Health Benefits of Basil,
One of Nature's Top Antioxidant Foods

The unique health benefits of basil are
primarily due to its very high antioxidant content.
Basil is especially rich in the antioxidant beta-carotene, which offers protection against heart disease, respiratory problems, arthritis, cancer and many other degenerative diseases.

It's a little-known fact that herbs (and spices) such as basil have far greater concentrations of antioxidants than any common fruit or vegetable. Herbs also contain a particularly wide variety of antioxidants as well, making them some 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.

Health Benefits of Basil Include
Protection from Free Radicals and Bacteria

The unique array of flavonoids (a family of antioxidants) found in basil provide protection for your cell structures, as well as protection from radiation and other free radical damage.

The health benefits of basil include an ability to protect against unwanted bacterial growth. Essential oil of basil, obtained from its leaves, has even demonstrated an ability to inhibit pathogenic bacteria that have become resistant to commonly used antibiotic drugs.

Basil is an excellent anti-inflammatory food that can provide important healing benefits, along with symptomatic relief, for individuals with health problems like rheumatoid arthritis or bowel conditions related to inflammation.

The eugenol component of basil's volatile oils works very much like aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen, inhibiting a particular enzyme in your body to help reduce inflammation.

Basil is an excellent source of beta-carotene, an antioxidant that your body uses to manufacture vitamin A. Vitamin A is a key component in the prevention of free radical damage. Free radical damage is the primary cause of atherosclerosis and heart disease, and is a contributing factor in many other conditions as well, including asthma and arthritis.

Basil is an excellent source of vitamin K and a very good source of iron and calcium. It's also a good source of dietary fiber, manganese, magnesium, vitamin C and potassium.

How to Get the
Health Benefits of Basil Every Day

Basil health benefits 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 basil in your meal plans that often. There's an easy way to accomplish this — by making yourself a smoothie every day and adding some basil 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 Basil
and Other Herbs and Spices

Fresh basil is best, of course — there's nothing like a handful of fresh basil leaves to spark up a green salad. Make it a habit to keep some on hand at all times.

So if you want to get all of the health benefits of basil from the powdered variety, 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 bulk organic basil and basil oil — 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.

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

The health benefits of basil are also available as a liquid extract. You can find basil extracts, as well as thousands 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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