{"id":26406,"date":"2020-02-02T11:55:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T17:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myhalalkitchen.com\/?p=26406"},"modified":"2021-03-19T13:05:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T18:05:06","slug":"black-seed-honey-are-you-taking-advantage-of-this-powerful-combination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myhalalkitchen.com\/black-seed-honey-are-you-taking-advantage-of-this-powerful-combination\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Seed & Honey: Are You Taking Advantage of This Powerful Combination?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can remember being interested in health foods as far back as when I was in my early teens. I was simply drawn to those sections of magazines that talked about how to make your own face scrubs or spa days at home with all natural ingredients that hailed from exotic locations where I dreamed of traveling to seek out even more of those ‘secret’ ingredients that made people live well and be strong and healthy and naturally beautiful throughout their lives. It was purely fascinating to me, living in the Midwest, where none of the food seemed exotic to me because I was constantly being exposed to ‘different’ foods through books, magazines and the occasional culinary gems my family members would bring back from Sicily<\/strong> or Puerto Rico<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That said, I grew up having an appreciation for Mediterranean foods like pomegranates, olives<\/a> and olive oil<\/a>, dates and figs all because of my Sicilian background. These are common foods grown there and my dad always talked about how healthy they were for us and would jump at the chance to give me a taste if and when he found them. <\/p>\n

Needless to say, I was insatiably<\/em> curious about foods for that reason. Eventually that morphed into an interest in cooking, but it all stemmed from my original interest in global ingredients and how different foods affects our health mentally, emotionally<\/em>, and physically<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Years later when I stumbled upon Islam as a religion (not knowing anything about it at all well into my twenties), what drew me in the most was the topic of Prophetic Medicine<\/em> and Sunnah foods<\/em>, or foods that the Prophet Muhammad<\/strong> (peace be upon him) used to eat and\/or recommended us to eat. I was astounded at the overlap in the foods that were considered Mediterranean and the ones I grew up learning about being some of the healthiest for us to eat. It peaked my interest more and more and more…<\/p>\n

And then I read this hadith<\/em> (saying of Prophet Muhammad):<\/p>\n

Aisha (may Allah \u0633\u064f\u0628\u0652\u062d\u064e\u0627\u0646\u064e\u0647\u064f \u0648\u064e\u062a\u064e\u0639\u064e\u0627\u0644\u064e\u0649\u200e  be pleased with her) said that she heard the Messenger \u0635\u0644\u0649 \u0627\u0644\u0644\u0647 \u0639\u0644\u064a\u0647 \u0648\u0633\u0644\u0645 say,<\/p>\n

\u201cThis black seed is a cure for every disease except death.\u201d (Bukhari).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Black Seed at the local Pazar in Fethiye, Turkey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[Just to clarify, this topic is elaborated upon among scholars who dig a little deeper into the meaning of “every disease” here<\/a>, although there must be much more discussion elsewhere among scholars, physicians and medical researchers.] <\/p>\n

But the black seed goes way back in history even before the time of our Prophet \u0635\u0644\u0649 \u0627\u0644\u0644\u0647 \u0639\u0644\u064a\u0647 \u0648\u0633\u0644\u0645. In fact, it  was used by the Asians, the Persians, and the Romans for culinary and medicinal purposes. <\/p>\n

Why?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Highland Almonds<\/a> & Black Seeds in Fethiye, Turkey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because black seeds contain really amazing things like linoleic acid (<\/em>an essential fatty acid to the human diet) and palmitic<\/em> acid (most commonly found in palm oil and butter<\/a>).<\/p>\n

They also contain important things like amino acids<\/strong>, arginine<\/strong> (great for circulation and oxygen to our cells), aspartate<\/strong>, and glutamate<\/strong>. They also have iron, copper, zinc, phosphorus, thiamin, niacin, pyridoxine, folic acid, and calcium. Does your daily multivitamin contain all of these?<\/em><\/p>\n