Which kind of plants (in nature) are edible?

[andrew112]

What are all of the plants in nature that are edible? Also, which kinds of ferns are edible? I live in an area with some ferns and was wondering if they are edible? Are any types of tree barks good for human consumption? My cat occasionally eats grass, and I was wondering if humans can also eat grass? This all sounds ridiculous, but I would like to know.

[Tanemon]

Originally Posted by andrew112

What are all of the plants in nature that are edible? Also, which kinds of ferns are edible? I live in an area with some ferns and was wondering if they are edible? Are any types of tree barks good for human consumption? My cat occasionally eats grass, and I was wondering if humans can also eat grass? This all sounds ridiculous, but I would like to know.

I'm forgetting what the accurate numbers are, but I know it's estimated that there are about a million living species on planet Earth. A very large proportion of these would be plants (rather than animals), and of course a very large proportion of that is made up of green plants (including trees, ferns, and many, many others).

Many land plants are edible, but many are not. Different regions have different plants living in them. For instance, my region would have few plants that are the same or similar when compared to Arizona. Even if we knew your area, we still could not list all of the edible (or inedible) ones.

What you could do is get a field guide to the "native plants" of your region - or borrow a field guide from your public library. In many regions, there are actually field guides to edible plants that are published. So ask around at local books stores or at the library. But remember, not everything that is non-poisonous tastes good - there may be many local edible plants that you would probably not choose to eat, unless you were facing starvation.

Having someone knowledgeable about the plants in your area spend half a day with you outdoors in the countryside can teach you a lot.

[aggie]

cats and dogs, especially, usually eat grass to make themselves regurgitate whatever is making their stomachs upset....at least that is what mine used to do.

when i was a kid in conn. we used to go out and pick the dandelion leaves...makes a great bitter greens salad, if you are into that sor tof thing.

but that is the only thing i know for a fact.

cherry hedge berries are edible...lots of birds eat them in florida..they are sweet to start and then turn bitter.

my grandfather used to collect mushrooms from under the pine trees in conn...he used to put a silver dollar in the water they were cooking in ...he could pretty much tell by sight...but that was the guarantee was if the dollar didn't get black...they were safe.

[ginkgo]

Humans can drink wheat grass juice but not grass since it is said to be able to cut the stomach. The part of the plant that is usually edible is the plant's child or kid. It is known as a fruit. It is like the egg of a plant. These are just analogies.

The plant wants you to pick the fruit from your yard and also to eat the seeds that are indigestable. Then it hopes that while visiting a friend's yard you will take a dump on it and plant its seeds somewhere else. Dandelion leaves used to be a popular vegetable. But here is what is wrong with it. We live in a Ferengi society. Nothing is more important than profit. That is why the governor of Illinois was impeached. Where I live, dandelions grow like crazy since they are weeds. So they are free and not good for profit. Also as a kid I learned to recognize wild growing carrots. I would pull them out and show people the carrot on the end.

But here is the way to tell if any plant is edible or not. This only applies to raw foods, not cooked foods with lots of salt. If it tastes good raw then it is good for you. This is why fruits are the healthiest foods. Maybe a kid does not want to eat his spinach but give him a fruit that he likes and it is like candy to him. Candy is fake fruit.

I was told that crab apples are poisonous but that was a myth since Whole Foods was selling crab apples. There is a type of fruit that is bad for you. Unripe fruit is bad for you but it tastes bad also. It was easy to recognize wild growing spearmint since you could smell it.

[aggie]

i almost forgot about spearmint...we used to pick that as children and my dad used to use it.

i guess some of this...given my generation and my parents...is part of an "old world" view of the world....you knew the land and what you could use from it...whether it was wild or you grew it. definitely not about profit...about feeding your family and eating healthily and well with what you had.

you are correct about crab apples...i never heard they were unedible...only maybe not as tasty as the traditional apples.

thanks for the info.

[andrew112]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

This is why fruits are the healthiest foods.

I do not agree with fruit being the healthiest food. There are much more vegetables that are healthier than fruit. Vegetables are by far the healthiest foods, and water is the healthiest thing that one can ingest, since the pH of water is probably the perfect pH for the body.

[Andrew Brunelle]

Originally Posted by andrew112

I do not agree with fruit being the healthiest food. There are much more vegetables that are healthier than fruit. Vegetables are by far the healthiest foods, and water is the healthiest thing that one can ingest, since the pH of water is probably the perfect pH for the body.

