Everything Is Coming Up Rose Hips

When I was ten I begged to go away to a summer camp a few hours away from my house where I would learn to appreciate nature instead of complaining about getting dirt in my socks. Besides dropping my pancake on the ground the first and second and a few other breakfasts during my camp tenure and having to pretend the dirt was Oreo crumbs so I could choke it down, I also had to eat a flower. One afternoon there was a nature walk in the flower gardens and while everyone was touching this newly sprouted rosebud, I was the last to touch it and when it accidentally came off in my hand, the counselor made me eat it in front of the group. Gulp…apparently roses (or at least their hips) are good and good for you. Who knew what I observed as unfair torture turns out to be a natural remedy for vitamin C.

With rose petals adorning wedding cakes and seen on top of fancy desserts in four-star restaurants, it seems they are no longer generally accepted as decorations. Sure roses have long been  used as extracts in perfumes but it is doubtful many people have recently stopped to smell the roses and took a bite out of them.

Rose hips are the small bauble-like fruits that grow on the rose plant after it blossoms. They resemble tiny pomegranate fruits or small tomatoes growing at the tip of the stem and are usually reddish or orange in color. Certain species like the Dog Rose (Rosa canina) or another popular species R. majalis, are known for their rose hips and are the types cultivated specifically for use as a source of vitamin C. Native Americans have used roses and rose hips as part of their cuisine for centuries. It is even said that during WWII the people of England were encouraged to get creative with rose hips with meals because citrus fruits were hard to come by with no overseas shipping allowed.

Of the apple family, rose hips can grow to be the size of small walnuts and many enjoy the taste of them steeped in tea, in jams, wines, and (in Sweden) rose hip soup. New Zealanders have been known to make syrup out of rose hips and give it to children to ward off colds in the winter.

If you compare the nutritional value of rose hips to its vitamin C-laden cousin the orange, you may be surprised at the levels. You will find that certain types of rose hips have between 20 and 40 percent more vitamin C, 25 percent more iron, 28 percent greater calcium content, and 25 times more vitamin A than Florida’s staple fruit. Rose hips are also a great source of vitamin E, selenium, and B-complex vitamins as well as slim amounts of potassium, magnesium, and silicon.

As recent as 2007, researchers in Germany and Denmark teamed up to study the benefits of rose hips against rheumatoid arthritis and if you have already tried other natural arthritic cures, maybe rose hips are your answer. In the study, seventy four people (the majority of which was women) volunteered for a six month trial in which half took the placebo and half took rose hips regularly. Results were mixed but mostly positive, as is common in smaller studies, but the rose hip group’s symptoms improved by almost 25 percent with joint pain dropping by 40 percent, while none in the placebo group reported a change.

One of the lead researchers on the German team Professor Stefan Willich from Berlin says that rheumatoid is very common and incredibly painful and these results seem to be a step in the right direction for relief, “I think we were all surprised to see such meaningful results.” With all experimental treatment, time is needed to conduct more experiments in order to confirm these results and more controlled studies are being formed.

If you are looking for a lovely new type of tea that can also boost your immune system, thinking of sprucing up your next hearty meal, or are in need of an alternative for treating arthritis pain, look no further than your beautiful garden. Just remember that even though rose hips themselves are not poisonous, if you find them outside your own garden, make sure there are no pesticides or herbicides sprayed on them because those can have negative health effects on your body. Rose hips show that beauty has more than just superficial benefits. Maybe I should give roses another try since the embarrassment of being ten has subsided.