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by krrrh 2765 days ago
Dandelion leaves are great in salads and super healthy. There are some teenagers who will appreciate that message, you just need to find them.
4 comments

Curious, why "super healthy"? Not that I doubt the statement, but I think it's interesting that something that I view as nutritionally insignificant is viewed that way by someone else. Then again I'm not a nutritionist or even a particularly healthy eater, more just a nutritionally curious person.
https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-eating-dand...

Dandelion greens are fairly nutritionally dense. They are high in vitamins and minerals, good for bones, blood and liver.

I really hate this perspective on food.

The vast majority of people who might have access to—or want to eat—dandelion are not malnourished and do not have vitamin deficiencies, and so adding dandelion to their diet will have zero net effect on their health. Swapping some vegetable out for dandelion will have zero net effect on their health. Replacing one doughnut with one portion of dandelion will have zero net effect on their health when compared to swapping out that doughnut for any other reasonable vegetable.

Individual foods are, generally speaking, neither healthy nor unhealthy. Diets are healthy or unhealthy.

But, if you eat healthy food, you don't have to eat as much to get your nutrients! And people are always trying to optimise it so that they don't have to eat as much food ;-)

It is funny the ideas that become popular, isn't it.

The typical American diet is sorely lacking in fresh greens especially, fruits and vegetables in general.

Consider also fresh food deserts that exist in many cities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert

Dandelions are widely available in most cities and very easy to grow, guerrilla gardening style. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_gardening

Getting the root out of the ground kills them a lot more dead.
What's also good is sow thistle, which most people mistake for dandelion, but is a bit uglier looking. If eaten when they're young and tender, they're quite tasty and not bitter like dandelion. Whenever I spot a sow thistle in my yard, I just let it grow like any other vegetable.
Young dandelion leaves are not very bitter at all.
They're not very bitter, but I still prefer the taste of sow thistle. I still love dandelions, though. :) They're definitely an under-appreciated and misunderstood plant.

From what I've read, they're actually beneficial for lawns as their long roots draw up nutrients from deep in the soil. Yet we pull them out and spray herbicides to kill them! I don't remember ever seeing brown patches caused by dandelions.

I used to mix dandelion shoots in with my green smoothie in the morning, when they were available. It gave the smoothie kind of a creamy effect, with a microfoam on top. It was delicious.
Not a good idea if pesticides were sprayed.