Health & Fitness

Galangal is a popularly cultivated and eaten plant in Malaysia, Indonesia, other parts of Southeast Asia and India, but in the U.S. it might be mistaken for the more common ginger. Both galangal and ginger are in the Zingiberaceae family, as are turmeric and cardamom. They're called "rhizomes" because their creeping rootstalks grow horizontally, sending out roots and shoots from nodes.

Both galangal and ginger are used in cooking but there are several clear differences between them. Galangal's skin is smoother and paler than ginger and much harder to cut or grate than ginger, which can be peeled with a spoon.¹ Galangal costs more² than ginger but the biggest difference might be in taste.

Galangal has a sharper, pine-like flavor — it is akin to Vicks VapoRub™ say some — while ginger has a softer, sweeter more pepper-like taste.³ But aside from their culinary properties, both of which are pleasant, galangal possesses some significant health benefits that are not seen with ginger.

There are different types of galangal plants: greater galangal (Alpinia galanga), lesser galangal (Alpinia officinarum Hance) and light galangal (Alpinia zerumbet), and all have demonstrated impressive health benefits in scientific studies.

Benefits From Substances Found in Greater Galangal

According to research in the Journal of Medicinal Food, a substance found in greater galangal called ACA (1'-Acetoxychavicol acetate) has "anticancer, antiobesity, antiallergy, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, gastroprotective and anti-inflammatory activities." The breadth of positive actions, say the researchers, occur because:⁴

"ACA induces the activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which regulates the signal transduction pathways, and has an important role in the prevention of diseases, including cancer, obesity, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders.

Such findings suggest that AMPK has a central role in different pharmacological functions of ACA, and ACA is useful for the prevention of life-threatening diseases."

The Journal of Medicinal Food researchers and scientists writing in other journals have also found impressive anti-dementia actions associated with greater galangal. According to research published in Current Developments in Nutrition:⁵

" … ACA ameliorates age-related spatial memory deterioration by increasing serum ketone body production as a complementary energy source for neuronal cells of senescence-accelerated mice prone 8 (SAMP8) mice."

When an extract of Alpinia galanga, EAG, was administered to mice that were bred to exhibit the characteristics of human dementia, the researchers found:⁶

" … [T]he serum β-hydroxybutyric acid level was significantly increased by the administration of EAG. EAG showed a tendency to increase the expression of synaptophysin, a marker of synapse …

These findings confirm that extract of Alpinia galanga improves cognitive function in human AD [Alzheimer's disease] and FD [Frontotemporal dementia] model mice."

More Health Properties From Greater Galangal

According to research in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, greater galanga may have another benefit on brain and cognition: mental alertness.⁷

The effects on sustained attention, mental alertness and sleep architecture were studied in human subjects who were given greater galangal (E-AG-01), caffeine or a combination of E-AG-01 and caffeine. The alertness response with galanga was significant. Researchers concluded:⁸

"A galanga (E-AG-01) induces a beneficial effect in mental alertness and the combination of A galanga with caffeine impedes the caffeine crash and improves sustained attention at 3 hours. Thus, these stimulant effects might yield a new usage for A galanga as a key ingredient in energy drinks or similar products."

Greater galangal may have usefulness in the treatment of breast cancer, according to 2020 research in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention.⁹ Galangal ethanolic extract "effectively inhibited the growth of 4T1 cells," which are highly aggressive mammary carcinoma cell lines, and inhibited their migration. The researchers concluded:¹⁰

"Galangal has the potential for use as a co-chemotherapeutic agent by inducing senescence in correlation with increasing intracellular ROS [reactive oxygen species] toward metastatic breast cancer."

Greater galangal is known to have strong antimicrobial properties, and research in Food Chemistry has recently revealed that galangal flowers are especially effective:¹¹

"The chemical composition of galangal flowers was significantly different from that of galangal rhizome … and exhibited the strongest antimicrobial activity among all fractions … against Staphylococcus aureus and against Listeria monocytogenes …

Galangal flowers had a 3-fold higher total phenols content than had rhizomes … These findings suggest that antimicrobial and antioxidant agents extracted from galangal flowers could potentially be utilized as natural food preservatives or as therapeutic agents."

Health Properties From Lesser Galangal

Like greater galangal, lesser galangal (Alpinia officinarum Hance) belongs to the Zingiberaceae family and has intriguing health benefits. Flavonoids, DAHs (diarylheptanoid) and terpenes have been isolated from lesser galangal and shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antimicrobial activities.¹²

The journal Andrologia reports that lesser galangal may be an aid in treating male infertility, a condition that is on the rise and correlated with endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the environment.¹³

"Participants were randomised to take capsules containing dried extract of A. officinarum rhizome or placebo on a daily (total daily dosage of 300 mg) basis for 3 months.

After 12 weeks of intervention, the sperm count and total number of spermatozoa with normal morphology were increased in participants treated with A. officinarum extract compared with the placebo group …

Alpinia officinarum, a traditional medicine remedy, can be effective in the improvement of sperm morphology and sperm count in idiopathic infertility without causing adverse effects."

Research in the Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal suggests that lesser galangal may have anticancer and antitumor properties. Researchers wrote that lesser galangal:¹⁴

" … exhibited a direct cytotoxic effect on the growth of some cell lines compared to the standard drug vinblastine sulphate. The activities were recorded against two cell lines; A-549 (Lung carcinoma) and CACO (colorectal carcinoma) …

Moreover, the effect of the investigated extract was also promising on the other three cell lines (HCT-116 (Colon carcinoma, Hela (Cervical carcinoma) & Pc3 (prostate cancer)"

A study in the journal Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy suggests lesser galangal may be useful in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, a common form of liver cancer:¹⁵

"Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers and has a high mortality rate in less developed countries, especially in China. Galangin (GA), one of the most important and naturally active flavonoids, extracted primarily from the root of Alpinia officinarum Hance, has been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of HCC …

Experiments have shown that GA prevents HCC through multiple anti-cancer mechanisms, anti-genotoxic activity against environmental and dietary carcinogens; anti-proliferative effects through reversal of the Warburg effect in HCC; arrest of the cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase; [and] induction of apoptosis via stimulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) … In addition, synergistic effects with other chemotherapy drugs have been demonstrated."

Other Health Benefits From Lesser Galangal

According to research in the journal 3 Biotech, the effects of lesser galangal in mice could lead to its use in the prevention of skin cancer in the future.¹⁶

"Lu et al. (2007) studied the effect of flavonoid constituents of A. officinarum on whitening effects based on melanin biosynthesis in B 16 mouse melanoma cells. The flavonoid mixture and galangin exhibited a broad absorption band at 270–290 nm related to the UV-B area supporting that galangin could be … a capable candidate for prevention of skin cancer."

