The Health Benefits of Radishes

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Find out more about The Health Benefits of Radishes, the root vegetable that comes in a variety of colors from red, purple and even blackish. Most people are familiar with red radishes, a popular addition to fresh summer salads and simply eaten on their own. There are more than 250 different types of radishes. It might come as a surprise that the radish is a cousin to vegetables like kale, Brussels sprouts and cabbages as they are all part of the cruciferous vegetable family. Radishes are one of the easiest and quickest edible vegetable plants to grow either in the garden or indoors in pots. If you are growing radishes by seed, you can plant some varieties in the winter as long as you plant them a good two inches down in the soil and two inches apart. More often radish seeds are planted in the early spring at about 3/4 to 1-inch depth. Once radishes begin to leaf out, the plants should be thinned to about six inches apart. You don't want to discard them. Simply wash and tear the leaves up in your next salad. Winter radishes are a vegetable that can survive the first frosts and will be a little sweeter if left in the ground. You will, however, want to be sure and pull them out before the first big freeze. When growing Spring radishes, they will need six hours of light a day and a pH in the soil of between 5.8 to 6.8. Radishes should be planted about six weeks before the last expected frost. Mulching around the stems of the radish plants is necessary so the plants can retain water and thwart off the weeds.

Radishes are good for natural health remedies, home remedies, and natural cures. A popular way to serve radishes is raw and sliced into salad recipes. Radishes can also be carved into rose bud petal shapes and used as a garnish. You will find radishes used in other cultures and known as daikons. They are cooked or boiled into stews and other recipes. The oil from the seeds of the radish has medicinal purposes and natural health remedies for the liver and skin in folk medicine. Another of the natural health treatments radishes may help with is with the digestive system, especially with the liver because of its sulphur base. Radishes are very rich in roughage, otherwise known as indigestible carbohydrates, so they may assist in the natural health remedies of the intestines and colon in eliminating waste. The black radish bulb, along with the leaves, can be used as natural health remedies for jaundice because it promotes the flow of bilirubin and bile. People also have been known to eat radishes as a natural health remedies as a detoxifier. For natural home remedies, radish leaves contain more than ten times Vitamin C than the root bulb, so it is often the radish leaves that are served in salad recipes. Both the leaves and the root are good natural home remedies as they are rich in calcium, potassium and copper. It should be noted that if you have thyroid problems, you will want first to consult your physician before adding radishes to your diet as radishes have goitrogens in them can affect the thyroid's function.

This article on the natural health remedies and natural home remedies of radishes is just one of the natural home remedies and natural healthy treatments you will find on the "Gardening Channel" site. This site has all sorts of advice and tips on how to garden. You will find articles on general gardening from flowers to vegetables, growing vegetable, nutrition, naturopathic herbs, home remedies and natural cures and so much more. *

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