alright, i have a confession to make: I believe in herbalism. Not the superstitious, "stick a leave in some water, now its magic" kind of herbalism, but the more practical "hey look, certain plants are useful if you know what you're doing" kind of herbalism. I realize that there still a lot of snake oil selling in this type of practice, but it does seem like most of it was driven to understand how to help cure people by learning about what things in plants did what things, just without the benefits of modern chemistry or the scientific method. I mean, it's kind of unreasonable to expect herbalists from 6000 years ago to be able to prove their assertions through clinical trials and such, when what we consider the scientific method is super recent by comparison. So yea, i do think that some of what is written about herbalism may have merit, and might be a healthy way to take care of oneself, done properly. In general, it encourages people to eat a diverse diet that is specific to their own health needs, which i believe can be beneficial. Now if we can just get the hippies and the rhino horn poachers out of it....
