system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do we have to brew tea or others herbs instead of eating them raw? Why (probably) can't we get the same health benefits from dry herbs?
gpt
You can (and many people do) chew fresh herbs, either for their taste or their perceived health benefit.

But fresh herbs only stay fresh for a very short time after being picked. Within a couple of days they're usually starting to go limp, to lose some of their flavour, and generally to be less desirable.

So the answer to that is to dry the herbs and distribute them in their dried form. But then they're quite unpalatable: putting a handful of dried herbs into your mouth is not far different from shoving in a handful of sawdust!

However if you steep the dried herbs in hot water for a few minutes, you get a reasonable compromise: a product that can be easily distributed and stored for months, along with an experience for the consumer of something that tastes good and isn't unpleasant.