7 Best Bitter Herbs In The Bible For Health & Weight Loss!

There is one food group that will fast forward your healing, better than a supplement or workout routine! As with everything I do, I search out God’s Word for the keys to healing and health. And it’s no surprise there’s a wealth of information about powerful herbs in the Bible.

We think of herbs as little additions to a dish or meal that abounds with flavor, but they are so much more.

They can help:

- Jumpstart your digestive healing which leads to healing in all areas of your body. Would you like better digestion? Less back talk from your body?

- Attain better mental clarity

- Reduce anxiety

- Increase circulation, which means less clogged systems

For centuries, in fact millenia, herbs have provided people with flavors, fragrances, and medicinal benefits. People used herbs to promote health and healing long before scientific advancements allowed us to study them and “prove” their benefits.

If you’re curious to know what herbs are a great treasure for your health, plus mentioned in Scripture, you’re in the right place.

Today is definitely another fun foodie day!

Bitter Herbs For Healing In The Bible

Today I am going to share 7 bitter herbs and why you need to add these to your routine and daily cooking.

When working with my clients for the last 18 years, we always start with the digestive system, the underlying problem for almost every complaint.

Over the last decade or so, we’ve learned a bushel of information about the importance of gut health. How it’s not just where your food goes for processing, but how it’s intricately linked to every body system, and especially our mental health.

Research has discovered that while our brains play important roles in the production and use of hormones important for physical health such as serotonin and dopamine, our gut does even more so.

This is why when we heal the gut we seed issues including depression, colitis, inflammation, heart disease, and so much more start to heal.

There is one type of herb that can fast forward that healing: bitter herbs.

The Israelites were commanded to eat the Passover lamb "with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs." (Exodus 12:8) 

These "bitter herbs'' consisted of such plants as chicory, bitter cresses, hawkweeds, sow-thistles, and wild lettuces, which grow abundantly in the peninsula of Sinai, in Palestine, and in Egypt. The purpose of this observance was to recall to the minds of the Israelites their deliverance from the bitter bondage of the Egyptians.

(Learn more about Passover and why Christians should celebrate it here.)

Bonus: Bible Word

Gall is a word seen a handful of times in scripture that means bitter, not related to herbs, but emotional, physical, and spiritual suffering.

Matthew 27:34 says that as Jesus was being crucified, the Roman soldiers offered “wine to drink, mixed with gall.”

Mark 15:23 specifies that the bitterness in the wine was due to the presence of myrrh. Wine mixed with bitter herbs or myrrh created a potion that dulled the sense of pain. The mixture of sour wine and gall was often given to the suffering to ease their pain in death.

Unlike gall, bitter herbs aren’t the hard, painful things of life, but actually bring health, healing, and wonderful flavors to life.

Common bitter herbs include: horseradish, parsley, coriander, mugwort, chamomile, mint, horehound, endive, plus more.

Even romaine lettuce, which can be sweet, is considered bitter because of its aftertaste and its ability to become quite bitter the longer it is grown.

7 Bitter Herbs Of The Bible

Bitter herbs are plants with the bitter principle that represent a group of chemicals with an exceedingly bitter taste.

These herbs – beyond their biblical significance in the Passover – offer tremendous healing properties that we can benefit from on a daily basis.

To gain this benefit you first have to taste the bitter flavor – this starts a chain reaction in your body starting with the digestive juices and enzymes. 

Taste buds have a reflex action that stimulates the secretion of digestive juices and also stimulates the activity of the liver, which improves detoxification and elimination.

Bitter herbs also have antibiotic and antifungal properties. And also anti-tumor actions. They, like all the wonderful foods God has given us, are meant for more than just pleasing our taste buds.

So, what are the 7 bitter herbs mentioned in the Bible and are also powerful for health and healing?

1. Chamomile

Chamomile blossoms contain essential oils composed, in part, of Azulene, a blue hydrocarbon. Azulene is known for its anti-inflammatory properties. 

Chamomile also contains resins, wax, fatty acids, bitter agents, chlorophyll, and phosphoric acid salts. 

This unique combination of ingredients has the potential to trigger surprising healing effects, particularly when consumed via tea. Although Chamomile is most often thought of as an excellent anti-inflammatory, it can also aid in healthy digestion.

Gather the flowers in the late spring and late summer when they are not wet with dew or rain. Then dry at a low temp.

2. Peppermint

Peppermint contains a number of different bitter agents with anti-inflammatory, germ-killing, bile-drifting, cramp-relieving, and pain-relieving properties. 

