Flower Power Eat Some Blossoms for a Healthier You By Rona Cherry l Healthy Living l Healthy Foods for Healthy Living l Flower Power

Who doesn’t love flowers? They enhance our lives with their color and splendor and many cooks add them to prettify a dish. But a new study published by the Institute of Food Technologists has found that eating flowers offers genuine health benefits. Researchers found that many edible flowers have high levels of antioxidants that may prevent heart disease and certain cancers.

Edible blossoms can be used as one of the main ingredients in a dish, sprinkled in a salad, or as a colorful garnish for desserts and drinks. But buy only flowers you know are 100% safe to eat. Get them from organic farms, organic groceries or your garden. Don’t buy them from florists or garden centers since they’ve probably been treated with pesticides - and avoid flowers growing along roads or in public parks.

Here are a few of the flowers you may know, but didn’t realize you could eat: