Dandelion root in tea is very much like a diuretic. A person just does not lose all their minerals also and no side effects. Well, except the potty part.
That's because Dandelion
is a diuretic. I prefer to use that to any drugs, but the edema I have in my legs is often too much for the lighter dandelion to deal with on it's own. Milkweed is a diuretic also, actually... but I can't take ingest that unless it's been thoroughly cooked first. Allergic to latex here, too. >.<
The "milk" in the milkweed plant contains a small amount of latex, which is what makes it sticky in the first place. That small amount is enough for my hands to itch up a storm and sometimes form a minor rash when I harvest it, so I know better than to ingest it without thoroughly cooking it. I actually do the harvesting with gloves on these days, to avoid the itchy/rashy side effect of handling the plant raw.
It doesn't seem to bother me once it's fully cooked, but then I do the three-boil method when cooking milkweed, so most of the "milk" is pretty much out of it by the time I'm done cooking and am ready to serve it.
Actually, now that I think on it.. celery, cucumbers, ginger, raspberry, and blackberries are all diuretic foods as well. So are the berries of the
staghorn sumac tree
(NOT poison sumac). Sumac juice is a common drink in this house over the summer, once the berries ripen. My Bear hates it, but my pup watches those trees all summer long until she sees the stags turn red, and then she's dashing over to them with the ladder to go fetch a cone or two. LOL
xxx