Lesser galangal also functions as a cholinesterase inhibitor.¹⁷ Reducing cholinesterase is part of the treatment used for Alzheimer's disease and dementia, Parkinson's disease, glaucoma, myasthenia gravis and schizophrenia, so lesser galangal may prove useful in such treatments as it is further studied.¹⁸

Lesser galangal is known for its antimicrobial actions, and research in the Journal of Applied Microbiology found it is especially effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen associated with infections of the urinary tract, skin and respiratory tract and other severe acute and chronic infections.¹⁹ The researchers wrote:²⁰

"The compound from A. officinarum inhibited swarming motility and significantly down-regulated the expression of type III secretory system effector genes exoS and exoT and flagellar master regulator fleQ genes [Pseudomonas aeruginosa] …

The study identifies a potent swarming inhibitory compound from the common medicinal plant A. officinarum and reinstates the potential of plant-derived compounds in tackling virulence properties of pathogenic bacteria."

Health Benefits From Light Galangal

Like greater and lesser galangal, light galangal (Alpinia zerumbet or Alpinia speciosa)²¹ is also in the Zingiberaceae family. Its rhizome, or plant stem, is comparatively larger than the other galangals. Light galangal is used as a substitute for both greater galangal and ginger in cooking.²²

Animal research published in Molecules found that light galangal may have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesia and antipyretic (anti-itch) properties. The researchers write that an extract from light galangal that contained 37 compounds:²³

" … exhibited anti-inflammatory effects against carrageenan-induced rat hind paw edema, and suppressed leukocyte infiltration into the peritoneal cavity in carrageenan-treated mice. Furthermore, it possessed antipyretic effects against fever induced by subcutaneous injection of Brewer's yeast in mice.

Additionally, the extract demonstrated both central and peripheral anti-nociceptive [anti-pain] effects in mice … These findings suggest that the leaf extract from Alpinia zerumbet could be a candidate for the development of a drug to treat inflammation and ROS related disorders."

More Light Galangal Health Benefits

Light galangal may have cardioprotective properties, according to research published in Journal of Ethnopharmacology.²⁴ Rats that received induced myocardial infarction (blocked blood flow to the heart) but were pretreated with Alpinia zerumbet (AZE) showed less damage, according to the researchers:²⁵

"Rats administered with ISO [a drug that causes infarct] showed a significant increase in cardiac marker enzymes … Pretreatment with AZE significantly inhibited these effects …

Haemodynamic, biochemical alteration and histopathological results suggest a cardioprotective protective effect of oral administration of AZE in isoproterenol induced cardiotoxicity."

Light galangal may also have anticancer properties, suggests research in mice published in the journal Molecules:²⁶

"A. zerumbet extracts, specially CH2Cl2 and MeOH extracts, exhibited the highest potent anti-tumor activity against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) cells … A. zerumbet extracts, specially MeOH and CH2Cl2 extracts, exhibited significant inhibitory activity towards tumor volume …

Taken together, these findings open the door to further investigations in order to explore the potential medicinal properties of A. zerumbet."

A study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology suggests that light galangal may diminish the effects of lipopolysaccharide-induced endothelial cell injury (related to cardiovascular disease), inflammation and apoptosis in mice.²⁷ Essential oil extracted from fructus Alpinia zerumbet, which the researchers call EOFAZ:

" … completely prevented LPS-induced HAEC [human aortic endothelial cell] activation and inflammation in vitro and in vivo … Similarly, EOFAZ significantly blunted LPS-induced endothelial injury … EOFAZ protected against LPS-induced endothelial cell injury and inflammation"

Two other benefits of light galangal have been explored in scientific literature — its anti-inflammatory actions linked to a compound it contains called kavalactone²⁸ and its ability to control cat fleas.²⁹ Clearly, the many health benefits of this remarkable plant offer a lot more than culinary possibilities.

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There are 20 basic amino acids that make up the proteins in your body.^1,2 In other words, amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Conversely, when your body breaks down or digests proteins, amino acids are what's left behind.

Nine of these — histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, threonine and valine — are considered “essential” as none of them are made by your body and therefore must be obtained from your diet.

Three of these essential amino acids — leucine, isoleucine and valine — are known as branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) because they have a branched molecular structure. While most amino acids are broken down in your liver, BCAAs are broken down primarily in your muscle. As such, they help improve exercise performance and reduce the breakdown of muscle.

Beef is one dietary protein source, containing 18 different amino acids, including the nine essential ones.³ Eggs are another excellent source of all nine essential amino acids, plus another nine nonessential amino acids.⁴

However, protein is also found in plant foods. Moringa (Moringa oleifera), also known as horseradish tree or drumstick tree, is an excellent protein source, containing 30.3% crude protein and, according to the African Journal of Biotechnology, 19 amino acids,⁵ including all nine essential amino acids.⁶

Moringa also contains beneficial fatty acids (44.57% being a-linolenic acid⁷), beta-carotene, phenolics, zeatin, quercetin, beta-sitosterol, kaempferol,⁸ flavonoids and isothiocyanates.⁹

Many of the health benefits of Moringa — which include the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases, neurodysfunctional diseases, diabetes and cancer — are attributed to its glucosinolate¹⁰ and isothiocyanate¹¹ content. The isothiocyanate moringin,¹² for example, has been shown to have potent anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective effects.¹³

Health Effects of Essential Amino Acids

As detailed in several research articles including the journal Amino Acids, the nine essential amino acids — all of which are found in Moringa — have important biological roles, including the following:¹⁴

Isoleucine15 — Helps stabilize your blood sugar and is required, along with leucine and valine, for muscle synthesis, repair, energy and endurance.

Leucine16 — Helps lower blood sugar that is elevated and triggers the production of growth hormone. Along with isoleucine and valine, leucine promotes the growth of muscle, bone and skin.

Valine17 — Helps maintain muscle metabolism and nitrogen balance. It’s also used in tissue repair and energy production.

Lysine18 — Is needed in the production of hormones, collagen, enzymes and antibodies. It also helps combat viruses and plays a role in calcium assimilation and protein construction in bones and muscle.

Methionine19 — Is converted into cysteine and vice versa, based on the needs of your body. It’s also a primary source of sulfur in your body, which is required for healthy hair, skin and nails.

