Whether you love its mild, bitter taste or want to try aloe vera for its nourishing properties, aloe vera is an ingredient that's taking the health world by storm. Here are our favorite aloe vera recipes made with healthy plant-based ingredients.
What is aloe vera?
Aloe vera is a succulent with characteristic spiny green leaves that grow in a rosette. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a cactus (all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti!).
It tends to grow in hot, arid conditions, so it has developed an incredible ability to store any water it can. Although it looks dry and hard from the outside, its leaves store an impressive amount of liquid.
This is achieved by creating a gel-like material that retains as much water as possible,
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Is all aloe vera edible?
It's technically possible to eat whole aloe vera leaves, but we don't recommend it. First, you might confuse the edible type of aloe (aloe vera barbadensis Miller) with another, less friendly version. Second, the skin is tough and not very pleasant to eat, although you can remove it.
Third, aloe vera contains a substance called latex or sap, a yellow liquid that is found between the skin of the plant and the gel inside. Its main ingredient is a substance called aloin. It is very bitter and can have negative effects.
Aloe vera’s reputation as a potent laxative is largely due to its latex. Not surprisingly, consuming too much latex can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, and vomiting, among other unpleasant effects. It can also damage the kidneys and even induce premature labor in pregnant women. All of these are important reasons to avoid it! (1)
When people talk about consuming, eating, or drinking aloe vera, they usually only mean the gel inside the leaves. In fact, that's where all the healthy nutrients are found anyway. So, we advise sticking to this product and avoiding latex and leather.
Of course, if you want to avoid all the hassle of removing the skin and latex and then crush and extract the inner juice of the leaves yourself, we highly recommend our organic aloe vera juice !