The herb is mainly consumed as mint tea and is also known to assist with digestive issues such as bloating, diarrhea, gall bladder ailments, stomach aches, and nausea. 

It's also used for insomnia, headaches, and the common cold. 

Peppermint teas and tincture are a great way to consume organic bitters for digestion.

Peppermint has a relaxing effect on muscles and anti-flatulent properties. It also stimulates bile in the gall bladder and digestive juices. It is very helpful with treating Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Making fresh tea with steeped leaves from your garden is true soul food.

3. Balm

Balm is a word we may associate with phrases like, “that’s a balm to me.” However, although it’s a little less known in our culture, it’s a plant in the mint family that truly adds pleasantness to life.

Also known as lemon balm, this herb helps relieve spasms of the digestive tract, especially if they’re associated with anxiety or depression, since it helps relieve tension and stress reactions.

Additionally, balm is also a tonic effect on the heart and the blood circulation, and can be used in feverish conditions such as the flu.

4. Hyssop

This bitter herb is mentioned in Scripture, yet the variety grown during Jesus’ day is not the same variety we grow here in the US today.

That does not take away from its medicinal properties, though.

It’s good for spams such as cough caused by bronchitis and colds. 

Hyssop also helps with anxiety, hysteria, and even some forms of mild epilepsy.

The flowers are generally collected in the fall and dried for later use. 

It’s another treasure you can add to your own home garden. This plant grows like mint, which means it will pop up everywhere and there’s no special skill necessary to grow it.

5. Horseradish

Horseradish isn’t just for your roast beef sandwich.

This spice (“herb” and “spice” are often interchangeable terms) will kick up a dish in flavor and will also kick up the circulatory system.

It’s good for helping treat urinary tract and respiratory tract infections. 

Are you sneezing like crazy this spring? Horseradish can also help with asthma, bronchial mucus, hay fever, and allergies.

It’s also really good at stimulating digestive juices, which is good for the body in many ways.

Want a creative way to add horseradish (and beets, which also are a great treasure to add to your health bank account) to your menu? Try out this recipe:

Beet and Horseradish Salad

1 cup Yogurt

1 Tablespoon fresh Horseradish, grated

3 Beets, raw and freshly grated

4 Tablespoon fresh mint, finely chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine yogurt, horseradish then add grated beets and top with mint. Enjoy!

6. Endive

This herb is a leafy green in the chicory family and is only slightly bitter, making it a great ingredient for a delicious salad. 

This bitter herb does as the others do and stimulates the liver and digestion – to feel our best we must digest! Endive is also good for the skin and mucous membranes – that is your first line of defense.

Add endive to all your salads. Try experimenting with this fresh lettuce at least 3 times this week and see how you like it.

A fun way to add this unique leafy green is to make it into a hummus boat!

Always remember all these herbs can be added to a smoothie. Although I would never do that with horseradish!

7. Parsley

Last, but definitely not least, we have parsley. 

Parsley is the 2nd most used bitter herb (behind horseradish) in the celebration of our Lord's Feast, the first celebration of the spring: Passover.

At a seder meal, parsley represents life, which God gives us. It’s also dipped in salt water to represent the tears of the Israelites because of the suffering they endured as slaves in Egypt.

Parsley can be steeped into the perfect morning pick me up tea, the mid afternoon cleanse tea. Desire a non-caffeine energy boost? Try homemade parsley tea, which I share in this  video:

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It is also the best first bite of any meal, as it will help release digestive juices and start the process of enzymes. Enzymes are keys to unlocking the life properties in these foods.

So, not only does it help your body, it helps your body help your body!

Add These Healing Herbs Of The Bible To Your Diet Today!

I hope these herbs are exciting your taste buds and filling your treasure box today. These herbs are found in the Bible, but are just the beginning of God’s wonderful riches of health found in the foods He’s given.

God loves you with an everlasting love and desires that you live an abundant life here on earth. To help us do so, He included a vast amount and variety of food resources that are good for our bodies.

Unlike most of what man has come up with in a lab, these foods promote health and healing from the inside out and aid our bodies in living well.

If these herbs are unfamiliar to you, try them out one at a time. There are seven, so assign each herb to a day of the week, add them to your grocery list (either buying fresh, dried, or purchasing seeds or a plant to grow yourself), and try them out.

I’d love to know about your experience. Which herb is your favorite? What creative ways have you found to add them to the menu?