Vegetables are the healthiest foods, but to get enough calories, it takes quite a few veggies to get a meal that is satisfying to our stomachs. I love fruits way more than vegetables, unless the veggies are cooked. Raw veggies, unless in a salad with some sort of dressing, are just no fun to eat. Some people like the taste of them. I am not one of these people.

I have found that dandelion greens are very tasty and I no longer pull them and just throw them in a trash bag, but I'll take the greens, wash them, and have a salad. Also, lamb's quarter or whatever it's called is yet another very tasty green. There used to be so much more wild edibles centuries ago, but there are still many in all corners of the world. Just find a field guide from your area and enjoy.

[lovelyn]

Originally Posted by andrew112

What are all of the plants in nature that are edible? Also, which kinds of ferns are edible? I live in an area with some ferns and was wondering if they are edible? Are any types of tree barks good for human consumption? My cat occasionally eats grass, and I was wondering if humans can also eat grass? This all sounds ridiculous, but I would like to know.

That doesn't sound ridiculous at all. There are plenty of plants that grow in the wild that you can eat. Most people have mentioned the old favorite dandelions. You can also eat nettle. Cooking it or just washing it in very hot water removes the little hairs that sting you. You can eat various berries and mushrooms. Be careful. You have to be sure about what the plants are before you eat them because there are some really poisonous things out there. Here is a website that lists different plants and pictures and whether they are edible or not. This will help get you started.
Foraging Pictures, Edible Plants & Mushroom Images

You may want to see if there are any foraging classes in your area. I love foraging. It's great. Be sure to wash everything thoroughly and don't forage from any areas that may have been sprayed with pesticides. It's best to be off the beaten path away from areas with heavy foot traffic and dog traffic. There are books you can buy about it too.

I started foraging after I say this documentary.
YouTube - Road Kill Chef Part 1 of 6

I don't know if normal grass is edible. Usually dogs and cats throw it up. The new shoots of ferns are tasty when they're coming up in the spring. They taste a little like asparagus. People eat them in New England. They're called fiddleheads.

Happy foraging.

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by aggie

i almost forgot about spearmint...we used to pick that as children and my dad used to use it.

i guess some of this...given my generation and my parents...is part of an "old world" view of the world....you knew the land and what you could use from it...whether it was wild or you grew it. definitely not about profit...about feeding your family and eating healthily and well with what you had.

you are correct about crab apples...i never heard they were unedible...only maybe not as tasty as the traditional apples.

thanks for the info.

So this myth kept us from ever eating these free apples that were growing on the trees.

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by andrew112

I do not agree with fruit being the healthiest food. There are much more vegetables that are healthier than fruit. Vegetables are by far the healthiest foods, and water is the healthiest thing that one can ingest, since the pH of water is probably the perfect pH for the body.

There are no vegetablearians (people that eat only vegetables and no fruit or grains). There are thousands of frutiarains (eat only fruit) in the U.S. One is a muscular bodybuilider who never drinks liquids.

The PH of what you consume means nothing at all. For example fruits that are very acidic (low PH), but are known as alkaline foods since this is the effect after they are digested.

There are over 10,000 different fruits. It is the part of the plant that you can eat without hurting the plant. Also do you keep up to date with the new incredible foods that are being brought to the U.S. since they are powerful antioxidants and superfoods.

Like what? Any new greens? No. They are fruits. The following are fruits. The Noni company is now a billion dollar company. Can you guess what they sell? Then there is the mangosteen juice company. Xango is a billion dollar company. Acai is a billion dollar business and MonaVie-- billion dollar company.

Oranges are famous for vitamin C and potassium. A 16 ounce bottle of orange juice has 1,000 mg of potassium. But now there is camu camu fruit with 40 times the vitamin C of oranges. Then the newest one that is now sold in Whole Foods is yumberry. Now this is an older one, but a good one. Goji berries. Pomegranate is very old but due to scientific studies it is now very popular. Avocados are 60% fat but it is anti-inflammatory.

Joel Fuhrman, M.D. said this in an article that fruits are the healthiest foods. Who it he? I am glad you asked. "Fuhrman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine [first school of medicine in country & one of the top ten] and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Health Association. He serves on the Advisory Panel of The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, as well as on the medical staff of Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, New Jersey, where he specializes in nutritional medicine."

