In this article I want to explore perhaps the most important way of working with herbs. For many people when they think of herbal medicine they are thinking of a direct action that will have a specific effect on the body- relaxing, stimulating, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, immunostimulating, etc. But while these all have their place, one of the most important “actions” of herbs is to simply nourish us. When we take in plants and fungi that are nutritively dense, we help create a terrain in the body that makes it harder for disease arise. This is the basics of most dietary advice- eat nutrient dense food filled with vitamins, minerals, flavonoids and anti-oxidants that will help strengthen and nourish the body.