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Sorrel is a green crop, common in Our Country almost everywhere. This type of culture refers to plants whose fresh young leaves are used in green form for salads, soups and canning. Sorrel is a healthy spring product that is included in the menu of both adults and children. Those who are interested in this vegetable will need information on the health benefits and harms of sorrel, and how to use it correctly.
Useful properties of sorrel
It, like all greens, has little protein and carbohydrates, practically no fat, but this is not its use as a food product. In spring, sorrel grows early and becomes one of the first garden crops that can be eaten during this period. At this time, it is just the way – it has a lot of vitamins and mineral elements, the body badly needs them after winter.
Fresh sorrel can be not only a vitamin product, but also a medicine. It has many uses in folk medicine. It can be used as a means of improving and stimulating the digestive processes, as an astringent, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and healing agent, as an antibiotic and antiscorbutic drug.
It can be eaten for:
- prevention of hypovitaminosis, anemia;
- increase immunity;
- improve digestion;
- elimination of inflammatory processes in the intestines and to restore microflora;
- maintaining muscle tone;
- cleansing blood vessels and increasing their elasticity;
- removal of accumulated toxins;
- normalization of fat metabolism.
Sorrel decoction is used as a choleretic agent, used to treat dyspeptic disorders and skin diseases, allergic rashes. From the root of the plant, remedies are prepared for the treatment of liver pathologies, inflammatory diseases of the oral cavity, small wounds and mild burns. A decoction of the roots and leaves will help with enterocolitis.
What is useful sorrel for women
It contains vitamins important for the female body, including ascorbic and folic acids, tocopherols and minerals, iron, calcium and iodine. All of them are necessary for women for the normal functioning of organs and systems, help to maintain their work and keep tissues young.
Thanks to these substances, sorrel helps to recover from menstruation and alleviates the condition with menopause, reducing the severity of such symptoms characteristic of this condition as dizziness, hot flashes, sweating, etc.
In addition, sorrel, like all greens, is low-calorie, it contains only 22 kcal, so even women who watch their weight can eat it. It is recommended to use it as an ingredient in home cosmetics, prepare a decoction of it and use it for washing with skin rashes and for bleaching freckles and spots.
What is useful sorrel for men
The vegetable will also be useful for men’s health. If you use it regularly, then this will most positively affect the health of the genitourinary organs, in particular, the prostate gland. This effect is due to the presence of zinc in the plant. Another element, potassium, is necessary for the proper functioning of the heart, thus, a sufficient intake of this element in the body is necessary to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
What vitamins are in sorrel
There are very few proteins, fats and carbohydrates in this garden vegetable, as in other herbaceous plants: 100 g, 1,5 g and 0,3 g, respectively, per 2,9 g. There are several organic acids – 0,7 g, fiber – 1,2 g and a lot of water – 92 g.
In addition to these substances, green sorrel contains a number of vitamins, especially a lot of compounds from group B (B1, B2, B4, B5, B6 and B9), as well as retinol and beta-carotene, ascorbic acid, alpha-tocopherol, biotin, phylloquinone, nicotinic acid and niacin. Most of all, in percentage terms, sorrel contains vitamins: A, beta-carotene, B1, C, E and K. There are also plenty of mineral elements – K, Ca, Si, Mg, Na, S, Ph, Cl, Al, B , V, Fe, I, Co, Li, Mn, Cu, Mo, Ni, Rb, Se, Sr, F, Cr and Zn.
The nutritional value of the plant and its benefits lie in vegetable protein, easily digestible carbohydrates, vitamins and many mineral elements rarely found in other cultures. All of them enter the body from fresh or canned leaves and are completely absorbed.
What is harmful sorrel
Fresh or canned leaves of the plant are undoubtedly beneficial to health, but only if consumed in moderation, without exceeding the norm. Otherwise, the harm of sorrel for the body is manifested in the excessive accumulation of organic acids, especially oxalic. They negatively affect the stomach, kidneys, 12 duodenal ulcer.
