Using food and herbal medicine, I feel good!!! I still have issues. Just think how worse it would be without the healthy options taken! Although “Better and Less” has been this blog mantra, sometimes I must defer to “more, more, more”!
I drink a daily nutritional/medicinal tea. Hubby gave me a tea kettle that boils water to properly extract all the goodness from herbs. This is more than tea. It is called an infusion because I cover it with a little plate and let it sit overnight. I gulp it at room temperature. It is… not awful tasting, but nothing to sip on. Let’s get this done!! Daily!
Sometimes I fall off of this practice for a few days or weeks, but, I DO always get back to it. My regular ingredients that I grow and dry are rosemary because it is uplifting, nettles for nutrition, rose petals or hips for vitamins, mullein if I feel like my lungs or intestines need support, sometimes raspberry leaf for all issues female, yellow dock root (purchased) for gut related skin conditions, a couple of clove (also purchased) to make it all taste ok, hmmm I’d have to go look in my cupboard where I keep regularly used herbs apart from my other cupboard, which is my apothecary.
This infusion is only one of many ways I partake herbs and food as medicine. There are many one-offs when somethings ails me that calls for a specific antidote. Such as a tonic for colds and sore throats; a hot broth with lots of turmeric, sage, thyme and garlic. A temporary condition may call for research to determine which food and herbal medicine will help.
Another practice I enjoy is the topical use of gentle carriers like olive oil combined with herbs such as lavender. Maybe it is simply aromatherapy that helps. Maybe it is a topical application for skin condition relief or other ailments. As my tinnitus roars in my ears, I will jump up and go get some oil right now. Try and calm the high pitch and pressure that never, ever ceases. Persistent little f’ing condition.
Food and Herbal Medicine
Food choices include lunch smoothies with plant protein, mushroom, greens and herbal powders. Lately ashwaganda powder has been a go to addition. Fermented foods and foods with live cultures, yes please. To feel my best, several times a week I make a salad. Fresh greens include “weeds” like dandelion and plantain leaves. Herbs and edible flowers from my garden are tasty and pretty. A simple dressing of olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon does the trick. All of this topped with freshly cracked salt and pepper makes a salad as delicious as it is nourishing. That fresh cracked salt is not unhealthy. It still has the important nutritious minerals that processed table salt no longer has.
Spices are generously poured into my cooking for medicinal benefit. Particularly ceylon cinnamon, turmeric, garlic, onion. What else? Thyme, oregano, sage, etc., purchased or dried from the garden. All of it. More, more, more. Feel “better and less” left in the drawers and racks that are overflowing. Use it up!
Another food ritual for me is mocktails. Definitely enjoying alcohol free evenings. OK, me love the unhealthy alcohol times too. I LOVE combining super simple homemade fermented juniper water with coconut seltzer water for happy hour. A handful of nuts before I go to sleep provides protein to balance sugar carbs. It helps because sweating through the glucose swings all night is not restful. I imagine my organs suffer under attack. These two healthy choices provide food and herbal medicine for me most nights now. What is your relationship with food and herbs? Is it mostly medicinal?
