It's crazy when you think about all the different kinds of foods we eat.

We just swallow and hope it all works out for the best.

Well, as it turns out, there are better ways to think about keeping our bodies humming healthfully along.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

If you look inside your mouth and you find lacy white patches, sometimes with redness

or sores, on the inside of the cheeks, tongue, or gums, you may have the inflammatory

condition oral lichen plenus.

Here is one way to treat it.

There's an inflammatory autoimmune condition known as oral lichen plaintiffs,

in which our immune system starts attacking the lining of our mouth.

It's actually not that rare.

It strikes up to 5% of the population, particularly women,

and about 1% of cases can turn into cancer.

There's no cure. There's just symptomatic treatments,

steroids, immunosuppressants, and total glucocides of peony? Like peony, peony,

peony? Yes, medicinal properties in the root of the common garden peony. That's neat.

But are there any edible plants that may help?

There's a plant called Perslane, one of the most common weeds in the world.

You can see it growing out of the cracks in the sidewalk everywhere you look once you start looking.

Its healing properties were thought to be so reliable that Roman savant Pliny the Elder advised wearing the plant as an amulet to expel all evil.

I don't know about that. What about just eating it?

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