Tryptophan20 — Aids in the production of niacin (vitamin B3), which is required for serotonin and melatonin production.

Phenylalanine21 — Plays a role in memory formation and nervous system function, and helps reduce inflammation.

Threonine22,23 — Important for healthy cardiovascular system, central nervous system, immune system and liver function. It also plays a role in the digestion of fats, and promotes healthy collagen, muscle tissue, skin and bones.

Histidine24 — Required for red and white blood cell production, and aids in tissue repair. Importantly, histidine helps protect your nerves by maintaining the myelin sheath around them.

Certain amino acids also help improve the antioxidant properties of peptides.²⁵ Peptides are strings of amino acids that are shorter than those making up proteins. Due to their smaller size, peptides are broken down more easily than proteins, and have been shown to have antioxidant activity.^26,27

As described in the paper “Amino acid composition and antioxidant properties of Moringa oleifera seed protein isolate and enzymatic hydrolysates:”²⁸

“Some of these amino acids, especially Tyr [tyrosine], Met [methionine], His [histidine] and Lys [lysine] have been shown to play specific roles in improving antioxidant properties of peptides.

Besides, aromatic amino acids with a large side group such as His … and Trp [tryptophan] … contribute to the antioxidant potency of peptides because they act as hydrogen donors.

According to Sarmadi, the interaction of peptides with lipids or entry into target organs can be enhanced by the hydrophobic properties, which helps in promoting the antioxidant effects of peptides.”

Moringa — A Powerful Multipurpose Plant

Moringa may be one of the most important yet vastly underutilized plants available. Virtually every part of it is edible and has medicinal qualities, and most parts can be consumed either raw or cooked. Globally, the leaves, roots, pods and flowers are most typically consumed.²⁹

You can also harvest the plant as a microgreen. As noted in the mini-review “Health Benefits of Moringa Oleifera,” published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention (APJCP) in 2014:³⁰

“Moringa oleifera is a multi-purpose herbal plant used as human food and an alternative for medicinal purposes worldwide. It has been identified by researchers as a plant with numerous health benefits including nutritional and medicinal advantages.

Moringa oleifera contains essential amino acids, carotenoids in leaves, and components with nutraceutical properties … An important factor that accounts for the medicinal uses of Moringa oleifera is its very wide range of vital antioxidants, antibiotics and nutrients including vitamins and minerals. Almost all parts from Moringa can be used as a source for nutrition with other useful values.”

Health Benefits of Moringa

According to a 2011 paper³¹ on the nutritional composition of Moringa leaves, “The values of amino acids, fatty acids, minerals and vitamin profiles reflect a desirable nutritional balance.” A 2007 paper in Phytotherapy Research also describes Moringa’s benefits, noting that:³²

“… [T]he leaves, roots, seed, bark, fruit, flowers and immature pods act as cardiac and circulatory stimulants, possess antitumor, antipyretic, antiepileptic, antiinflammatory, antiulcer, antispasmodic, diuretic, antihypertensive, cholesterol lowering, antioxidant, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, antibacterial and antifungal activities, and are being employed for the treatment of different ailments in the indigenous system of medicine …”

Other studies report Moringa:

Helps protect liver, kidney, heart, testes and lung health33

Has analgesic properties34

Has antiulcer activity35

Helps lower blood pressure36

Protects against radiation37

Helps modulate immune function38

Has potent antibiotic activity against a wide variety of pathogens, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Candida albicans and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)39,40

Has anti-inflammatory41 and antiviral activity, thanks to quercetin42,43,44

Moringa Is an Inexpensive Way to Optimize Your Nutrition

Moringa offers many of the same medicinal benefits as broccoli. Both also contain all the essential amino acids. Moringa, however, is far more economical to grow. It’s extremely hardy and drought resistant, making it an attractive alternative — particularly in underserved populations worldwide where health care and Western medicines are hard to come by.⁴⁵

The fact that you can eat more or less the whole tree in a variety of different ways also makes it an attractive option. The long seed pods, colloquially known as Moringa drumsticks, are a common staple in Indian cuisine. For information and a few sample recipes, see NDTV Food’s website.⁴⁶

You can also harvest these seeds, sow them, and harvest them like microgreens, i.e., while they’re small like sprouts. For a quick review of how to do this, see the video above. For guidance on how to grow Moringa trees in general, see my previous article, “How to Grow Moringa Tree.”

Last but not least, research has confirmed Moringa has a very high degree of safety,⁴⁷ although high doses of seed extracts, specifically, may have toxic effects.⁴⁸

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Do you start your day with coffee and end it with tea? Consider tempting your taste buds with a warm cup of golden milk instead. And, as the summer months approach, you can enjoy it as a tasty cold treat as well.

Golden milk is not made with a dairy product but, rather, with coconut milk. You'll find other recipes using other nondairy products, but I recommend coconut milk for the health benefits and the superior taste.

The high number of antioxidants in the drink contribute to the prodigious array of benefits for your health and wellness. The drink is a combination of coconut milk, with or without a splash of coconut oil, and turmeric, ginger, black pepper and cinnamon. Some recipes call for adding a taste of local raw honey as well.

Turmeric has been valued for medicinal purposes for centuries. It is the ingredient in curry powder that adds the rich yellow coloring.¹ However, the flavor is comparatively mild to its relative, ginger. The flavor increases the more you use but becomes bitter if too much is added.

Let’s Talk Turmeric

The herb is grown throughout southwestern Asia and often used as a spice in foods from Iran, China, India and Thailand.² In India and China it’s also been used to treat skin diseases, infections and depression.

Since it does resemble curry, you might expect golden milk to have a curry flavor. But turmeric has a more subtle citrus taste that blends well with cinnamon and ginger. The distinct difference in flavor means you shouldn't add curry to golden milk because the taste will not be the same. Similarly, turmeric will not flavor a curry dish as you would expect.

Turmeric tea may be one of the secrets of the high number of centenarians living on the Japanese island of Okinawa.³ In combination with a healthy lifestyle, the people on the island enjoy much lower rates of chronic diseases that plague the rest of the world, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's. Instead of adding the spice to their cooked dishes, most drink turmeric tea daily.

One of the bioactive compounds in turmeric is curcumin, important in Ayurvedic medicine for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Unfortunately, since curcumin isn’t bioavailable, it’s often quickly metabolized and rapidly eliminated.⁴

You can boost the bioavailability by up to 2,000% by consuming it with piperine, an ingredient found in black pepper. While the list of benefits attributed to golden milk is considerable, here are several you may find interesting.

