himalayan superfood

If you google it, you'll find it listed under a bunch of different names: wolfberry, red mediar, mede berry, barbary matrimony vine, Duke of Argyll's tea tree, backsdorn, and Murali, just to name a few (according to wikipedia). In natural food stores you'll see it marketed as Tibetan goji or Himalayan goji. As the inspiration for an entire natural-ingredient based cereal company, the goji berry has literally become 'the little berry that could.'

Here's your crash course in goji...
- largely grown in China
- also known as "red diamonds"
- originally grown along floodplains of the Yellow River
- unless you are in the region of origin, you will never eat a goji berry in raw form. these berries are dried, packaged and shipped to be sold all over the world.
- lots of culinary uses (awesome with soups, in tea, served with wild yam!)
- it is believed that goji berry juice contains copious amounts of polysaccharides. translation - healthy benefits

It's all in the berry...
- eating goji berries helps you meet your macro and micronutrient intake for the day. Your macronutrients include dietary fibers, carbs, lipids and proteins.
- micronutrients found in the goji berry: dietary minerals, essential vitamins, amino acids, carotenoids, calcium, potassium, zinc, selenium, iron, riboflavin, vitamin C, beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, and the list goes on....

It's been approximately one year since I was introduced to goji berries, and I knew after the first few bites that I had found something awesome. There is so much to learn about what is truly one of nature's superfoods. And there's only one word that comes to mind when you consider all of the above is packed into every last berry: RESPECT!