Senna Leaves

I truly hate what sulfasalazine does to my gut, but as a DMARD it helps my feet tremendously.  Fond as I am of remaining ambulatory, I deal with the med’s unpleasant side effect.

Dr. Synonymous has a particularly relevant post up, and it brought to mind something I read in an Open Mic comment a while back, in which Whitecoat shared a recipe:

Reminds me of an old recipe I used to use for constipation in cancer patients on opiates.

2 cups finely chopped raisins
1 cup finely chopped dates
1 cup finely chopped prunes
1 box senna leaves (finely chopped)*** (SEE FOOTNOTE)

Mix all ingredients together. Add small amounts water until mixture can be flattened out into small pan. Cut into small bars. Cover each bar in graham cracker crumbs. Freeze on cookie sheet then put frozen bars in bag in freezer. Eat them with a large glass of water.

I have a lot of ingredients in my kitchen that others have said aren’t normal staples, but senna leaves isn’t one of them.  Dates I always have.  Raisins, usually.  Prunes. Ummm – only in mid-August when they’re fresh off the tree.

Aside from the leaves and graham crackers (which I also don’t stock), this is really just a bunch of dried fruits that you don’t want to feed large quantities of to a toddler still in diapers.   I wondered if the key is just dried fruit washed down with a big glass of water.  I also wondered if it would work to swap out different ingredients, since I have many other kinds of dried fruit.  It does.  Dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried apricots… doesn’t seem to matter.

It’s pretty tasty, regardless of the reason you’re eating them.  Next time I’m going to put everything through a food processor (or at least a grinder) to change the texture.

Posting will be light, as I have two teenagers leaving for Guatemala next week and there’s still tons to do to get ready for their trip.

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Senna is an herbal laxitive.  Like all herbs, it acts as a medication.  It should not be used by people taking warfarin/coumadin, digoxin/lanoxin, or diuretics.  If you are taking any medications (herbs, supplements, prescriptions…) talk to your doctor before trying senna.