For most of my life I was led to believe that sage is a one time a year use herb and if used too much would ruin the turkey. Boy was I so wrong. I grew up with grandparents that lived thru the depression and all of our meals were simple and filling except at thanksgiving when the biggest bird in the store was bought, stuffed, covered in butter and sprinkled with sage powder. You had to be careful because if you used too much of the green powder then the turkey would taste like "weeds". My grandmother didn't trust anyone but herself to not ruin the turkey, so she always cooked it. I carried on the tradition of sprinkling my turkey with sage but just like my grandmother I never used sage on anything else. Now not only do I use it in a lot of cooking and remedies, but my daughter and I eat it raw and drink it in alot of teas infused with it.

Sage has a strong aroma and earthy flavor, which is why it’s typically used in small amounts. Even so, it’s packed with a variety of important nutrients and compounds. One of those compounds is vitamin K. In one teaspoon alone it has 10 percent of your daily allowance according to the FDA.  Vitamin K is a part of a group of fat-soluble vitamins that play a part in blood clotting, bone metabolism and regulating blood calcium levels.

This wonderful plant is so much more than Thanksgiving. Sage is full of antioxidants and one study found that drinking 1 cup (240 ml) of sage tea twice daily significantly increased antioxidant defenses. Antioxidants are powerful substances, which mostly come from the fresh fruits and vegetables we eat and can prohibit (and in some cases can even prevent), the oxidation of other molecules in the body. The benefits of antioxidants are very important to good health, because if free radicals are left unchallenged, they can cause a wide range of illnesses and chronic diseases.

Sage can also help treat menopausal women by reducing menopause symptoms like hot flashes, vaginal dryness and mood swings by the estrogens like compounds it holds. This is done by allowing those compounds to bind to certain receptors in your brain to help improve memory and treat hot flashes and excessive sweating.

One other possible benefit from consuming sage is that it could help control cholesterol. In one study, consuming sage tea twice daily lowered “bad” LDL cholesterol and total blood cholesterol while raising “good” HDL cholesterol after just two weeks.

With such a common household herb, such as sage we could receive so many health benefits from it we should consider taking another look at incorporating it into our herbal medicine cabinet.