Food for health #5

Winter is coming: prepare your defenses in autumn to face white viruses.

It’s hard to get back in autumn. Vacations are gone and the small diseases come back again followed by stress and depression. The guilty party: coolness and its procession, runny nose, headaches, neck pains, sciatic, backache. In short, we’re more inclined to spend the weekend in bed than going out and chase mushrooms.

Never again. Here are some advices to keep you safe and sound from coldness and rain. You must prepare yourself in autumn for winter to prevent cultivating the first virus coming.

Rule 1. Never eat in the cold.

To be in shape, you have to eat without exhausting. Digestion requires a lot of energy. Unfortunately, coolness slows it down, getting it more tiring and less efficient.

Indeed, on the one hand it’s tiring because the process is longer, not all the food is going to be assimilated, and you’ll have to eliminate more wastes. On the other hand, it’s less efficient because you won’t succeed to draw all the good vitamines, trace elements, calcium and others wich you bought, cooked, and swallowed.

To be efficient, you need to eat in a warm place and avoid eating an ice-cream or a cold dessert from the fridge by the end of your meal. The best would be to end it with a hot drink. Also, it’s good to have a warm soup as an appetizer because it preheats digestion.

Moreover, because preventing coolness is not always easy, make sure to chew your food a lot to facilitate your digestion.

Rule 2. Strengthen your body.

Every morning of the cold months or until you feel in harmony with coolness, have an infusion containing:

• Green tea (Sencha for example)
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger root.

Then, according to your tastes, add:

• 1 teaspoon of rosemary or 1 teaspoon of thym or 1 teaspoon of origano or 3 cloves.

Let it infuse in a cup of very hot water for 10 minutes, filter, and drink.

Rule 3. Avoid muscular pains.

From the firsts tensions or aches, make massages with sesame oil.

Rule 4. Use those essential oils.

Beware of contraindications and administration. Essential oils are very active products and can be dangerous. Don’t hesitate to ask for advices from your doctor or the pharmacist.

• Against viruses (sinusitis, rhinitis, gastroenteritis), in prevention or in cure: put one drop of Niaouli on your skin in the interior face of each wrist. Mornings and nights, or just nights. It boosts immune defenses and control viruses. Do not take it if you’re pregnant and during breastfeeding, if you’re a child under 3, if you’re epileptic, if your asthmatic or if you have allergies to limonene and linalool.
• Against muscular pains (elongation, stiff neck, aches, sciatica, tendonitis, arthritis, rheumatism): use a drop of Eucalyptus lemon or of Pepper mint diluted in a teaspoon of sesame oil. Massage two to three times a day. Contraindications during the three firsts months of pregnancy.
• You can also use Pepper mint diluted in sesame oil for a massage against sciatica, tendonitis, rheumatism. Pepper mint can also be used pure, as a drop on a bruise. Finally, it’s also effective against headaches with a teaspoon of honey. Do not take it if you’re pregnant and during breastfeeding, if you’re a child under 7, if you’re epileptic, if your asthmatic or if you have allergies to one of the oil component.
• Against tiredness and insomnia, have a massage with sesame oil and a drop of Ylang-ylang. Otherwise, put some drops of it in your bath, or just one in a diffuser. Contraindications are the same as pepper mint.
• Against spider bites, after cleaning and drying the wound, put one drop of Lavender aspic. Renew it regularly.

You’re now ready for winter! You can dig deeper and find all these informations in several books (unfortunately in French…):

• Médecine tibéraine et alimentation. Dr Namgyal Qusar, Jean-Claude Sergent. Ed. Calmann-Lévy.
• Le charme discret de l’intestin .Giulia Enders. Ed. ACTE SUD.