Can Cilantro act as a Heavy Metal Chelator?

June 4, 2009 By



It is believed that cilantro has been found to remove heavy metals such as mercury, aluminum and lead from the body. It is also believed to cross the blood-brain barrier and remove heavy metals from the brain. These thoughts are based on the research of Dr. Yashiaki Omura, the President and Founder of the International College of Acupuncture and Electro-Therapeutics and Director of Medical Research o the Heart Disease Research Foundation.

While doing research on an unrelated eye disorder, Dr. Omura observed that subjects had higher than normal levels of mercury in their urine after consuming Vietnamese soup which had large amounts of cilantro. He followed up on these findings and discovered that by giving cilantro to patients with mercury poisoning for several weeks he successfully eliminated the mercury from the body.

It is suggested that if you would like to try cilantro chelation that you add 2 teaspoons of cilantro to your daily diet for two to three weeks.

Here is a Cilantro Pesto recipe you can try:

4 cloves garlic

1/3 cup Brazil nuts (selenium)

1/3 cup sunflower seeds (cysteine)

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (zinc, magnesium)

2 cups packed fresh cilantro (coriander, Chinese parsley) (vitamin A)

2/3 cup flaxseed oil

4 tablespoons lemon juice (vitamin C)

2 tsp dulse powder

Sea salt to taste

Process the cilantro and flaxseed oil in a blender until the coriander is chopped. Add the garlic, nuts and seeds, dulse and lemon juice and mix until the mixture is finely blended into a paste. Add a pinch to sea salt to taste and blend again. Store in dark glass jars if possible.

I think we will be adding cilantro to our diet for a few weeks.

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Pineapple Cilantro Sauce

May 27, 2009 By


Like many of you, I struggle to find new and exciting ways to serve our everyday food. Dinner is especially tough because that is where I like to mix it up a bit. The boys could live off of GFCF pancakes and fruit if I let them, but we can’t eat that for every meal. So Larry and I try to find GFCF foods the boys will eat and are still interesting and nutritious.

This weekend Larry wanted some fish, and being the typical man on a warm weekend, he wanted grilled fish. So we found a nice piece of halibut and decided to throw it on the grill. But how do we make that interesting to both us and the boys? We decided on a pineapple cilantro sauce. It was simple to make and was unbelievably delicious. Matthew ate every single piece of his fish with this sauce on it.

Pineapple Cilantro Sauce
1 can of pineapple chunks in natural juice (reserve the juice for next ingredient)
3/4 cup of the reserved pineapple juice from above
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 tablespoon water, cold
2 tablespoons corn starch or arrowroot
3 tablespoons cilantro leaves, minced
1 tablespoon jalapenos, minced (optional)

In a medium saucepan mix the pineapple chunks, pineapple juice and lime juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. In a small bowl mix the cold water and corn starch to make a slurry. Add slurry to saucepan and cook until thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro and jalapenos (if using). Serve warm over fish.

We also thought this would be wonderful on chicken or pork. It certainly brought a taste of the islands to our meal. We served dinner with grilled corn and broccoli in lemon, olive oil and red pepper flakes.

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Rice Pasta with Roasted Veggies

May 9, 2009 By

I recently went to a biomedical support group meeting and was talking with one of my friends there, another mom of an autistic child, and she was telling me that she is struggling with the gluten free/casein free diet. Not that it is so hard, but that she gets tired of the same old thing and has a hard time coming up with new foods, or even those easy foods like grilled cheese, which we all used to fall back on before we cut dairy and wheat from our children’s lives. So I thought I’d try to start sharing some of my favorite recipes and hopefully inspire you to try something new. Don’t forget that it can take as many as 20 times of offering a new food to your child before they will taste it and start to enjoy it. Try not to get too discouraged if they don’t want to eat it right away. And if you have any great recipes please feel free to share them in the comments below!

1 lbs rice pasta – I like Tinkyada penne for this recipe

1 purple eggplant, cubed
2 medium white or yellow onions peeled and quartered
1 pint of white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 red pepper sliced
1 – 2 yellow or green squash, cubed
1 – 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 -3 cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed
1 cup beef broth (may need more if you use more veggies)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
rosemary to taste
1 tsp dried mint

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a covered roaster, I like the covered roasters by pampered chef, mix all the veggies, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary and mint. Pour enough broth in to come 1/4 to 1/2 up the veggies. Roast for at least one hour. Check to see if veggies are soft and broken down into a ragu. If not, roast longer. The veggies should not be watery but should not be dry either.

Cook your pasta and serve veggie ragu over the penne. Yummy, and a great way to use the great veggies starting to become available.

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