Especially dangerous in this regard are old leaves, in which there are more acids than in young ones.
Can sorrel be pregnant
Sorrel during pregnancy in moderate doses is not contraindicated and is even useful, primarily folic acid and mineral elements. Vitamin B9 is necessary not only for the mother carrying the baby, but also for the child for normal development. Its deficiency during the period of fetal formation does not allow it to develop properly, the child develops deviations, often very serious.
Is it possible to sorrel a nursing mother
Healthy women who have given birth and who are already breastfeeding should not give up sorrel. It enhances the secretion of enzymes by the digestive tract, has a choleretic effect, and works as an antiseptic for food. But the use of sorrel by nursing mothers should be moderate and strictly controlled: if, for example, after it the child has an allergy, it should immediately be removed from the diet. In other cases, sorrel during breastfeeding is not contraindicated.
Doctors recommend using a decoction of the leaves for pregnant women with sore throat, gingivitis, stomatitis for gargling and mouth. The decoction is recommended for use, since many synthetic sprays are not suitable for women during this period, but natural remedies are allowed.
At what age can sorrel be given to children
Very young children should not be given sorrel because of the increased acidity, despite all its benefits. Acids irritate the gastric mucosa, and children do not really like sour foods. Therefore, it is not necessary to feed a child with sorrel until the age of 3, it is better to find other products that contain the same beneficial substances. For children from 3 years old, it is better to give it cooked as part of dishes, and not fresh.
How to use sorrel
The benefits and harms of sorrel for the human body can be discussed in connection with its correct or incorrect use. It must be remembered that oxalic acid in small doses is important for the body, and in excessive amounts it is often harmful. It has been established that for safe consumption, you need to eat no more than 10 leaves per day. Sorrel dishes can be consumed no more than 1-2 times a week.
To minimize the negative impact of oxalic acid and its harm, you need to eat vegetable leaves in combination with lactic acid products – sour cream or kefir. For example, adding sour cream to a green soup with sorrel leaves will make it not only tastier, but also much healthier. This is due to the action of lactic calcium, which binds oxalic acid and prevents it from being absorbed. However, at the same time, it also cannot be absorbed, therefore, other products with this element or synthetic complexes of vitamins and minerals must be present in the diet. This applies not only to the use of fresh leaves, but also canned ones, which are used to make soups in winter.
Salads made from fresh young leaves are recommended to be sprinkled with lemon juice or, alternatively, apple cider vinegar to neutralize oxalic acid and remove its salts – oxalates.
Contraindications to sorrel
Contraindications to the use of the plant are all associated with the same oxalic acid and its harm. It should not be eaten by those people who are diagnosed with kidney disease, sand and stones in the excretory organs. It is strictly forbidden to use sorrel for gout. Diseases caused by impaired gastric acid secretion, gastritis and ulcers are also included in the list of contraindications. With inflammatory processes in the digestive organs, pancreatitis, any violations of water-salt metabolism and diseases that have arisen against their background of arthritis, arthrosis, osteoporosis, the vegetable is also prohibited.
During pregnancy, it is prohibited if a woman has problems with the kidneys, digestive organs, with inflammatory diseases of the genitourinary organs that are in the chronic stage.
Sorrel in type 2 diabetes can be consumed, there will be no harm from it, but only if there are no other diseases. And since they often still exist, the use of sorrel in type 2 diabetes should be carried out according to an individual scheme. To do this, you must first consult a doctor, and then adjust the diet in accordance with his recommendations.
For people who do not have these diseases, the vegetable is not harmful and can only be contraindicated if there is an allergy to any component in its composition, although this happens infrequently.
Conclusions.
The health benefits and harms of sorrel depend on when, how and in what volumes it is consumed. Subject to the norms and rules of admission, the plant will be useful, if ignored, it can be harmful.