Lowers Inflammation and Blood Sugar

Chronic inflammation is linked to several chronic conditions, including heart disease, stroke, depression and Alzheimer’s disease.⁵ An inflammatory response is the body’s first reaction to infections, toxins and injuries. This is a state of emergency in the body. However, when it becomes chronic, prolonged inflammation can damage the heart and other organs.

The effects of turmeric on inflammation are significant and may even help reduce post-exercise inflammation and soreness, aiding in recovery. A diet high in anti-inflammatory compounds can help reduce your risk of diseases that result from chronic inflammation.

While studies have shown turmeric is a potent anti-inflammatory agent, ginger⁶ and cinnamon⁷ — other ingredients in golden milk — have similar properties. The authors of some studies have also suggested the effects of curcumin on inflammation may be comparable to some drugs, but without side effects.^8,9

In one 12-week study of 120 people with osteoarthritis, researchers found using a standardized ginger supplement, the participants had a statistically significant reduction in inflammatory markers. Ginger also has a good safety profile.¹⁰

In another study researchers compared curcumin in participants with active rheumatoid arthritis taking diclofenac sodium and those taking both. While all three groups improved their scores, those in the curcumin group had the highest percentage of improvement without side effects.¹¹

The ginger and cinnamon in golden milk have demonstrated the ability to help lower blood sugar levels. Cinnamon demonstrates a protective effect against metabolic syndrome, including insulin resistance, high blood pressure and increased weight gain.¹² Ginger can help lower your A1C level, a long-term marker of blood sugar control.¹³

May Improve Cognitive Health, Memory and Mood

There are several strategies to help improve your memory and mood, but none is quite as delicious as golden milk. Curcumin may help increase your levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is a compound your body uses to help build new connections in your neurological system.¹⁴

This means drinking a cup of golden milk may reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease associated with lower levels of BDNF.¹⁵ Cinnamon plays a part in reducing tau proteins commonly found in Alzheimer’s¹⁶ and may reduce symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.¹⁷

It is important to begin protecting your cognitive health before your body experiences changes, which is long before you might suffer symptoms. However, it’s never too late to begin taking care of your body and brain.

Adding ginger to your golden milk may help improve your reaction time and your memory,¹⁸ both of which are important to remaining independent as you grow older. Reducing inflammation helps reduce your risk of depression. But, beyond this, researchers know there is a link between your levels of BDNF and a positive mood.¹⁹ So, as curcumin increases BDNF, it helps improve your mood.

Evidence Suggests Trifecta of Heart Protective Factors

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S.²⁰ You potentially can affect your risk by consistently drinking golden milk since three ingredients — turmeric, ginger and cinnamon — have all been linked to cardio protection using different pathways.

Let’s begin with cinnamon. One meta-analysis²¹ of 10 random controlled trials with a total of 543 participants showed cinnamon could affect fasting plasma glucose and cholesterol levels. The participants took between 120 mg a day and 6 grams a day for four to 18 weeks.

While there was a reduction in blood sugar, which helps reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome leading to blood vessel damage, there was no significant effect on the participants’ hemoglobin A1C (a long-term measure of blood sugar control). However, the participants enjoyed a reduction in their triglyceride levels and improvement in their HDL-C levels.

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study,²² researchers found that ginger had a positive effect on fasting blood sugar and hemoglobin A1C levels, which they concluded "may have a role in alleviating the risk of some chronic complications of diabetes."

The third ingredient in the trifecta is curcumin. This bioactive ingredient in turmeric has demonstrated effects on the heart in human and animal trials. In one human study,²³ 121 consecutive patients undergoing a coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) received either curcumin or a placebo for three days before and five days after the procedure. The researchers believe the results:²⁴

“… demonstrated that curcuminoids significantly decreased MI associated with CABG. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of curcuminoids may account for their cardioprotective effects shown in this study.”

In animal studies the results also indicated that curcumin had a cardioprotective effect on the tissue of the heart muscle. One group of researchers found a combination of curcumin and piperine protected against induced cardiotoxicity.²⁵ Another found²⁶ it could reduce damage to the heart after a myocardial infarction.

Leverage the Antiviral, Antibacterial and Antifungal Assets

In a time when bacterial resistance is growing²⁷ and viral fear is spreading, it only makes sense to protect your health and reduce the chances of getting sick or needing antibiotics. Although nothing is guaranteed, by taking certain steps you may lower your risk.

In India, golden milk is known as “haldi ka doodh,” and is frequently used to treat colds.²⁸ Putting the cultural belief to the test, the leaders of some test tube studies found that curcumin is active against bacteria, viruses and fungi.²⁹

Tests involving ginger^30,31 and cinnamon^32,33 revealed similar results against viruses and bacteria. As with the effect of golden milk on cardiovascular health and inflammation, it may be the high levels of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties that help keep you feeling good.

Golden Milk Is an Easy and Tasty Way to Get Turmeric

There are turmeric supplements you could consider, but they will not have the added benefits of ginger, coconut milk and other spices you add to your drink. Instead, consider making it at home. You’ll find a recipe for golden milk and one for golden paste, which acts as a starter for a perfect cup, in “What is Golden Milk?”

Although some recipes call for using a dairy base or other nondairy milk products, I believe the health benefits of coconut milk help boost the overall benefits of golden milk. I think you’ll find the added benefits of lowering inflammation and weight management will be helpful too.

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Five years after an abortion, the most common reaction is relief. 

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Doctors used to make patients with drug-induced liver injury stop taking all their medications until the liver healed, but this could be dangerous. Now, researchers report in two recent papers that people with diabetes, hypertension and depression might be able to continue taking life saving medications even while they heal from drug-induced liver injuries.

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The cruise ship Diamond Princess was quarantined for over two weeks resulting in more coronavirus infected passengers than if they would have disembarked immediately. Rather the opposite to what was intended.

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Stephanie Nuzzo was inspired by the TV series GLOW to master the art of the chin-up, and committed to a four-week challenge to get there. She failed, but what it taught her along the way will stay with her forever. 

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The world is in a state of panic with the deadly coronavirus spreading faster than ever. Here a leading GP explains exactly how to prepare for the soon-to-be pandemic.

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Older people who experience daytime sleepiness may be at risk of developing new medical conditions, including diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure.

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In this interview, Dr. Stasha Gominak,¹ a neurologist and sleep coach, explains the curious synergy between vitamin D deficiency, a changed microbiome and poor sleep.

I met Gominak at the American College for the Advancement in Medicine’s annual meeting in 2019 in Nashville. Her lecture was about ways to improve your sleep. I thought I was aware of most of them, but the connection between vitamin D and sleep surprised me.

