Whether you love its light, bitter taste or are keen to try it for its nurturing properties, aloe vera is the ingredient taking the health world by storm. Here are our very favourite aloe vera recipes, all made with healthy plant-based ingredients.
What is aloe vera?
Aloe vera is a succulent with characteristic spiky green leaves which grow in a rosette shape. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a cactus (all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti!).
It tends to grow in hot, arid conditions and thus has developed an incredible ability to store whatever water it can get its hands on. So, while it looks dry and tough from the outside, within its leaves it stores an impressive amount of liquid.
It does this by creating a gel-like substance which holds on to as much water as possible,
https://youtu.be/m6RYscU70VI
Is the whole aloe vera plant edible?
Technically, you can eat whole aloe vera leaves, but we don’t recommend it. Firstly, you might mistake the edible species of aloe (aloe vera barbadensis Miller) for another less friendly version. Secondly, the skin is tough and not particularly pleasant to eat, although you can remove it.
Thirdly, aloe vera contains a substance called latex, or ‘sap’, a yellow liquid which is found between the skin of the plant and the gel inside. Its main component is a substance called aloin. It’s extremely bitter and can have adverse effects.
Aloe vera’s reputation as a powerful laxative comes mostly from its latex. Unsurprisingly, consuming too much of the latex can result in diarrhoea, abdominal pains and vomiting, among other unpleasant effects. It can also damage your kidneys and may even stimulate early labour in pregnant women. All good reasons to avoid it!(1)
When people talk about consuming, eating or drinking aloe vera, they are usually referring solely to the gel inside the leaves. Indeed, that’s where all the healthy nutrients are anyway. So, our advice is to stick to that and avoid the latex and skin.
Of course, if you want to avoid all the bother of removing the skin and latex and then crushing and extracting the inner leaf juice yourself, we highly recommend our Organic Aloe Vera Juice!
