At the end of last year I was asked to do a presentation to some beauty editors.
The topic was Rooibos. Fantastic, as this is one of my most favourite plants and in my mind, is certainly the key to life.
Did you know? In every human being there is a molecule called Super Oxide Dismotase (SOD). SOD looks after our immune systems and when compromised we start to become ill from colds and flu to cancers and HIV.
The only plant in the world whose SOD molecules mimic ours entirely is Rooibos! Even more interesting and strangely exciting, it is only the Rooibos grown in a certain part of the Western Cape that contains these SOD molecules.
Scientists from around the world have taken plants, soil samples and tried to faithfully recreate the conditions under which Rooibos grows here in South Africa, but to no avail. While Rooibos bushes grow in abundance, they do NOT contain these fabled SOD molecules.
While we all know that Rooibos is good for us – it is actually the active ingredient called Aspalathin that is the elxir. Aspalathin is a polyphenol and an anti-oxidant measured by something we call ORACS.
As I have already written, we need a good deal of these ORACS to counteract the effects of stress etc everyday, Rooibos is a way to get some of them. Sadly though, teabags that we get in the shops do not contain nearly enough of the actual actives to any real good, so we need to rely on supplements (such as the Go Figure Retaliator for example), to provide these.
But back to Rooibos – drinking six cups of Rooibos tea per day (that’s six clinical measurements – many tea bags worth) can halve your cortisol levels – cortisol is our stress hormone. Drinking said tea, will also help in keeping you youthful.
Steeping Rooibos overnight to make a strong solution, can be used to clean sticky eyes and even droppered into sore ears. Safe to use for babies.
BUT, lactating mothers should steer away from drinking Rooibos as it is also a natural diuretic which will inhibit the production of milk.
At Go Figure we use a combination of green Rooibos (undried) and red Rooibos – but not spray dried Rooibos which tends to kill all the actives as the plant cells react negatively to heat. That’s why we can assure you that our products actually do work.
Quick question – if we were to produce a concentrated Rooibos tea pill that you could pop into hot water would you be interested in buying them?K
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