"Fuhrman is the author of six books. He has appeared on radio and television shows including: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, CBN,[2] The Today Show, Good Morning America, Discovery Channel,[3] TV Food Network, CNBC and XM Radio." He studied fasting under Shelton.

"Fuhrman advocates fasting (under qualified medical supervision) as a therapeutic modality for many chronic diseases for which conventional medicine would offer only palliative, if not harmful, treatment with drugs and surgery. His book Fasting and Eating for Health reports recoveries via fasting from ailments that were considered intractable."

This book, Amazon.com: Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease: Joel Fuhrman, Neal D. Barnard: Books , has in it the following:

"Dr. Fuhrman's powerful and practical guidelines apply for conditions ranging from the common cold to serious heart problems. This program provides an alternative to the costly and all-to-common side effects of sugery and drugs."--Andrew Nicholson, M.D., Director of Preventive Medicine, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine."

"This is where the future of medicine should be heading."--Ronald Cridland, M.D."

"This is neither alternative medicine nor conservative medicine, but rather progressive medicine. Dr. Fuhrman's approach offers individuals suffering from [chronic] diseases the only real chance for a meaningful cure. I have been fortunate to observe many of these outcomes firsthand and can testify to the power of this approach for certain diseases."--James Craner, M.D., M.P.H. [Masters in Public Health]"

"Dr. Fuhrman's book is revolutionary. It shows clearly and unmistakably the way to recover health, and could change the prevailing way of treating disease."--Theodore Coumentakis, M.D."

[andrew112]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

There are no vegetablearians (people that eat only vegetables and no fruit or grains). There are thousands of frutiarains (eat only fruit) in the U.S. One is a muscular bodybuilider who never drinks liquids.

The PH of what you consume means nothing at all. For example fruits that are very acidic (low PH), but are known as alkaline foods since this is the effect after they are digested.

There are over 10,000 different fruits. It is the part of the plant that you can eat without hurting the plant. Also do you keep up to date with the new incredible foods that are being brought to the U.S. since they are powerful antioxidants and superfoods.

Like what? Any new greens? No. They are fruits. The following are fruits. The Noni company is now a billion dollar company. Can you guess what they sell? Then there is the mangosteen juice company. Xango is a billion dollar company. Acai is a billion dollar business and MonaVie-- billion dollar company.

Oranges are famous for vitamin C and potassium. A 16 ounce bottle of orange juice has 1,000 mg of potassium. But now there is camu camu fruit with 40 times the vitamin C of oranges. Then the newest one that is now sold in Whole Foods is yumberry. Now this is an older one, but a good one. Goji berries. Pomegranate is very old but due to scientific studies it is now very popular. Avocados are 60% fat but it is anti-inflammatory.

Joel Fuhrman, M.D. said this in an article that fruits are the healthiest foods. Who it he? I am glad you asked. "Fuhrman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine [first school of medicine in country & one of the top ten] and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Health Association. He serves on the Advisory Panel of The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, as well as on the medical staff of Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, New Jersey, where he specializes in nutritional medicine."

"Fuhrman is the author of six books. He has appeared on radio and television shows including: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, CBN,[2] The Today Show, Good Morning America, Discovery Channel,[3] TV Food Network, CNBC and XM Radio." He studied fasting under Shelton.

"Fuhrman advocates fasting (under qualified medical supervision) as a therapeutic modality for many chronic diseases for which conventional medicine would offer only palliative, if not harmful, treatment with drugs and surgery. His book Fasting and Eating for Health reports recoveries via fasting from ailments that were considered intractable."

This book, Amazon.com: Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease: Joel Fuhrman, Neal D. Barnard: Books , has in it the following:

"Dr. Fuhrman's powerful and practical guidelines apply for conditions ranging from the common cold to serious heart problems. This program provides an alternative to the costly and all-to-common side effects of sugery and drugs."--Andrew Nicholson, M.D., Director of Preventive Medicine, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine."

"This is where the future of medicine should be heading."--Ronald Cridland, M.D."

"This is neither alternative medicine nor conservative medicine, but rather progressive medicine. Dr. Fuhrman's approach offers individuals suffering from [chronic] diseases the only real chance for a meaningful cure. I have been fortunate to observe many of these outcomes firsthand and can testify to the power of this approach for certain diseases."--James Craner, M.D., M.P.H. [Masters in Public Health]"

"Dr. Fuhrman's book is revolutionary. It shows clearly and unmistakably the way to recover health, and could change the prevailing way of treating disease."--Theodore Coumentakis, M.D."

