Fennel Tea for Clearer Vision! (Fennel Seeds)

Member Name: Shekera

Product:	Fennel Seeds
Date:	17/11/01 (1472 review reads)
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Advantages: Inexpensive, helpful in the treatment of the digestive system, great for use in cooking

Disadvantages: Should not be used by pregnant women

Fennel Seeds (Foeniculum Pulgare)

The ancient Indians used fennel as a condiment and culinary spice. In Greece, it was a symbol of success. In Rome, the young fennel shoots were a food, Pliny considered it good for improved vision and
Culpeper recommends it as an antidote for poisons.

To most of us, fennel is a familiar herb used in cooking. Different parts of the fennel plant have different culinary uses; the term fennel can seem a bit perplexing. "Fennel" actually refers to different parts of two closely related plants, one used primarily as a vegetable, and one used primarily to yield fennel seeds. Both types are aromatic vegetables with feathery foliage.

Fennel seeds are popular in both sweet and savoury dishes and are used as a component of Chinese five-spice. The spice is said to cure everything from hiccups and coughs to earaches, toothaches, and asthma. Fragrant fennel oil is used both to flavour sweets and perfume soaps. But most of us will know fennel as an ingredient used in gripe water as it is extremely good for the digestive system and for soothing colic in babies.

As a contact lens wearer, I often suffer from dry sore eyes – a friend of mine gave me the following recipe to make a fennel eye bath:

Make a cup of fennel seed tea from one teabag (available from good health food shops and some supermarkets). When cooled, dilute the tea with water to make double the quality, and add a pinch of salt. Salt helps ease tired dry eyes and maintains clear vision. Strain the tea through a very fine strainer before using as one would Obtrex. Once used, throw away the surplus tea. Note it is important that all utensils used for making the eye bath are impeccably clean.

In addition to a treatment for colic, it is also helpful for ailments such as wind, irritable bowel syndrome, water retention, anxiety, and depression. It is also reputed to promote milk flow in nursing mothers and reduces the
chances of the baby getting colic.

<br>I chew a couple of fennel seeds after eating a meal containing strong ingredients as they make a great breath freshener.

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