Carrots, Horseradish & Beetroot: effects on thinking

Quoting from:

Dynamics of Nutrition: The Impulse of Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science for a New Nutritional Hygiene, by Gerhard Schmidt

Both red beets and radishes are true root formations, and they are characterized by Rudolf Steiner as follows: "The red beet stimulates thinking very strongly... but it does that in such a way that one actually wants to think. He who doesn't like to do this, doesn't like red beets either." 

The strong salt effect of horseradish is well known and has long been used in dietetics. Rudolf Steiner suggested: "If somebody is not very active in the head, then he will be benefited if he adds horseradish to his meals, because it brings a little movement into the thoughts." In this connection it is remarkable that the beets concentrate certain mustard oils in their roots. The radishes are said to contain a compound which contains sulfur and cyanide, a thiocyanate. In the red beets a color substance has the basic structure of a betacyanide.

"If you feel sometimes that you have a weak head, a feeling of emptiness in the brain, that you cannot think very well, then it is good if you add yellow beets [carrots] for some time in you food." Rudolf Steiner adds,"this is the most effective course in children".

Quotes from Rudolf Steiner, Lectures to Workers, Dornach, 18th July 1923

Dr. Steiner claims that the results of potato eating can be observed in the astral body around the region of the forehead. Potato eating turns us into superficial thinkers, quick to grasp a subject but then to lose details. This is what happened when the potato was unleashed in Europe.

Root vegetables (the potato is not a true root but a "thickened stem") should support our brain sense system (Man being an upside down plant). The beetroot, the radish, aid our thinking. Horseradish sets our thoughts in motion, carrots put thoughts into empty heads, the turnips turn us into prudent thinkers.

We never satisfy our need for a root vegetable by eating potatoes but keep eating in hope.

Of course for turbo-charged power, try carrot juice- or any of the others.

We should feed our children beets and other root crops during a Full Moon for greatest nutritive effect. Dr. Steiner says that eating beets at a Full Moon will kill any worms that one might have:

"You see, gentlemen, it is like this. When you eat the root of a plant, this is under the influence of the moon just as much as a poisonous root is. . . . Beetroot is a good food for people who easily get worms. When the beetroot gets to the intestine the worms get upset; they are paralysed and are then eliminated in the stools.

"People who have certain illnesses may even be helped a great deal by giving them a root diet, arranging things in such a way that the diet is taken at the time of the full moon and not at the time of new moon. . . . Children who have a tendency to stay small could also be brought on a bit with such a root diet . . . between birth and the seventh year of life. . . And the moon's influence is mainly apparent on the earth's suface. It does not go deeper. It goes just far enough to stimulate the roots of plants.

- Beetroot to Buddhism, Rudolf Steiner

"If old man turnip could converse with Man he would share the knowledge of sharp, prudent thinking. He could speak, not with cunning, but actuality, of the secrets of the seasons and when best to plant by them for the rest of the wellbeing of the garden. He would not favor the flowers, nor the aromatic herbs, but in plain speak contrast the properties of both trowel and soil, principally and practically, and to the point."

- B.Hive