Make Your Cough Syrup Work for You: How to Use Herbs & Spices to Treat Your Symptoms

Have you ever looked closely at the ingredients listed on a cough syrup label? It's poly-this & prop-that along with dyes, high fructose corn syrup, & a ton of modified sugars. Used in soap making & other commercial uses, I noticed that even glycerin is even listed under inactive ingredients in Robitussin DM (although there are objectors, its generally regarded as safe for internal use by the FDA- is even used as a sweetener-  but as a humecant I'm not sure it makes sense to have it in a product that is used to dry up mucus). Regardless, fillers destroy our natural occurring enzymes & good bacteria in our digestive tract- where 80% of our immune system is located! Not something I'd like to damage, especially if you're trying to heal from an illness.

But what do you do when you have a bad cough & need relief fast? First, try to avoid products with lots or sugar, as we all know that sugar increases mucus production & will actually make your cough worse- very counter productive! Secondly, sugar should be avoided during an infection because you are essentially feeding the bacteria & encouraging them to reproduce- instead, eliminate the factors that encourage their growth & your body will heal more quickly as you make the environment more inhospitable to foreign bodies.

My New Article on MindBodyGreen about Food Energetics

I'm so excited to write about the posting of an article that I wrote for a site called MindBodyGreen. If you haven't heard of this site then you really need to check it out. The articles posted on this fabulous site are interesting & informative so last week I decided to submit one for the first time. I had been thinking about it for a while, but there were so many ideas floating around in my head, I had trouble narrowing it down.

When I wrote my last article about yin & yang in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) & how essential this concept is to food energetics, I realized I needed to discuss more fully what role food energetics play in TCM & how whole foods are can be used as medicine to help heal your body or maintain vitality.The article is entitled "Food Energetics: Traditional Chinese Medicines Best Kept Secret" & really discusses energetics in general & how it pertains to our bodies.

Let me know what you think & anything you'd like to know more about food energetics or TCM as I try to figure out what next to write about! If you enjoyed the article or found it interesting, please pass it along via stumble, twitter, facebook, & email. Thanks!

The Importance of Yin & Yang in Traditional Chinese Medicine

The article I originally intended to write when I sat down at my computer was going to be entitled "The important role of the seasons in Traditional Chinese Medicine". But I soon realized that I had yet to fully address the cornerstone of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) & before one could discuss the important role of the seasons in food energetics, one must first have an adequate understanding of yin & yang. So it looks like the 'seasons' will have to wait to be my next article.

Most concepts of TCM are new to Westerners, but many have at least heard the words 'yin & yang' and have seen the tai chi symbol that represents this foundational concept of Chinese medicine.The tai chi symbol (pronounced like the words "tie chee") represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how the universe operates. The outer circle represents 'everything', while the dark & white shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called 'yin' (dark) & 'yang' (white). These two energies cannot exist without the other & cause everything to happen in the universe.

The tai chi symbol represents yin & yang, but more importantly our universe. The white shape must be on top & the black shape must be on bottom for the symbol to be correct; a symbol with the colors inverted is an incorrect representation. 

The concept of yin & yang is still used today & in many forms. Modern day physics uses this concept in much of the same way the Chinese did thousands of years ago when the idea was first invented. Physicists describe energy that is stored or inactive as potential energy, while this passive energy would be considered yin in TCM; energy that is being released is described by scientists as kinetic energy or would be considered yang in TCM. As you can see, there are many similarities in the way Easterners & Westerners describe the interactions in our world.

Favorite Books: Vegetarian Meals for People on the Go

For those that want to learn more about incorporating vegetables & whole grains into your diet,  I have a wonderful book that serves as an excellent introduction to vegetarianism. I highly recommend this book, not just for those who are vegetarians, but for people who want to learn how to cook new dishes & become inspired to create their own new recipes. Vegetarian Meals for People-on-the-Go, 101 Quick & Easy Recipes by Vimala Rodgers is probably one of my most reached for cookbooks. In fact I use this book as a reference as well. Not only does Ms. Rodgers give step by step instructions, tips, & nutritional information, but she demonstrates how to change up the recipes according to your own tastes. Most of the book serves like guidelines, allowing the reader to interchange ingredients & really teaching the tools to personalize the recipes as well as learning how to create your own. 

Homemade Nuts & Honey Crunchy Granola Bars

Here's my new recipe for crunchy granola. I absolutely love Nature's Valley Oats & Honey Granola & Pecan Granola Bars but they're definitely not cheap enough to eat as quickly as I do! I love crumbling them and sprinkling it on yogurt- my recipe allows you to cut them into whatever shape you desire or use to top yogurt, oatmeal, or when baking. In fact crumbling the granola on top of my second recipe Lemon Ginger Banana Bread before popping the pan into the oven to bake will create a healthy crumble on top without all the sugar in a traditional crumble. I will post the recipe for Lemon Ginger Banana Bread subsequent article- just click the link! 

The Tomato- Food of the Month

  Food is the foundation of medicine; food has been used as medicine for thousands of years to prevent & heal the body from sickness. Eastern medicine is not alone in using healing foods; one of Western medicine’s greatest antibiotics, penicillin, was discovered in mold growing on an orange! 

  Traditional Chinese Medicine (or TCM), uses many approaches to healing the body such as acupuncture, herbs, & food energetics. All three of these approaches treat the whole person, not just his symptoms or a part of the body. If you are being treated with acupuncture or herbs, food energetics will help to supplement those treatments. By eating foods that help to balance your constitution, not only will it help you stay healthy, but it will also help the benefits of acupuncture & herbal treatments last longer. 

   The energetics of the tomato are very cooling in nature. Cooling foods tend to move energy inward & downward, cooling the upper & outer parts of the body. For this reason, tomatoes are an excellent aid in digestion & increasing circulation, especially in the limbs. 

  Tomatoes have a sweet & sour flavor. The sour flavor helps with absorption of fluids within the body, therefore tomatoes help relieve dryness & thirst. The sour flavor of tomatoes also helps to counteract the effects of fatty foods that tend to cause stagnation. The sweet flavor balances all other flavors in our diets while nourishing us & stimulating circulation.The sweetness of tomatoes are cleansing & cooling to the body which helps to relieve heat.  

The sweet flavor is also what gives the tomato its ability to moisten dryness. These are just a few energetic properties of the tomato!

Because of these energetic properties, tomatoes are great for helping high blood pressure, red eyes, headaches, indigestion, low appetite, food retention, constipation, cleansing the liver & blood, & detoxifying the body in general.