Is sassafras hazardous to your health?

So sassafras brings thoughts of root beer and cajun cooking. Did you know, that the FDA considers sassafras to be a carcinogen? In this video, we take a look at the sassafras tree and discuss its use and history.
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[@judyrogers3576]

As a kid in the sixties, we drunk sassafras tea almost daily. I'm in my sixties now and it never hurt us.

[@MommaOG]

I use to go digging with my mom for the root and make tea. It is one of my fondest memories with my mom, she new alot about herbs 🥰

[@miffyleslie]

Myself being a Cajun, have eaten quite a bit of sassafras. It makes the Gumbo what it is!!

[@scotthargraves576]

I was thinking the same thing! File powder is ground sassafras leaves, right?

[@miffyleslie]

Scott Hargraves that is correct. My dad dries the leaves and grinds it to the powder for gumbo

[@kiki29073]

File is life.

[@snickersberet4792]

What the heck is file?.. I have tons of sassafras and my mom and dad made the the tea. I haven't made any in so long I don't remember how to do it but if the fda says b a d it's gotta be GOOD!

[@miffyleslie]

@@snickersberet4792 Filé is dried Sassafras leaves ground into a fine power. It gives our Cajun Gumbo a distinct flavor!

[@backwoodshomestead482]

Once again, the FDA is the specie that should be on the watch list. Beverage makers found they could make synthetic flavor cheaper, so they lobby (sic: throw money at them) the FDA, to make that statement. I'll probably get 'tagged' by the NSA for that statement...hehehe. My grandparents, Parents, and I all have had our share of sassaras tea... Good stuff. We have always dug the roots, pulverized them with a hammer, and then boiled them into tea. Add a touch of honey sometimes, depending on the season and age of saplings. I enjoy your content, keep it up!

[@brolistic87]

I grew up with sassafras aka Filé as we would call it in Texas/Louisiana. Its our thickening agent in Louisiana Creole cuisine. I have No issues here

[@peggypastime1278]

Aunt Rema and I would find and pull up tiny sassafras trees on her property when they were about 2-6” tall and make tea with the roots. They popped up everywhere on her 250 acres. It was sooo good! After the trees reached 12” or higher we couldn’t pull them out any longer. The roots had taken a good sturdy hold in the ground.

[@RedToolHouse]

That sounds like Rema!

[@billycunningham212]

@@RedToolHouse ?

[@barbarasunday3514]

My husband brought me home several good sized branches, because he knows I'm interested in wild herbology. So glad to hear I can ration it and be just fine. My daughter says leaf tea helps her RA.

[@dancingnature]

I’ve only tried it once . Tastes pretty good and the tree smells wonderful . I’d grow it just for the smells

[@amoore8761]

As a young kid in the '50's, eastern Oklahoma hills, I recall my dad harvesting sassafras for tea. Never thought much of it because it looked rather weak. Never caught on how he knew the tree by sight. But of course he grew up scraping the hills and woods for food in the depression.

[@readycool9600]

My grandfather gathered sassafras root every year along with many other plants and roots from the woods around his house. He would make us kids sassafras tea when we would go stay for the weekend. I found a sassafras tree growing along the fence line of my property recently and can’t wait to harvest some root this winter. It causes cancer in rats but that’s okay because I’m not gonna give any to my rats! 🤪

[@melthomas6519]

Ready Cool I buy whatever the fda tells us not to

[@blueskies6475]

@@melthomas6519 same here! Whatever they say, I do the opposite!! Now, I don't have to research anything!!

[@bkjustice9390]

Interesting. My Pappaw used to make tea with it.

[@pmessinger]

Me too 'an I ain't dead yet!

[@stevefreedom2469]

sassafras make an awesome soda which I haven't seen or had since possibly the 80's. They found out that there are great medical value to sassafras. The drug corporations wanted it off of the market. Look how expensive it has become online. We had some of these trees on our property growing up. I use to chew on the back and my mom made soda. Stuff rocks from the roots on up.

[@shnarklevonbarkle110]

Yes, it's incredible how expensive it has become. I just purchased four bare root trees for $25.00 I don't think any of them are more than eight to ten inches long. It will be a while before I can harvest enough to make any tea.

[@blueskies6475]

Best video and comments on sassafras!!

[@claudiaparker9043]

Thank you for your honesty! Blessings

[@RD-wy5dj]

Sassafras tea is used by many people I know and it's used for detoxing the body and it works.

