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.

Pasta Primavera for Spring

Pasta Primavera

In Italian, pasta primavera literally translates as“spring pasta”. 

Add other spring vegetables or try spaghetti squash as a tasty & super healthy substitute to pasta

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!