Blood Building Syrup with Herbs (Yummy and great for low iron)

I recently started working with a new herbalist. Although I am also an herbalist it's nice to work with one who can objectively look at my situation and offer recommendations. The herbalist that I am working with is also a nutritionist and we will be focusing our work on weight loss and health, something I am constantly struggling with. As I am getting older, my goal is no longer to be thin, it is to be healthy.

After we reviewed my latest bloodwork I had we noticed that in many areas my blood was in the low end of western medicine normal. In Eastern medicine most of the values would be considered low. She recommended I try a blood building recipe that is often used in Ayurveda. She supplied me with a the recipe, I gathered my supplies and off I went, I love creating so this was the perfect Sunday afternoon activity for me to do! I have included the link to the recipe https://foodasmedicine.ca/2012/blood-building-syrup/

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Many of the herbs used in this recipe I have not used before so I am looking forward to trying them (shatavari, rehmannia, and pippali). One of the herbs, astragalus, is one of my most used and favorite herbs so glad it is incorporated into this recipe. I could probably write (and maybe will) a whole post just on the benefits of astragalus and why I love it. It is an amazing adaptogen and I take it daily. Most of the herbs in this recipe are antioxidants and will really work on increasing iron as well, thus building good blood.

You may notice that some common kitchen herbs are also used. Cardamom, cinnamon and clove are included in the recipe, all extremely healing, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory. The other common kitchen item included is molasses. Molasses is a byproduct of extracting sugar from sugar cane and is huge in antioxidants and minerals. It is also a great source of iron and good for constipation and anemia.

The process of making the blood syrup took several hours, most of that was simmering time. There was a lot of stirring and in the end when I had to squeez everything through cheese cloth it was pretty labor intensive. I was super excited with the end product and looking first to incorporating this into my daily routine. I had my first serving and it tasked great! I will keep you updated on how it's working :)