Tag: probiotics

Fight Back Naturally

Chef KimLeave a Comment on Fight Back Naturally

You can’t escape hearing about the Flu or Coronavirus right now. (My daughter lives in Beijing, China, so this is information I’ve sent to her as well.) But knowing that pathogens are always lurking and understanding what you can do to prevent infection is important to know. There are very effective means of fighting back naturally and building up your immune response. Obviously the following should be practiced:

  •  Frequently washing hands and nails with warm water and soap is important as is refraining from touching your face and eyes.
  • It’s okay to NOT shake hands, instead, show your jazz hands for a fun way to welcome someone.
  • Stay home if you don’t feel well and encourage others to do the same. Do not send achy and feverish kids to school.
  • Drinking a lot of water is beneficial in keeping you hydrated and flushing of toxins. Warm/hot water is especially helpful in reducing viruses in the throat area, so try warming teas, or hot lemon water.

Doesn’t it make sense to boost our immune systems rather than relying on vaccines or treatments after we catch something. Did you know food significantly impacts the immune system’s response against pathogens?  For starters, sugar and refined grains can actually depress the immune system for 4-6 hours (that’s with just 1 T sugar). So, eliminating foods made with refined flours and sugar can allow for better immune response. Also, dairy products are often mucus forming, which becomes a favorable environment for pathogen growth. Eew!  You don’t want to make it comfy for them.

Thankfully, some foods have specific immune modulating effects and increasing their consumption during the times when your immune systems are bombarded can reduce your susceptibility and improve our risks of getting sick.

Some of these foods include, garlic, onion, ginger, and medicinal mushrooms. Incorporating them into meals is ideal. See a Chimichurri bowl here.  But also focusing on foods high in vitamin C, zinc, selenium, antioxidants and probiotics are key to supporting the immune system. See this immune boosting tea.

Try to incorporate foods that contain specific Immune boosting nutrients:

  • Vitamin C is important for immune, antioxidant, cellular function. Food sources: peppers, broccoli, berries, mangoes, rose hips, cranberries, cherries, citrus
  • Zinc enhances the immune system and may reduce the intensity of cold symptoms as well as the duration of colds. Plant Food sources: lentils, peas, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, raw cacao
  •  Selenium is important for many functions in body including the formation of the master antioxidant, glutathione, and proper thyroid hormone conversion, and immune system function. Plant food sources: Brazil nuts, mushrooms, mustard seed, chia, oats, goji berries, sesame seeds, lentils, carob
  •  Phytonutrients are so important for boosting immune system and the darker the color the higher the nutrient density available. “Eat the Rainbow”   Food sources: sweet potato, red and yellow peppers, dark leafy greens, red cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, beets, squash, berries
  • Probiotics found in gut influence the immune system, so making sure you have a good population is important. Acidophilus and bifido-bacterium make a big difference in immune response and recovery time – Food sources:  kefir, active cultures yogurt, miso, tempeh, raw krauts and pickles, cultured vegetables and fruits.

There are also specific foods that have direct immune boosting and anti-pathogenic properties:

Shiitake mushrooms possess benefits ranging from anti-cancer to immunity-boosting and stress relief.  Also in China and Japan, they are a long standing remedy for colds and flu.  Shiitake mushrooms add a delicious meaty flavor to soups and dishes.

Garlic is a strong antimicrobial food and boosts the immune system. Garlic has a full spectrum effect as antibiotic, anti-virusal, anti-fungal and anti-parasitic. It’s important for colds AND flu.  Garlic is most potent if chopped or crushed and allowed to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before eating. This significantly increases the amount of allicin it produces. Allicin is the component responsible for its powerful affects. Try it in hummus, pesto, garlic paste on toast or Juice it and add it to other juices, or make this Immune Vinegar.

Onions are natural sources of quercetin, a bioflavonoid that has shown to suppress the rhinoviruses which are the underlying cause of the common cold. Add to vegetable sautes, salads, soups and roasted vegetables or heat on med low heat to caramelize and use as a topping for almost anything…so good.

  •  Onion honey cough syrup – Cut onion into slices, place in a jar, cover with raw honey and allow to sit overnight (8 hours), strain off onions and seal, jar keeping in fridge for a month.  Onion and honey are active against microbes and pathogens commonly found in the throat or pharynx and often associated with sore throats or infections that cause cough.

Ginger is a spicy root that can promote digestion, quell nausea, lessen headaches, reduce pain, fight intestinal infections, and is particularly famous for treating cold and flu. Ginger can be stewed in boiling water to make ginger tea. Use 2 tablespoons ginger powder in bath to induce sweating and break a fever, while sipping ginger/mint tea.