Gominak’s research suggests lack of vitamin D causes impairment in your brain stem’s ability to produce normal sleep. So far, she’s treated more than 7,000 patients with her innovative “sleep repair” approach. She’s also published scientific papers on her theories.

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Sleep Disorders

Gominak had no interest in vitamin D, initially. She was fascinated by sleep, and was trying to figure out why so many young and otherwise healthy patients were having such trouble sleeping. Many also had sleep apnea. Over time, it became clear that most of them didn’t have enough rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, yet there was no medical hypothesis to explain why.

“I did a lot of sleep studies in teenagers and kids, the great majority of them relatively healthy people,” Gominak says. “They didn’t have terrible sleep apnea, but they all had much less deep sleep than normal, and it’s deep sleep that allows us to heal and feel rested.

They’re complaining of being tired. They have epilepsy. They have daily headache. They have things that are linked to our ability to repair our brain every night.’

Once finding that they had no deep sleep, I wanted to fix their sleep AND their neurologic problem. Unfortunately, I was pretty much stuck with using what we had at the time: continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices for those who had apnea and sleeping pills for those with insomnia.

That was very unsatisfying for myself and the patients. Then, pretty much by accident, I found that one of my young headache patients who was extremely tired and had absolutely no deep sleep in her sleep study … had a B12 deficiency.

I began to check B12 levels in all the patients who had abnormal sleep. Eventually I measured vitamin D levels also. Over a period of time, it became clear that everybody’s vitamin D was low. That, by itself, was not enough to get excited about, but what was exciting was that there were numerous articles showing vitamin D receptors in the brain stem areas that control our ability to flip in and out of the phases of sleep.

The part of the brain called the brainstem contains our sleep clock and the cells that paralyze us so we can heal. These areas are covered with vitamin D receptors. That was published in the 1980s, but no one paid attention.”

Vitamin D has also been shown to modulate hibernation in animals, Gominak notes, yet vitamin D is not recognized for its impact on human sleep.

Adding to the work of Walter Stumpf, the scientist who published the original articles on vitamin D’s impact on hibernation, sleep and metabolism, Gominak performed a two-year study, concluding that sleep disorders of many kinds, not just sleep apnea, are linked to vitamin D deficiency and can be improved by careful supplementation. She explains that we track sleep at home by measuring paralysis in sleep:

“What we’re using now to measure sleep with sleep trackers is, ‘When are we paralyzed?’ Because the only time we get paralyzed is when we’re in deep sleep, slow-wave sleep or REM sleep.

The most important part of using vitamin D is vitamin D and other components come together to make acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter that allows us to get paralyzed correctly.”

Using a Fitness Tracker to Track Your Sleep Cycle

Today, many of her patients will use fitness trackers that track sleep, such as Fitbit or the Oura ring, both of which can measure slow-wave deep sleep, which is one of the sleep phases during which your body is paralyzed.

“As far as I can tell, the movement measurements used in most of those tracking devices are pretty accurate,” she says. That said, I discourage the use of Fitbit for two primary reasons.

First of all, it emits a green light, which can interfere with your sleep quality. Second, Fitbit was recently bought by Google, which is siphoning your personal health and fitness data from these devices for their own gain. I think the Oura ring is a superior device overall, and it won’t steal your personal data.

B Vitamins and Sleep

Vitamin D and B12 aren’t the only nutrients capable of influencing your sleep, however. Toward the end of the two-year study Gominak led, in which vitamin D and B12 were used, most patients began getting worse again. Their sleep started deteriorating, and they were experiencing more pain.

A patient gave her a book detailing the use of vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) for rheumatoid arthritis pain. “I was not very interested in vitamins,” Gominak admits, but she eventually read the book. What finally caught her interest was the fact that B5 supplementation helped improve rheumatic patients’ sleep.

Research has shown that when B5 is blocked, patients will develop four distinct symptoms within two weeks: burning in the hands and feet, an odd puppet-like gait, gastrointestinal issues and insomnia. However, as Gominak and dozens of her patients discovered, too much can also cause problems.

When taking 400 milligrams (mg) of pantothenic acid and one daily capsule of B100 (a B supplement that contains all eight B vitamins), pain scores and sleep disturbances skyrocketed. Many complained of feeling “revved” up and unable to fall asleep again.

“I realized that I had just made everything about my sleep worse, taking the recommended dose of pantothenic acid,” Gominak says, “so I stopped the 400 mg [of B5] and [took] just B100, which has 100 mg pantothenic acid.”

Overnight, she noticed a distinct change. Her pain disappeared and her sleep improved. Patients that made the same switch reported similar results. All of this suggests there’s a lot we don’t know about the proper dosage of many vitamins. What’s more, further research led her to form the hypothesis that B vitamins really should be produced in your gut, by intestinal bacteria.

“If you think about animals that lie in the ground for four or six months, like bears, clearly … they’re not eating every day, [yet] they need a source of B [vitamins] every day. That implies the microbiome [is] an important … source of Bs …

Before the 1980s, there was very good science about the B vitamins … It turns out there are body stores of B’s. There are body sources of B6, B5, thiamin and vitamin C.

I was struggling to explain why we got better then worse again. Maybe when giving vitamin D, I made their sleep better and helped them make more repairs. But as they made more repairs, they used up their stores of the B vitamins.”

The All-Important Role of Gut Bacteria

Part of the problem, Gominak surmised, was that, for some reason, her patients’ gut bacteria were not properly making B vitamins, resulting in a deficiency. Merely adding vitamin D doesn’t fix that. “I had assumed vitamin D was a growth factor for the bacteria, and when I gave it, they would come back,” she said, “but they didn’t.”

As explained by Gominak, there are four species of intestinal bacteria that make the eight B vitamins, and they appear to work symbiotically, feeding each other these B vitamins back and forth. When they work optimally, you’re getting all the B vitamins your body needs, and when you have just the right dose, your sleep will be optimized as well.

Unfortunately, while we now know that a blood level of vitamin D between 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) and 80 ng/mL is ideal, we still do not know what an ideal level of B5 is. Blood measurements also appear to be rather inaccurate, as they do not reflect your stores.

“There’s also something extremely peculiar and interesting about B5,” Gominak says. “We now have a huge amount of knowledge about the absorption of B5. There is a pump, [which] pumps in alpha lipoic acid, biotin and pantothenic acid from the gut. The exact same pump is used to pump B5 into the cerebrospinal fluid.