[@kenjett2434]

I grew up on sassafras tea still to this day just love its unique flavor. So over the years i have certainly dug my share of the root. But sassafras had a very big use not mentioned here Troy. That is in the kitchen stove for cooking. Sassafras is a very fast and hot burning wood that was cherrished as a fuel in wood cook stoves. It dried very quickly was very easy to start fire and burned incredibly hot. We also used it in coal stoves as a starter to get coal burning just nothing better.

[@RedToolHouse]

I did not know that. Good info!

[@heavymetalworks6375]

The green new growth on sassafras trees smells like lemons when you brake it off.

[@keantho1111]

The only reason it's on the FDA list is because people use it to make MDMA

[@figspigsandfeathers8179]

We have a mulberry tree that has similar one two and three lobed leaves like the sassafras trees. There are many sassafras trees on our place here in the Ozarks. Most are just saplings up to a 3 inch diameter, but we have several that reach well over 30 feet tall. We have made tea with it and find it to be quite tasty.

[@johnslugger]

Mulberry leaves have saw-tooth edges and sassafras leaves are very smooth. That's how you can tell. Also if you crush a sassafras leaf in your hand it smells fruity while mulberry smells 'grassy'.

[@blueskies6475]

@@johnslugger I'm Soo disappointed to know I have mulberry trees, not sassafras!!

[@Windyhillfarm71]

Thank you for doing a video on sassafras

[@outdoorattack8241]

Thanks for the video, very informative and interesting. I think stuff like this is very interesting for some reason haha. Thanks for passing the info on to the younger generations:)

[@edblough4134]

Ate a lot of sassafras and birch bark as a kid. It was our candy!

[@katherinebourne3813]

I love birch beer way more than root beer

[@bootmender]

So here in Arkansas we dig up the roots of a young tree, boil it add sugar or honey just for a beverage. My Grandmother would boil ginseng and sassafras together for a tea.

[@donnyrankin8330]

I live in a forest with thousands of old tall Sass in them. Even use dead Sass for mixing in with my firewood. My dad made tea from Sass back in the day in early mid 70's.

[@gpvaneron1584]

I've been enjoying sassafras root tea for years especially in early spring March/April . Read about the safrole warning a number of times (based on one mice-only study). Before the late 70s this was a fairly common additive in certain beverages. The warning was specifically that it could be a liver carcinogen. Therefor after 1979 we should have seen an improvement in liver cancer statistics, right? Liver cancer is one that has seen absolutely no improvement (unfortunately a steady rise in both # of cases per 100000 and death rate) in statistics since safrole was banned from the food system.

[@VndNvwYvvSvv]

They BS. We are not rats, and the LD50 is on the order of wintergreen which replaced it. The real reason is that they don't want people to know it's a precursor to a certain drug. As unique of a flavor as it is, I wouldn't be surprised if it could cure some diseases.

[@LittleCabin]

Just stumbled back across this video after discovering a big patch of sassafras saplings the last time we visited our property. I think the biggest tree we've found so far is similar in size to the one you have there in the video. We've had lots of fun learning to identify and even taste some of the trees we have including (of course) sassafras, sourwood, and sweet birch.

[@pjmtts]

I bought my property for many reason but for sure one was the sassafras patch. Nothing like chewing a sassy root in the summer

[@carpenterfamily6198]

3:29 Identifying leaves. There is a lot of it growing here in northeastern PA ( 2019 )

[@robertmalis4493]

Good information Troy have a blessed day

[@chrisblevins755]

I called the alien hand a dino print lol

[@daveholmes123]

Hi Troy, very interesting really appreciate your knowledge,thanks for sharing.

[@phillipadkins7403]

Mulberry also has 3 different shaped leaves.

[@nathanielanderson4898]

Too much of anything is hazardous to your health. As apposed to not enough education. What is really hazardous is an unhealthy relationship with money and wealth, which leads to the mind consuming effects of greed .

[@Erewhon2024]

The leaves (gumbo file) lack saffrole, but don't have the root beer flavor of the root bark. They are more lemony/herbal.

[@theycallmebacon5692]

Watched nelson tree service cut a big one down today while they was clearing powerline rightof way

[@rowman12]

It’s listed in my 1st edition PDR natural herbs which was translated from German. I can scan that page with references for you if you’d like.

[@LittleImpaler]

So, the root beer we drink isn't real.

[@blueskies6475]

I think it is!! Keep drinking your root beer!!

[@nathanielanderson4898]

The FDA just dosen't want people to be making their own teas and medicines. There is nothing wrong with using a little Sassafras.

[@phillipadkins7403]

It was used by mountain women to help start their period. They didn’t realize it was a abortifacient.

