While researching different plants and herbs for a green smoothie recipe, I came across an interesting quote.

“It is believed that parsley is one of the world’s seven most potent disease-fighting spices”

This was surprising to me since I never realized all the uses for parsley. My culinary knowledge of parsley stopped at using it for a garnish, but after reading that sentence above, I became intrigued. Parsley, while not an essential nutrient or food, does have many uses when it comes to allergies, autoimmune disorders, and chronic inflammatory disorders. As I tell our patients in East Dallas, chronic inflammation is a large reason why people feel pain as often as they do. Neck pain, back pain, headaches, shoulder pain, etc. come from higher amounts of inflammation that cause the nerve around the joint to send signals to the brain that are interpreted as pain. Parsley also happens to be an effective antioxidant which helps lower the oxidative stress on the body caused by the toxins in our environment. Those range from the nutrient poor foods to the pollution that we are exposed to. The more oxidative stress our body experiences, the higher the inflammation.