The interesting part about that [when] it goes into the head, it becomes coenzyme A, which then helps to make acetylcholine. One of the things that was mysterious to me was, ‘Why would my patients need 100 mg when ... every publication says 400 mg is the right dose of pantothenic acid?’

Clearly, I and my clients are in a different place. Now, that would suggest that having vitamin D around in the brain somehow changes what happens [to the B5 vitamin].”

The Importance of Acetylcholine

As explained by Gominak, in the adrenal, B5 makes cortisol. In the brain, it makes acetylcholine — first by being incorporated into coenzyme A, which is the donor for the acetyl group that makes ‘’acetyl’’ choline. When the enzyme choline acetyl transferase is added to the mix, you get acetylcholine, and this is where vitamin D comes in.

There are vitamin D receptors in the reticular nucleus of the thalamus and vitamin D is related to the reticular activation — the sleep-wake portion of your brain. When vitamin D enters the nucleus, it expresses choline acetyl transferase. In other words, vitamin D is one of three components that must come together to make acetylcholine.

You will also need the raw material, choline, to produce sufficient amounts of acetylcholine. Choline is typically obtained from animal foods. The highest concentration is in egg yolks, which is one of the reasons I eat five eggs a day. It is important to obtain the eggs from high-quality organically raised chickens. I raise my own chickens but if you don’t, get them from someone locally who does.

Acetylcholine has many important functions. For starters, your parasympathetic nervous system runs on it, and many publications have shown that people with sleep disorders, or who are otherwise ill, have excessive sympathetic tone, which in turn results in elevated epinephrine and norepinephrine, which are indicative of stress.

According to Gominak, having an elevated sympathetic tone may actually be the result of an acetylcholine deficiency. What’s more, acetylcholine is instrumental in maintaining alertness during the day and allowing you to fall asleep and transition through the various sleep stages at night. It’s also part of what allows your body to be paralyzed during deep sleep. Yet no one ever takes acetylcholine into account when investigating sleep disturbances.

“It turns out that we don’t have any drugs for acetylcholine. There aren’t any, except nicotine,” she says. “Acetylcholine has nicotinic receptors or muscarinic receptors [and] there are a lot of connections between the acetylcholine nicotinic receptors and neurologic illness.”

Attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have become epidemic in the past decade, and research shows that acetylcholine nicotinic receptors in the frontal lobes are responsible for directing our attention and focus during the day.

Then, at night, a “switch” flips and we fall asleep. Interestingly, this switch into paralyzed sleep involves the same chemical that allows us to remain awake and focused, namely acetylcholine. According to Gominak, once your vitamin D and B levels normalize, your brain is finally able to start repairing damage that has been incurred during years of poor sleep.

As a result of increased repairs, patients will often find themselves sleeping longer than eight hours, and remain in deep REM sleep longer than normal, as this is the phase during which cellular repair and regeneration is done.

Without deep sleep, your body simply cannot perform the needed cellular repair to maintain health, which is part of why sleep dysfunction can have such wide-ranging health effects.

What Constitutes a Healthy Microbiome?

Interestingly, Gominak discovered that as you sleep more, you need more B vitamins. Which brings us back to the microbiome in your gut. Gominak cites one 2015 paper that postulates that having a healthy microbiome is all about having a microbiome that produces the eight B vitamins.

To optimize your gut microbiome, Gominak recommends having a vitamin D level above 40 ng/mL, and taking a B50 or B100 supplement for three months. This will help your microbiome “grow back” so that it’s producing the ideal amount of B vitamins on its own.

“If you never let your D fall below 40, you’ll never lose them again. That’s my belief,” she says. What’s more, normalizing your microbiome will also allow your body to protect itself against foreign invaders by producing natural antibiotics. Gominak explains:

“One of the really important concepts of having a normal microbiome is, it is not just in your small intestine and your colon. I actually smell different since my microbiome came back. It covers all parts in your body. The literature is really strong to make the argument that we are actually like the Charles Schultz character ‘’Pig-Pen’’.

We walk around in this cloud of bacteria, viruses and fungi that cover us — in our nose, in our mouth, in our skin, in our hair, all over us — and that those organisms are the ones that protect us from infections. They make chemicals that kill their competitors. They keep the clostridium difficile under control in our body.

One of the things that I’ve been able to see happen is my clients can still take antibiotics. They actually will reconstitute their microbiome normally as long as they keep their [vitamin] D over 40 ng/mL, they will grow back. I personally believe the appendix is designed the way it is to be a little library of all the bacteria.

It’s not that I don’t believe that antibiotics change what’s going on in there. They absolutely do. However, I don’t think we have to be as afraid of them. There are two things that are being proposed now to improve the microbiome:

One is probiotics. I personally have used them … I think they’re kind of worthless. If they would work, you would eat them for one month, and then you’d be self-sustaining for the rest of your life.

[The second is] about feeding your bacteria … Once you have a normal foursome [the four types of bacteria that produce the eight B vitamins], what we’re really doing is feeding the bacteria.

We feed the bacteria, and then the bacteria feed us. That’s not the way we’ve been looking at it. I would say all the literature that’s talking about the effect diet has on what lives inside us is absolutely pivotal. It’s not like, ‘You just take these vitamins and everything gets fixed.’ It’s not that simple by a long shot.”

The Case for Organic Food

With respect to your diet, it’s important to eat organic for two primary reasons. One is that most of the antibiotics are not given to humans. They’re given to animals, and the use of antibiotics in food production is a primary driver of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Most nonorganic food is also contaminated with glyphosate, which can decimate your gut bacteria and impact your mitochondrial function. There’s emerging evidence that mitochondrial function is really the core of health and chronic degenerative disease.

Mitochondria are primitive bacteria inside your cells that are affected by antibiotics, and glyphosate has antibiotic activity too. While there are many strategies you can use to upregulate mitochondrial biogenesis, it’s important to minimize the damage to begin with.

An interesting paper² published online January 16, 2020 in The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology also sheds light on how vitamin D and melatonin work synergistically to protect mitochondrial health and ensure proper function. As noted in this paper:

“The biosynthetic pathways of vitamin D and melatonin are inversely related relative to sun exposure. A deficiency of these molecules has been associated with the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, including arterial hypertension, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders, kidney diseases, cancer, psychiatric disorders, bone diseases, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, among others.