Certain supplements may also help, look at adding a vitamin D3 and zinc for fighting infections and improving immune response. But remember whole foods provide many more nutritional cofactors and phytonutrients that help nutrients work optimally and improve the body’s assimilation of those nutrients.  To ensure you get plenty of immune-boosting nutrients, eat  fruits and vegetables, fresh or frozen. Eat vegetables raw or lightly steam them for best nutritional density.  Avoid frying anything as this introduces harmful free radicals that increase your toxins and inflammation.

Herbs and spices are also helpful agents against the cold and flu. Try different herbal teas, but the following have historically been used in these circumstances:

  • Fever:  Ginger, mint or catnip teas
  • Cough/sore throat:  Throat coat tea*, single or blend of Chamomile/slippery elm/licorice/marshmallow root, lemon and honey tea, or thyme tea
  • Flu: Echinacea/golden seal, green, garlic, or ginger tea

 Green Tea is known to help prevent flu and the common cold. Catechins, the same compounds that are responsible for green tea’s weight loss promoting properties, have been shown to inhibit the activity of the common cold adenovirus as well as certain influenza viruses. To maximize the release of catechins, add a bit of lemon juice or other vitamin C rich juice to your tea

Golden milk has some powerful herbs and spices that are great immune modulators: turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper in warm plant milk. See recipe HERE

Rose Hips are high in vitamin C, and great if used in teas, smoothies, cooked into pies and cobblers. Reconstitute dried hips with warm water.

Essential oils are another natural source for fighting pathogens. Many oils have pathogenic properties. Here are a few to consider: Eucalyptus oil, Thyme, Rosemary, and Wild Oregano.

You can help your body fight effectively against whatever-is-going-around by using foods, herbs and spices and essential oil that naturally have anti-pathogenic and immune boosting properties. I hope this information helps with your strategy to stay healthy this time of year.

You Are What You Eat…Not!

Chef KimLeave a Comment on You Are What You Eat…Not!

I have been all about the food I put in my own mouth and recommend to others, because I’ve always believed getting the food part “right” would make a huge difference in reaching health goals. Yes, the emotional and spiritual aspects are definitely involved in health and healing, but the physical is also more than exercise and the right food – it actually relies on how my body and yours absorbs the food we choose to eat.  Let me say that another way…You are what you absorb.

So, let me mention a couple things that will help ensure better breakdown and absorption. If the food isn’t broken down properly, it will not get properly absorbed. First, the food starts in the mouth, where saliva is critical to begin the breakdown of carbs and fats. And chewing starts the process. Did you know that chewing for at least 35 times can increase nutrient absorption and even help with weight loss? Count how many times you typically chew a bite of food and then take another bite and count to 35 before you swallow. And swish drinks and smoothies around your mouth to blend it with saliva before swallowing.  Try to make this a habit. The second thing that can help improve absorption is making sure you have a good supply of stomach acid. How do you do that? Well, one way to tell if you need to support your stomach acid is if you have reflux, bloating, burping, or bad breath. One way to support your stomach acid is to take about a tablespoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in a cup of water before you eat. Doing this will help the natural production of stomach acid. The hydrochloric acid and pepsin produced in the stomach is paramount to the breakdown of proteins. Proteins break down into amino acids and they form the building blocks of every tissue and enzyme needed for the functioning of the body. Sometimes, enzyme supplements and raw foods are also recommended to increase the enzyme activity in the stomach to ensure proper digestion. (When food does not digest properly and completely break down into absorbable compounds, nutritional deficiencies and disorders occur.) And finally, supporting the micro-biome or “good bacteria” in the intestines is essential to absorbing nutrients and getting the most out of the food we eat. You can support this area of the body by incorporating cultured and fermented foods into the diet, which would include raw cultured vegetables, fruits and krauts, kimchi, miso, kefir, rejuvelac, kombucha, cultured nut cheeses, and the like. You can also take a probiotic supplement to build up the good bacteria colonies.  Here’s an interesting and eerie fact: there are tens of thousands more bacteria residing in our bodies than the number of cells that make up our body and there is more bacterial DNA than human DNA in US. But these bacteria are vital to our survival because of the influence they have on our nutrient absorption, immune activity and brain function.  So, chewing, drinking a little lemon juice or ACV before meals and incorporating foods high in probiotics can make a significant impact on our body’s ability to absorb the nutrients from the food we eat. And if you are eating real whole foods, another name for food without a box or label, then you will get a bigger bang for your buck if you digest those foods more completely. (And if you’re eating food from boxes and packages, you wont get anything more, because they are primarily devoid of nutrients in the first place) So, choose foods that are nutrient dense and make sure you are doing everything you can to improve your digestion so that you absorb as much as possible. Remember, the body counts nutrients, not calories.

I know there may be other things that need to be addressed to heal the digestive tract for some people, but for many people these three steps can be a great starting point to bring about greater health. Contact me if I can support you in reaching your health goals.