinary tract infections, diverticulitis, prostate and thyroid diseases. A secondary theme involves replacing granulated sugar by a small amount of maple syrup that has antioxidants with added nutritious value.