During aging, the intake and cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D, as well as the endogenous synthesis of melatonin are remarkably depleted, therefore, producing a state characterized by an increase of oxidative stress, inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

Both molecules are involved in the homeostatic functioning of the mitochondria. Given the presence of specific receptors in the organelle, the antagonism of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), the decrease of reactive species of oxygen (ROS), in conjunction with modifications in autophagy and apoptosis, anti-inflammatory properties inter alia, mitochondria emerge as the final common target for melatonin and vitamin D.”

Optimize Your Sleep to Improve Your Health

Let’s be clear: We’re not saying vitamin D and B supplements are magic bullets that will fix any sleep problem you may have. Your sleep hygiene is dependent on several other basic factors as well, such as limiting blue light exposure at night and making sure you get sunlight exposure during the brightest part of the day.

That said, vitamin D and pantothenic acid insufficiency can play significant roles if you’re still having trouble sleeping after addressing more foundational factors.

“The stuff that I have on my site are things that were overlooked … There are hundreds of sites that will tell you about circadian rhythms, taking away the electromagnetic forces in your bedroom and the blue light.

It’s not that what I have is the be all, end all. It’s that it’s a really important little piece that you need to set in there. I also happen to think that it connects the epidemics of sleep disorders to the weight gain and the IBS.”

In her practice, Gominak has seen patients recover from a variety of problems, from gastrointestinal problems to anemia, once their gut microbiome was normalized with the help of vitamin D and the temporary use of B vitamins.

Again, keep in mind that once your gut microbiome has been restored, taking high doses of B vitamins can backfire and trigger insomnia, as your body is now making the appropriate amount by itself. At that point, the excess ends up having an amphetamine-like effect that keeps you awake.

“I personally think that getting the microbiome back in most people who are pretty sick is [step] one. And then they need to have some supplementation, not huge doses, but some supplementation for a year or two after that. And then keep an open mind about the fact that eventually, you’ll get to a place where you don’t need to supplement most things, unless you have a particular genetic weakness.”

More Information

To learn more, see Gominak’s website, drgominak.com. Under “Quick Start Basics,” you’ll find the general outline of her RightSleep protocol. Also on the homepage you can purchase a workbook that helps you to work through her protocol during the course of a year.

“The website is dedicated to the why,” she says. “I’m very invested in the why. I saw these things happen to my patients. They can’t be making it up. They don’t know each other. They don’t even have the same disease, yet they all tell me the same thing.

That means the basic truth is always what the patient says about their body. And then it’s my job to see if I can find a scientific explanation for that, in animals and other humans.

I have lots of written material. I have free videos ... I have a workbook you can buy. I also offer one-on-one sessions … I think many people who are not really very sick and just want to add this to their health regimen can do it easily with the workbook. That’s the intention anyway.

I also have to comment that once you get better from this D-microbiome point of view, what we all want is to be healthy and have long lives. Sleep is one of the four basic pillars: Sleep, diet, exercise and spirituality.

You can’t really short any of those and be a happy, fully healthy, content person. I don’t spend a lot of time talking about the other parts, but they’re very important as well.”

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In this interview, Ronnie Cummins, founder of the Organic Consumers Association, discusses his new book “Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food and a Green New Deal.” 

“Much of the book talks about how we need to transform our food and farming system, not only in the United States but worldwide, if we're going to solve a lot of these problems that we're seeing — environmental pollution, health problems, the climate crisis and the fact that we have so much poverty in rural areas …” Cummins says.

Regenerative Organic Farming Is the Answer to Many Problems

The transformation Cummins calls for is a transition to regenerative organic farming, which has the ability to solve many if not most of these problems simultaneously.

For example, one of the primary arguments for genetically engineered (GE) crops and foods was that it was going to solve world hunger. Reality, however, has demonstrated the massive flaws in this argument.

GE agriculture actually does the complete opposite, by destroying our soils and making food more toxic and less nutritious. Regenerative farming, on the other hand, has demonstrated its superiority with regard to yield and nutrition, all without the use of toxic chemicals. As noted by Cummins:

“The way we have traditionally grown food for the last 10,000 years and the way we've raised animals the last 20,000 or 30,000 years is really organic and pasture-based.

This wild experiment that industry unleashed on us since the second world war, using toxic chemicals, synthetic fertilizers, genetically engineered seeds and animal factory farms has proven to be a disaster, not just for the farmers, the animals and the land, but our public health has also suffered considerably.

Part of our long-term call to take charge of your health, take charge of your diet [is to] take charge of our environment and really our whole economic system [and] transform this degenerative food, farming and land use system into one that is organic and regenerative.”

Four Drivers of Change

In his book, Cummins details four major drivers of any given system, be it, as in this case, the degenerative system we currently have, or the regenerative system we would like to have:

1. Education and awareness raising — This also includes putting the information into practice, meaning, every time you pull out your wallet, you’re considering whether your money is going to support a degenerative or regenerative system. True change comes when people act out their beliefs in the marketplace
2. Innovation — This includes innovation of farmers, ranchers, people who take care of our forests and wetlands and people who are innovative in terms of educating the public
3. Policy changes — This includes policy changes all the way from local school boards and park districts to the White House. At present, our policies favor corporate special interests like Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Big Pharma and Wall Street. Once we get policies that support organics, regenerative agriculture and natural health, scaling these areas up will be much easier and faster
4. Funding and investment — This includes both private investors and public monies

As noted by Cummins, “Education, innovation, policy [changes] and investment are the four things that drive this change of paradigm.” Change, however, is often slow, and one of the reasons Cummins wrote “Grassroots Rising” was to inspire optimism and hope.

“Obviously, we are still in a degenerative phase, but we can move out of this,” he says. “I think this year, 2020, is going to be the beginning of a pretty enormous global awakening.”

Scaling Best Practices

Cummins is co-director of an organic research farm and conference center outside of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he coordinates a regenerative agricultural system that integrates organic vegetable, seed and forage production with regenerative holistic management of poultry, sheep, goats and pigs. He and others are constantly on the lookout for best practices that can be successfully scaled up and implemented on millions of farms. Cummins explains:

“We have been, for 10 years, running a research and teaching farm [Via Organica] outside of San Miguel de Allende, right smack in the middle of Mexico. It's the high desert area … If you look at the statistics, 40% of the world's surface is characterized as semi-arid or arid, and that's the type of area we're in here, so it's not unusual for the global landscape …

What's difficult as a farmer or rancher, if you live in the semi-arid or arid parts of the world, is that not only is rainfall seasonal and you don't get a whole lot of it, but that it is almost impossible to raise crops on a lot of this terrain.

What people have done for hundreds of years is graze livestock on these degraded semi-arid, arid lands. The problem is that they have overgrazed much of this 40% of the world's surface.”

