Todays society is vastly nutrient deficient. This is due in part to the sedentary lifestyles that have become so normal, and in part due to high sugar foods being sold with little to no nutrition. Since we are sedentary we eat less food to meet our caloric requirements, so we get less nutrients, and our insatiable desire for sugar is fed by the companies who care about their profits, but not about your health.
Add into the mix the rising trend of stress and anxiety in the workplace due to high pressured jobs with little sense of control and we are proliferating a profoundly ill society.
The solution? Honestly I don’t know, I have been spending all my time concentrating on one aspect – nutrition, and I have discovered many things- including this leaf. “Ilex Guayusa”.
To summarize my approach and our companies approach to nutrition, I need only quote from the Unified Register of Herbalist Practitioners, “to utilise the modern, scientific understanding of herbs, as well as drawing on the vast knowledge of traditional herbal usage, used worldwide for thousands of years”
Guayusa has been used for thousands of years by the indigenous people of Ecuador, and this is what they used it for:
- Diabetes
- Improving digestion and appetite
- Strengthening the body
- Treating pain
- To increase female, and male, fertility and libido
- Daily purging (detox)
- Promoting conviviality (sociability)
- Its stimulating effects
- Treating flu
- Helping to avoid insect and snakebites
- Helping people to dream vividly
- Improving hunting and fishing ability
Since its discovery, there is a growing amount of research going into learning more about the leaf, it has been discovered that it has 2x the anti-oxidants of green-tea: in fact its anti-oxidant capacity (ORAC scores) are through the roof! Check out this table:
You won’t find a healthier caffeinated plant. Its nutritional profile is dense and its stimulants are the perfect aid for the over-worked; helping to deal with stress/anxiety. If the Kichwa tribe swear by it to survive the harsh environment of the rainforest, we reckon it could help in the urban jungle too.
References:
www.guayusatea.com/health-benefits/
