Secret to long life revealed – tree juice

A young girl buys the ingredients to tree juice from a street seller near Go Vap market - Photo: Nga Phan

Everyone in Vietnam has heard stories of old men or women who live into their hundreds without revealing their secrets. One old woman I know told me hers - tree juice.

I smiled inwardly as the skeptic in me didn’t believe her but when she informed me she was 103  I said, ‘Okay let me know your secret recipe so I can share with my family’.

She laughed as hearty a laugh that a really old lady can muster and explained that to make tree juice is the easiest thing in the world with the ingredients widely available and all natural.

Once she calmed down she explained that the reason so many Vietnamese women especially live long lives is down to the special juice which is full of natural healing substances.

She gave me an address in the city and told me to buy some ingredients from a street seller there named Thi.

The ingredients I use to make nuoc mat (which translates as cooling herbal water but is nicknamed tree juice) includes imperatae (which comes from the soil), corn silk, thuoc voi and pineapple leaves.

You clean all those healthy goods carefully then boil them in a large pot for about 30 minutes. The water will then exude a beautiful natural fragrance, free of any artificial additives.

You wait until the water cools down, pour into a couple of bottles and put them in the fridge to cool.

It is recommended you drink tree juice daily as you would water and your health will improve magically.

It seemed so easy and too good to be true but the reason I write this article is because drinking the juice on a daily basis has had an amazing effect on my health and I feel much more energized and happier since I got hooked on the stuff. And I want to share this new-found information with Daily readers thanks to my old friend.

The ingredients can be found on many city streets, so come on folks give tree juice a try.