Simple Innovations Can Solve Serious Problems

During one of Cummins’ workshops on organic compost, two local farmers approached him saying they’d developed a remarkably simple technique using the agave plant and mesquite trees to produce incredibly inexpensive yet nutritious animal fodder.

These two plants, which are naturally found clustered together in arid and semi-arid areas, do not require any irrigation, and the photosynthesis of the agave is among the highest in the entire world. It grows rapidly, producing massive amounts of biomass, and sequesters and stores enormous amounts of carbon, both above ground and below ground, while producing inexpensive, nutritious animal feed or forage and restoring the earth.

As noted by Cummins, the fact that agave plants and mesquite (or other nitrogen-fixing trees) grow together naturally is nature’s way to repair eroded landscapes. The roots of the mesquite tree can reach down to 125 feet, fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil, and absorbing minerals from deep in the ground.

Agave, meanwhile, adds huge amounts of biomass to the land every year, drawing down excess CO2 from the atmosphere. It pulls nitrogen and other minerals from the ground in order to support its rapid growth, but when grown next to a nitrogen-fixing tree, you've got a biodiverse system that will continue to grow and thrive on a continuous basis.

Fermented Agave Is an Inexpensive Animal Feed

The fermented agave animal feed produced in this system costs only 5 cents per kilo (2.2 pounds) to make. The key is fermentation. Raw agave leaves are unpalatable and hard to digest for animals because of their levels of saponins and lectins, but once fermented, they become digestible and attractive to the animals.

The fermentation also boosts the nutrition. I was so impressed with Cummins’ story that I harvested about 10 gallons of aloe plants and applied the process to see if it will convert to great food for my six chickens. A summary of the process is as follows:

• Cut some of the lower agave leaves off the tree and crudely chop them up with a machete. One of the farmers, Juan Frias, invented a simple machine that grinds the leaf into what looks like coleslaw.
• Place the cut-up agave leaf into a large bucket, tamping it down once filled half-way to remove oxygen. Continue filling the bucket to the top. Tamp down again and put a lid on it. (As explained further below, adding mesquite pods at an optimum rate of 20% will approximately double the protein content of the final product.)
• Let it set for 30 days. The fermentation process turns the saponins and lectins into natural sugars and carbs. The final mash will stay fresh for up to two years.

Cummins and other Mexican organic farmers have tested the agave forgage on a variety of animals, including sheep, goats, chickens and pigs, all of which love it.

“The importance of this is, first of all, if you're a small farmer, you can't afford alfalfa, and you can't afford hay during the dry season. It's too expensive … It makes eggs and meat too expensive in the marketplace for people to buy.

When you start looking at … reducing feed costs by 50%, or even three quarters with this stuff that costs a nickel or a dime, then I don’t need to overgraze my animals. They'd still graze because it's good for them … but you wouldn't have to have them outdoors every day, overgrazing on pastures that are not in good shape.

This is pretty amazing stuff … Lab analysis of just the fermented agave [shows] it's about 5% to 9% protein, which is pretty good. Alfalfa is more like 16% to 18%.

What these farmers, who are also retired scientists, figured out is if you put 20% mesquite in your fermentation, the pods of the mesquite trees, it'll shoot the protein level up to about 18% — about the same as alfalfa.

There's a lot of other things too that make it better than alfalfa. One of the things about alfalfa is it takes a lot of water … The agave plant uses one-twenty-sixth the amount of water to produce a gram of biomass as alfalfa.

These desert plants have evolved over millions of years to utilize water and moisture in a really efficient way … The opening in the leaves, called the stomata … only opens at night, after sunset.

These plants literally suck the moisture out of the air all night long, and then when daybreak comes, the stomata closes up … They can go years with no rain, and they can survive pretty harsh temperatures … [and] there's not one chemical required in this whole process. This whole process is inherently organic.”

Added Benefits

An organic certifier is now evaluating one of the operations using this agave feed process, which may go a long way toward creating less expensive organics. For example, rather than spending 45 cents per kilo for organic chicken feed, chicken farmers can cut that down to between 5 and 10 cents per kilo.

In the end, that will make organic free-range chicken and eggs far more affordable for the average consumer. Ditto for pork, sheep and goat products.

Additional benefits include improved immune function in the animals — similar to that seen in humans eating a lot of fermented foods. What’s more, about 50% of the fermented agave feed is water, which means the animals don’t need to be watered as much.

Cummins and other organic farm advocates are now trying to convince the Mexican reforestation program to get involved as well. This would solve several problems. First, it’s difficult to reforest in arid climates, which includes 60% of Mexico, as even mesquite trees need water in their first stage of development until they’re established. Growing agave in locations in areas that already have mesquite or other nitrogen-fixing trees would speed the process and lower the water demands.

Secondly, growing agave and mesquite together for reforestation purposes, while incorporating facilities to create fermented agave feed for sale, farmers who aren’t willing to grow their own can still benefit from this inexpensive feed alternative. Thirdly, such a project would also help reduce rural poverty, which is what’s driving immigration into the U.S.

“If people weren't so darn poor, which leads back to if they didn't live in such dry, degraded landscapes, they wouldn't be seeking to come to the U.S. except for a visit,” Cummins says.

“We can solve this immigration problem. We can solve this problem of rural poverty. Many of these small farmers, they can't even afford to eat their own animal, like the lamb, on a regular basis.

They have it for celebrations, but they should be able to eat lamb burgers on a regular basis in the rural countryside. Now, they will be able to. In the long run, if we restore the landscape, things like corn, beans and squash will grow again …”

Yet another little cottage industry is also starting to grow around agave. Its fibers are very strong, so people are now starting to make lightweight construction blocks or bricks from it.

Lastly, Cummins estimates that with 2.5 million agave plants planted on 30,000 acres over the next decade, they’ll be able to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions created by San Miguel county right now.

More Information

To learn more about how regenerative agriculture can help solve many of the problems facing the world right now, be sure to pick up a copy of “Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food and a Green New Deal.” 

“This regenerative practice in dry lands is a game changer,” Cummins says. “There are practices in wetlands and in the global North, [where] we're already seeing things like a holistic management of livestock and biointensive organic practices.

It's all these practices together — the best practices from the different parts of the world, different ecosystems — that are going to make a difference.

It's you the consumer, it's you the reader, that needs to spread these good news messages, and I hope you'll consider buying a copy of my new book, ‘Grassroots Rising,’ where I try to paint a roadmap of how we can regenerate the world's landscapes as quickly as possible so that we can get back to enjoying life.”

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