Just because someone graduated from an Ivy League university's school of medicine does not mean that one is extremely knowledgeable about nutrition and which foods are the healthiest. There are many medical doctors out there who do not have a clue what they are talking about when it comes to nutrition and health.

I can usually tell what is a lie and what is not, and when someone says something that I can tell is the truth, I am very willing to accept that truth. The internet enables us to figure everything out, and the internet is where I do most of my research on nutrition. Here is a site on nutrition; it is probably not 'the perfect site' for nutrition data/facts, but it is the best one that I have come across.

Nutrition facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis – NutritionData.com

Browse around in the vegetables category and then the fruits; you will see that there are far more 5/5 optimal health ratings for vegetables than for fruits.

Also, just because fruits are "in" right now does not make them healthier than vegetables. People in general do not go for what is the healthiest choice; they go for comfort/pleasurable foods.

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by andrew112

Just because someone graduated from an Ivy League university's school of medicine does not mean that one is extremely knowledgeable about nutrition and which foods are the healthiest.
Also, just because fruits are "in" right now does not make them healthier than vegetables. People in general do not go for what is the healthiest choice; they go for comfort/pleasurable foods.

You have got the wrong guy as far as fruits being in now. I read Arnold Ehet's book from @1900 and he taught that and proved it with experiments. Fuhrman is not your normal MD. Dr Shelton taught Natural Hygiene for 50 years well before the year 2000. Fuhrman was a personal student of his before he became a doctor. Shelton fasted his mother and later him when he was an injured world champion skater.

He figured by becoming an MD he knew he could be the leader in nutrition. Oprah's MD Oz is not your normal doctor either. Here is a video with Fuhrman and Oprah's MD. YouTube - Joel Fuhrman, MD w/ Mehmet Oz, M.D. - health / weightloss

Also Fuhrman created a new word for people eating a certain way. A vegan can eat only jelly beans, gummy bears and crackers and nothing else. He created the word nutritarian. How many MDs or poeple do you know of that did that. Do a search for it. Also if you read the above closely, the other doctors are talking about his practice with diet, not DRUGS. He rarely uses drugs. So why did he even become an M.D.? I just explained that above He did it so he could create the nutritarian.

I forgot to mention the new fruit appearing in fruit juices called aronia. 10 Benefits of Aronia Berry | HealthMad Also before the raw diet was popular, decades ago there were many fruitarians. Again they only consume fruit but no one only consumes vegetables. A vegan may eat lots of fruits and grains.

Also the book by the Diamond's Fit for Life (1985) that was written decades ago said that fruit is the healthiest food. But he is not your average nutrition book writer. His book outsold any other book of that kind. It sold over 12 billion copies! Fit for Life - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wiki. says "In Fit for Life II (1989) the Diamonds warned against eating artificial food additives such as hydrogenated vegetable oil, which at the time was being promoted by the food industry as a healthy alternative to saturated fat. Tony Robbins promotes the Fit for Life principles and veganism to increase energy levels in his book Unlimited Power." Robbins has over 1,110,000,000,000 on Twitter. That is over 1 trillion people! Actually his verified account only has 1,110,000-- just over a million people.

That is a joke-- the 12 billion. It only sold 12 million copies but then he came out with Fit for Life 2. They were also students of Natural Hygiene. Dr Shelton got his information from rare MDs in the late 1800s that stopped using drugs.

One MD in late 1800s gave out drugs and instructed people how to live and eat. He had amazing results and was revered by other doctors until he announced that all the drugs that he prescribed were really sugar pills.

Back then people thought that wolf peaches were poisonous. But it is now the most popular vegetable in America. It is now called a tomato. So aren't I helping you to prove your point now? No! Tomatoes are fruits just like cucumbers, squash, peppers, pumpkins and eggplant.

I have a book by an MD on the 23 healthiest foods and more of them are fruit than vegetables. Nuts and seeds are hard fruits. This one vegetarian woman says to people that she is vegetarian since she likes animals and hates vegetables (plant foods). Get it? She likes to kill or hurt plants. But fruitarians cannot say that.

