Archive for Personal Health
Spring Greens
Posted by: | CommentsThis is that wonderful time when the new Spring greens are coming up! These greens are the ones that help clean the Winter funk out of us, even when used in tiny amounts. Dandelions are the mainstay of these greens so far, and they are noted for gently tuning up and toning up the kidneys, liver, and intestines as well as giving us a wonderful helping of the bitter that prompts our gall bladder to release bile into the digestive tract. This is the reason so many Europeans have bitters or a bitter green in a salad before a meal! It gets all those juices flowing so digestion is enhanced. You don’t need much for this…just a leaf or two. This was the Spring tonic used for centuries as tea, salad, greens, and simply picked and eaten. Try it! I think your body will like it!
Add this to your Spring salad
Maybe you didn’t know that I am also the Urban Forager (urbanforager.co) here in Denver. So this is also the season when I start taking people on Wild Edible walks around urban neighborhoods. I have included a link to the first walk of the season, and there are limited spaces available so I suggest you sign up early to reserve your space. You can also book your own Wild Edible walk with me! See you soon for Spring Greens!
http://tentiko.com/collections/frontpage/products/finding-food-in-the-city
What Grandmother Knew About Colds & Flu
Posted by: | CommentsWe are experiencing one of the most serious widespread flu and cold seasons we have had in a long time. Colds have been holding on for weeks and the flu is totally debilitating. I have had that awful cold; family and friends are suffering with really profound flu symptoms. So I’ve been having many ask me what I do for each. Remembering what my Mother did puts me in touch with my Grandmother as well. Seems like these ways of handling colds and flu might be helpful to others, so here goes.
Colds and flu are different. So the very first thing is to take one of the homeopathic flu remedies since homeopathic remedies have been proven to lessen or stop flu when nothing else does. The remedy that is the most common is Oscillococinum (ah-sill-oh-co-sin-um). Don’t wait until you decide if it is the flu or a cold or it will be too late. Just take it! If it is a cold, the effects will also be lessened by taking a homeopathic medicine.
Remember the old expression “Feed a cold; starve a fever”? This is not really the whole expression as I understand it. It was “If you feed a cold, you’ll have to starve a fever.” So change your eating habits as soon as the first symptoms appear. For a cold, eat lightly of very healthy foods more often. Focus on broths with rice and a few veggies like winter squash and greens; pure juices with no added sugar (or worse yet artificial sweeteners); honey; herbal teas or green tea with ginseng and honey; and half your body weight in ounces of water to help flush out the germs. If there is a mucus build up, eliminate all dairy and wheat as these will increase the mucus secretions. [Yeah, I know it’s hard, just try it anyway. You can do anything for a week, right?]
The other supporters for your healing process are good for both colds and flu. I use zinc lozenges with vitamin C and/or echinacea and elderberry; fresh citrus fruits; traditional healing teas for the symptoms present; homeopathics that also address your symptoms; and a Neti pot with the special sea salt that doesn’t hurt your nose and sinuses. If you don’t use a Neti pot, use a saline spray; I particularly like the one with Xylitol. Rest, rest, rest even if you have to just let everything go, and use a hot or cold vaporizer next to your bed! Other good additions to this regime are garlic capsules 4x/day (600 mg per dose), high B 100 mg sustained release, and emergen-C.
For the flu, you have to be even more aware that you must take care of yourself!!! If the Oscillococinum didn’t nip it in the bud, get the homeopathic from Boiron (the blue tube) called influenzinum. It’s for the effects of flu or flu like symptoms, and it really works! Now is the time to fast. That means get containers of organic broths or have someone make good hardy broth (recipe in next blog), and don’t give your body anything it has to digest until you are good and truly hungry with stomach rumblings! Honey, herb teas, broths, barley water, and water!A liquid fast is a better way to put it. Consume as much as you want, as often as you want to. You won’t be hungry until your body is ready for actual food. Then have a really ripe banana, add rice and greens to the soup, have a boiled egg, eat live cultured products (yogurt, kefir, kombucha that say active, live culture on it) and stay away from processed foods, refined foods, and especially refined sugar! Want sweets? Have honey and pure maple syrup, pure fruit juices and coconut water. Refined sugar is known to suppress your immune system by up to 90% for 4 hours after you eat it. That lets the germs regain their foothold and can lead to a relapse.
