The Free Radical

As raspberry season comes rapidly to a close I was beginning to wonder what wild treat might come next in the seasonal procession. Wild choke cherries are now coming ripe, but it is challenging to find outcroppings that are minimally bitter and/or astringent. I noticed that many of the wild rose bushes are sporting an abundance of soft ripe fruit. I usually don’t harvest rose hips until well into autumn, but they looked so good already I had to try them.

In certain isolated pockets they’re really quite excellent! And they will only improve as the season wears on, reaching their peak of flavour after the first heavy frost– hopefully, still some considerable time away.

Naturally, roses are associated with all matters of the heart… but perhaps it is less known that in a very literal sense the fruit of the Wild Rose is perfect heart medicine. I’ll let “Dr. Rose” explain:

“All ailments or disease are the results of only two possible conditions: nutritional deficiency or toxic overload. Singularly or in combination, these are the causative factors.

“The prevailing paradigm would have it that heart disease is primarily a condition of toxic excess of cholesterol. However, this is not a cause; it is an effect. The primary cause of heart disease is chronic vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C is a crucial component to the production and maintenance of collagen and related substances necessary for vascular health. Particularly the inner surface of blood vessels requires the continual replenishment of collagen-like substances in order to maintain functional elasticity.

“In the absence of adequate vitamin C, the liver is forced to produce excess cholesterol for deposit along the interior of arteries wherever deficiency has caused structural weakness. Attempting to limit blood cholesterol is counter-productive to this stopgap measure. The human body is perfectly capable of regulating blood cholesterol according to its immediate needs.

“The fruit of my productivity, rose hips, are rich in vitamin C and other heart-friendly compounds. By addressing this critical deficiency from the resplendence of my bounty, cholesterol will cease to be misperceived as the enemy of your heart.

“There are no natural enemies to the human heart…”

…except perhaps the befuddled human mind!