Health&Wellness Magazine May 2015 | Page 34

34 & May 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net | Like us FOOD BITES @healthykentucky IT’S A FAVORITE FLAVOR AND A POPULAR AROMATHERAPY SCENT By Tanya Tyler, Editor/Writer Who doesn’t like to pop a peppermint to freshen the breath or ease an upset stomach? Peppermint is a favorite flavor that has been around for many centuries. The ancient Roman writer Pliny the Elder wrote about peppermint in 79 A.D. in his Naturalis Historia (Natural History), detailing how Greek and Roman cooks used peppermint in their sauces and wines. The peppermint plant is a hybrid herbaceous rhizomatous perennial – in other words, it’s the product of two other herbal plants (spearmint and watermint), has wide-spreading roots and will come back year after year if you plant it. And it grows quickly. Peppermint has wide-spreading roots and will come back year after year if you plant it. And it grows quickly. Peppermint The uses for peppermint seem endless. There is peppermint tea, peppermint candy, peppermint toothpaste, peppermint