[andrew112]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

You have got the wrong guy as far as fruits being in now. I read Arnold Ehet's book from @1900 and he taught that and proved it with experiments. Fuhrman is not your normal MD. Dr Shelton taught Natural Hygiene for 50 years well before the year 2000. Fuhrman was a personal student of his before he became a doctor. Shelton fasted his mother and later him when he was an injured world champion skater.

He figured by becoming an MD he knew he could be the leader in nutrition. Oprah's MD Oz is not your normal doctor either. Here is a video with Fuhrman and Oprah's MD. YouTube - Joel Fuhrman, MD w/ Mehmet Oz, M.D. - health / weightloss

Also Fuhrman created a new word for people eating a certain way. A vegan can eat only jelly beans, gummy bears and crackers and nothing else. He created the word nutritarian. How many MDs or poeple do you know of that did that. Do a search for it. Also if you read the above closely, the other doctors are talking about his practice with diet, not DRUGS. He rarely uses drugs. So why did he even become an M.D.? I just explained that above He did it so he could create the nutritarian.

I forgot to mention the new fruit appearing in fruit juices called aronia. 10 Benefits of Aronia Berry | HealthMad Also before the raw diet was popular, decades ago there were many fruitarians. Again they only consume fruit but no one only consumes vegetables. A vegan may eat lots of fruits and grains.

Also the book by the Diamond's Fit for Life (1985) that was written decades ago said that fruit is the healthiest food. But he is not your average nutrition book writer. His book outsold any other book of that kind. It sold over 12 billion copies! Fit for Life - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wiki. says "In Fit for Life II (1989) the Diamonds warned against eating artificial food additives such as hydrogenated vegetable oil, which at the time was being promoted by the food industry as a healthy alternative to saturated fat. Tony Robbins promotes the Fit for Life principles and veganism to increase energy levels in his book Unlimited Power." Robbins has over 1,110,000,000,000 on Twitter. That is over 1 trillion people! Actually his verified account only has 1,110,000-- just over a million people.

That is a joke-- the 12 billion. It only sold 12 million copies but then he came out with Fit for Life 2. They were also students of Natural Hygiene. Dr Shelton got his information from rare MDs in the late 1800s that stopped using drugs.

One MD in late 1800s gave out drugs and instructed people how to live and eat. He had amazing results and was revered by other doctors until he announced that all the drugs that he prescribed were really sugar pills.

Back then people thought that wolf peaches were poisonous. But it is now the most popular vegetable in America. It is now called a tomato. So aren't I helping you to prove your point now? No! Tomatoes are fruits just like cucumbers, squash, peppers, pumpkins and eggplant.

I have a book by an MD on the 23 healthiest foods and more of them are fruit than vegetables. Nuts and seeds are hard fruits. This one vegetarian woman says to people that she is vegetarian since she likes animals and hates vegetables (plant foods). Get it? She likes to kill or hurt plants. But fruitarians cannot say that.

Here is a list of over 200 vegetables that all have 5/5 ratings for optimal health according to nutritiondata.com: Better Choices for optimum health in Vegetables and Vegetable Products

That book that you have on the 23 healthiest foods does not have credibility if more of them are fruits than vegetables, unless they are considering some vegetables to be fruits, such as the ones that you mentioned above. What are the 23 healthiest foods according to that book anyway? What are they basing the healthfulness of the food on anyway? Is it how nutrient-dense the food is? Is it what the glycemic load is? Is it the inflammation factor? According to Gary Null the #1 cause of all disease is inflammation! There are no vegetables that are inflammatory, but there are fruits that are inflammatory.

Also, what exactly is a nutritarian? What foods does a nutritarian eat? Only foods that are '"nutritious" and non-processed?

[Fullcrum]

Vegetables might have a 5/5 ratio, but that does not mean you can eat enough of them to get your caloric needs met each day.

They're 5/5 precisely because they are low calorie but densely packed with nutrients. That's great stuff, but you need food calories, and you need good absorption. High fiber foods, unless chewed very well, blended or juiced, will not allow all their nutrients to be absorbed.

Why do cows chew the cud? Because without it, they wouldn't get all the nutrients in the grasses they eat. Animals that have evolved to eat starchy and fibrous food have large grinding teeth and strong jaw muscles for grinding their food down into a nutritious pulp. Humans do not have these strong jaw muscles.