Health Benefits of Sage:
One of Nature's Top Antioxidant Foods

Antioxidants are the primary source of the health benefits of sage. Like rosemary, another member of the mint family, sage contains a variety of antioxidants — in the form of volatile oils, flavonoids and phenolic acids.

Sage also contains antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase. When combined, these components of sage all give it a unique capacity for providing benefits associated with the top antioxidant foods.

Herbs and Spices are Some of the
World's Top Antioxidant Foods

It's a little-known fact that herbs (and spices) such as sage have far greater concentrations of antioxidants than any common fruit or vegetable source. Herbs also contain a particularly wide variety of antioxidants as well, making them one of the top antioxidant foods around.

Antioxidants are nutrient compounds found in virtually all plant foods (and also manufactured in your body). The primary job of antioxidants is to protect your cells against the oxidative stress caused by free radicals, considered to be the primary cause of the aging process.

Protecting yourself against free radicals with antioxidants is the most effective way to reduce the risk of many health problems associated with aging. The benefits of antioxidants include powerful protection against all types of degenerative diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, and many more.

Antioxidants work together, synergistically, and each one has its own specific characteristics and benefits. One antioxidant may work in places in the body where another one can't go, and neutralize free radicals that other antioxidants miss. Therefore, getting the widest variety of antioxidants is just as important as how much of any one antioxidant you get. See my page on How Do Antioxidants Work? to learn more about this.

Specific Health Benefits of Sage

Sage contains rosmarinic acid, which is a potent antioxidant as well as anti-inflammatory agent. Rosmarinic acid can be readily absorbed and acts to reduce harmful inflammation. Increased intake of sage as a seasoning in food is recommended for persons with inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, as well as bronchial asthma and atherosclerosis.

Research confirms what herbalists have long known: sage is an outstanding memory enhancer. Sage helps provide better brain function and has been used in the treatment of cerebrovascular disease for over a thousand years. Research has suggested that it may be an effective option to help treat Alzheimer`s disease.

The benefits of sage are effective for symptoms of menopause, night sweats and hot flashes. There`s also compelling evidence that sage may provide benefits for some people with diabetes by its ability to boost insulin`s action.

An Easy Way to Get
the Health Benefits of Sage
Every Day

The health benefits of sage are so numerous, ideally you'd want to have some every day. However, as with any herb or spice, you may find it impractical to include sage in your meal plans that often. There's an easy way to accomplish this — by making yourself a fresh smoothie every day and adding some sage and other spices to your recipe.

Fresh smoothies make for some of the most nutritious, delicious and easy-to-make meals you could imagine. They're a great way to get more of those "good for you" antioxidant-rich foods (that you may not get enough of) into your diet.

I personally use herbs such as basil, cilantro and parsley in my green smoothie recipes to give them more of the benefits of dark green leafy vegetables. Because they're so concentrated with antioxidants, you can use a much smaller amount than you would with other greens like kale or spinach, and they won't overwhelm the flavor of your smoothie recipe.

I don't stop there, either. I like to use other spices such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger, turmeric and others in my smoothie recipes, mostly for their added antioxidant benefits. Once they're blended in with all the other ingredients, you can't really distinguish any one particular taste. You just need to experiment a little to get the flavor just right for you.

To learn more about the art of making smoothies, skip on over to my page on How to Make a Smoothie the Healthy Way and learn all my tricks for making delicious and nutritious smoothies!

Recommendations for Sage
and Other Herbs and Spices

Research indicates that a few spicy meals a week won't get you much of the antioxidant benefits of spices; you must consume larger quantities on a daily basis.

So if you want to get all of the health benefits of sage, you'll need more than the small bottles you see at the supermarket. Those won't go very far and will cost much more by the pound than if you buy in bulk. Fortunately, I've got a wonderful online source for premium-quality organic sage — Starwest Botanicals and iHerb.com.

Starwest Botanicals started as a small retail herb shop in 1975. Their primary objective, from the beginning, was to focus on quality — even building their own herb mill to ensure that goal.

Today, Starwest is one of the largest suppliers of organic herbs in the United States, with over a million pounds of herbs and spices in stock.

You can get the best price on Starwest Organic Sage at my iHerb.com store. You can also browse through Starwest's wide variety of herbs and spices at the Starwest Botanical Store at iHerb.

The benefits of sage are also available in essential oils, liquid extracts and tea. You can find a great selection of sage products, as well as hundreds of other nutritional supplements and natural health products at iHerb.com. There's many reasons why iHerb is a great place to shop:

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