Last, but not least, STAY HOME! No one else wants it, you will just prolong the agony, and it will be much more dangerous and costly for you to go out. Sleep all day except when you are drinking, peeing, or clearing out your head. Stay warm! And get someone to support you in this process. Yes, you do need help!
** One last thing – the differences between Western medicines and herbs, and homeopathic medicines is this (in terms of taking them): take the homeopathic medicine every 30 minutes until the symptoms diminish or are gone; then take them a couple of times a day or as soon as a symptom returns. With Western Medicines, follow what the prescription or pharmacist says. If this includes antibiotics, take lots of probiotics! **
Send me your other remedies and suggestions so we can post them here also. Thanks and be well!
You Can Afford Clean, Healthy Food
Posted by: | CommentsThere has been a lot said about organic foods being too expensive and good, clean foods from local farmers at the farmers market costing too much. Well, it’s not really true for many reasons including our health costs, our subsidized AgBiz, our waste of 40% of all we grow in this country, and the hidden costs to us and our planet from all the chemicals used, transportation costs, etc. Now I may be talking to the choir here so I want to focus on how to do it instead of a discussion on any of the other side issues.
There was a time in my life when there were five children at home and one small income. My intent was to give my children the healthiest foods we could afford because we also had no healthcare. So I began by implementing a buying priority system for the family. Here was the question: What do we need to have to eat in order to be as healthy as possible? Where can I cut things out of the budget to save money? I’ll tackle the first question in this blog. Second question, next blog.
The order of the questions was vital to me, actually. How did I boil it down to the absolute necessities for strong bodies? We need vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes and some dairy (or the equivalent). The best of each of these is whole and does not have an ingredient label, or the list is very short and doesn’t contain items we can’t understand or pronounce. This changes the grocery list, the menus I used, and the amount of money that is spent at the store.
First get it on sale! I looked at all the grocery sales and only picked those things that fit into the whole plain foods category. Most grocery stores have sales on organic foods now, and list them. Organic has become so popular that they are found at the discount grocery stores as well. I went to three grocery stores almost every time I shopped – and still do!
Buy in season! This means we are buying the freshest food for less. Last week, organic strawberries were 2/$5.00. Depending on which store you went to the container was either one pound or 1/2 pound…for the same price. I got enough to make a batch of jam which will last me for the rest of the year after giving half of the batch to my granddaughter since she helped me make it.
Put food by. Organic asparagus for $1.99 a pound? Freeze a pound or two. I’ve gotten local, free-range minimally processed whole chickens for $1.99/lb. And how much do you pay for cut up AgBiz chicken??? I can cut it up for that savings! After any big national holiday there are always sales of the ‘main meat’ – ham, turkey, roast beef, corned beef – get it then and eat a meal then freeze the rest in portions. We also spent years as vegetarians because meat is a big ticket item. It is also not essential to a good diet, which makes it a luxury item.
Make your menu from what is in season and on sale, not the other way around. Since I worked full time, I made an enormous meal on Saturday and another on Sunday. The left-overs from these two meals made new meals all week long. When you cook rice, potatoes, and/or pasta make enough for at least one more meal. Don’t get any prepared side dishes, they are very easy to make yourself.
Have meals be a time when the whole family gets together and participates. Kids learn to cook, Mom gets help, everyone gets to talk about their day or whatever is on their mind, and a loving community around food is born. Go to Slow Food events as a family. The movement that started in Italy has gone international and is a great resource for local good eats and finding a larger family type community around food.
Remove packaged snacks from the shopping list. Have a container of cut up fruits and another of veggies ready to go. Make popcorn. Have dried fruits and nuts on hand. Let the older kids make their own snacks out of peanut butter, coconut, dried fruits, and nuts. Roll them into balls and put them in the freezer.
And the last bit for today – have specific things for the kids (and grown-ups) to eat! Portion control is key to maintaining a good food budget and a slim waist line. Never allow ‘free foraging’ in the pantry or ‘fridge! Let your family know you have this for snacks and that for a meal. If s/he eats the food for a meal, don’t go buy more, make do and let them connect money with food with being responsible!
More on saving money while eating well next time! Chao!
