Whether you love its mild, bitter taste or want to try it for its nourishing properties, aloe vera is an ingredient taking the wellness 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 plant with characteristic prickly 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, dry conditions, so it has developed an incredible ability to store all the water it can. Although it looks dry and tough from the outside, its leaves have stored an impressive amount of liquid.
This is achieved by forming a gel-like substance that holds as much water as possible,
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Is the entire aloe vera plant edible?
Technically, you can eat whole aloe vera leaves, but we don't recommend it. First, you could be confusing the edible species of aloe (aloe vera barbadensis Miller) with another, less friendly version. Second, the skin is tough and not particularly pleasant to eat, although it can be removed.
Third, aloe vera contains a substance called latex, or "juice," a yellow liquid that sits 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 adverse effects.
Aloe vera’s reputation as a powerful laxative is largely due to its latex content. Not surprisingly, consuming too much latex can cause diarrhea, stomach pain, and vomiting, among other unpleasant side effects. It can also damage the kidneys and even induce premature labor in pregnant women. All of these are good reasons to avoid it! (1)
When people talk about using aloe vera for food, eating it, or drinking it, they usually only think about the gel inside the leaves. In fact, that's where all the healthy nutrients are. That's why we recommend sticking to that and avoiding the latex and skin.
Of course, if you want to avoid all the effort involved in removing the skin and latex, as well as crushing and extracting the juice from the inner leaves, we recommend using our Organic Aloe Vera Juice !