[@Peter-od7op]

Ty

[@meraphoenix989]

Safrole- free sassafras tea is available. But does that take away from the benefit of the herb?

[@BDiaz1000]

In Louisiana we call it gumbo file. It’s delicious

[@51MontyPython]

I believe it's used in jambalaya, too.

[@danteramsey771]

So has anyone been drinking sassafras for years and hasn't developed cancer?

[@shadowninjarider374]

Me im 42 and just got a clean bill.of health after being checked for cancer

[@thomasfields2082]

Recently the FDA listed the FDA as bad for you.

[@tammymccoy2520]

And you should believe them. 😂

[@computarman]

If TPTB says a natural plant is bad, that means that I'm going to start drinking real sassafras tea again.

[@wlsweat1]

I have so many tiny sassafras trees in my back yard I'm thinking of digging them up and transplanting them for privacy. My mama used to use the root to chew on or clean her teeth way back many years ago. Would they take full sun?

[@RedToolHouse]

You could try. They may make it but they would thrive in the partial sum

[@Erewhon2024]

They often don't transplant well.

[@pokeitwithastick7869]

1:04 A Keebler elf comes out with a tray of cookies, " Hello,we wont be buying any cookies thanks;would you care to purchase some? they are freshly made"

[@jamesmerkley6751]

Our front door is sassafras, very beautiful grain, we use it for smoking meat also, mild sweet smoke.

[@kiki29073]

I'm in South Carolina and it's all over my yard.

[@melthomas6519]

Never had syphilis or gonnorrhea so can’t tell you 😂😂😂😂

[@bljgaming86]

All I know is gonorrhea burns like hell when you piss

[@ronwitek4539]

They can actually get like 8 ft around I know where one that large is

[@robicarm]

It's much too late for me because we had this growing up. 😅 But on not afraid because the FDA allows big pharma to market far more addictive dangerous expensive Rx drugs that may cause cancer, types lymphomas, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, suicidal tendencies, HB/LB pressure, ect.

[@fredflintstone6163]

Ohio valley sassafras is often much bigger and older forty feet trees but any thing in limited use can be good not govt regulations based on corruption

[@shnarklevonbarkle110]

Oxygen in very low amounts causes cancer. As strange as this may sound, it's true. Cancer thrives in anaerobic environments, and will die in highly oxygenated ones.

[@51MontyPython]

Technically, it's not that oxygen itself ("in low amounts") causes cancer, but too _little_ of it, so, not the same thing.

[@shnarklevonbarkle110]

@@51MontyPython Yes. You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. The first sentence doesn't make any sense. An anaerobic environment is one without oxygen, not one with low oxygen.

[@mandarin408]

I don't trust FDA

[@EnchantedSmellyWolf]

Sad to know the potential in carcinogen within sassafras. Especially a silly adorable name.

[@tbjtbj4786]

Fda no sassafras but have a kool.

[@effectentertainment7882]

Dont eat sassafras it'll give you Cancer. Now come eat this G.M.O food we approve of from the farms we own. 😂😂😂.

[@davidwesley2525]

G.M.O. Corn & Wheat has been Sprayed with Roundup weed killer & Roundup has been Known to Cause Cancer . 😱💀😱💀😱💀😱💀😱💀😱💀😱

[@jodysams3592]

Of course it lies

[@anomicanomic2705]

Don’t burn it inside it reeks my clothes smelled for months

[@marioneagleson7494]

I'm 72 be sassafras. We. Made. Tea. And. Candy Land cookies. It. Will. Thin. Blood had. A. Brother. Died. Of. Cancer. So. Who. Knows

[@melthomas6519]

Marion Eagleson your brother didn’t die from sassafras! He didn’t get cancer from it either! Most people have no idea what sassafras is and millions of people die from cancer. The fda banned it because they know it heals, which will cut into their pharmaceutical funds. They are the ones giving us cancer and keeping us sick. So the fda is putting crap in things to cause cancer , yet banning something the true and living God put down here for us. I’m going online and order some sassafras from mountain rose herbs. Anyone who listens to fda has issues

[@lisawallace921]

@@melthomas6519 I just purchase a bottle from Kroger store, Atlanta GA.

[@larrypahl5756]

over halfway thru, not much data. bye

[@freehat2722]

Black birch smells like root beer. Sassafras doesn't smell anything like root beer. Although it is very fragrant.

[@jodysams7040]

Bullshit sassafras is good for you

[@davidwesley2525]

F.D.A. May be Hazzardous to Your Health . 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