Natural cold remedies

Coughs, cold and Flues are a pain at any time of the year.  I personally find that pharmaceutical remedies have very little effect on me.  So I've complied a list of natural alternatives that I find do help.  However, it is important to remember that illness must be recovered from - there is no quick solution.  You just can't wish it away; no matter how much you may try.  The best thing to do is allow it to past on through.


Coughs and sneezes.

If mucus comes out, get into a tissue and into a bin as quickly as possible.  This is the quickest way to help heal your body.  The longer infected mucus stays in lungs/sinuses the more severe the infection can get.

Honey and lemon tea. Or Honey, Lemon, and Ginger if you prefer.

This best when using freshly squeezed lemons and real honey, preferable from your local region.  The lemon is acid enough to kill the bacteria in throat (This is why lemon is traditionally served with fish), and provided a nice shot of vitamin C to boost the immune system.  Honey, more then just making this mixture palatable, has anti-bacterial properties and has been show to sooth inflammation.  Ginger soothes nausea, and has anti-viral qualities.  Perfect mixture for counter acting sore throats.

Salty water.

Gargling a mixture of salty water every 3-4 hours is a quick way to keep a sore through clean.  The taste is very unpleasant but it is effective.  The salt water serves to kill microbes while the gargling motion helps remove mucus that may be covering bacterial infestation.

Eucalyptus oil.

Eucalyptus is a handy decongestant if you can get hold of it.  Apply a small amount to the bottom of your nostrils or burn some in an oil burner.  This will simultaneously sooth sinuses and act as an expectorant.

Garlic.

Eating loads of garlic on a regular basis will boost immune function.  However this more of a preventative measure.  Eating it while sick will help you immune system cope but not enough to be noticeable.  It also had anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.

Echinacea.

Like Garlic, this another herb that helps boost immune function.  It has been shown to be particularly good for staving off colds an flues.  However, this is also a preventative measure.


 Astragalus


This little example of Chinese herbal lore is another good preventative measure.  Like Garlic it can boost the immune system and is often recommended for people with weaken immune systems.


Willow Bark capsules.

Willow Bark is a natural pain killer.  This is a good all-rounder, whether you are taking them for colds or for migraines.

Hot Steamy Showers.

Ordinarily, the Thought of filling the bathroom with steam horrifies me as complete disregard for the environment.  This concern aside, filling your lungs with steam in the shower is the perfect way to loosen up the mucus in the airways and sinuses - encouraging the infected mucus to literally leak out, taking the bacteria with it.

Fruits and vegetables.

Eating fruits and vegetables is important for general health.  It is even more important to eat healthy when ill, even though this is the last thing most of us want to do.  Fruits and vegies will provided lots of vitamin C for immune function and, by eating a variety, all the minerals/vitamin that support vitamin C absorption.

Fish and Shellfish

These are naturally higher in Zinc then most vegetables.  Zinc is important mineral to the absorption of vitamin C (but not the only important factor).

Sleep.

Sleep is so very underrated.  When I'm sick I can sleep up to 18 hours a day.  I wake up better for it.  Sleep is integral to healing of any sort.

Caffeine.

Caffeine, despite the fact that it is added to so many pharmaceutical drugs that supposedly help us fight colds, is something that should actually be avoided while you are ill.  It will over stimulate your body, leaving you worse for the wear.  Worse, the body will struggle to remove it from your system, taking away valuable energy from the immune system while it is trying to fight infection.

Junk Foods.

Again, these are something you want to avoid.  Heavily processed foods are harder for the body to break down, stealing energy from the immune system.  Quite often these foods also come with a range of preservatives and other nasty chemicals which serve to confuse the body even more.  Really Sugary foods have even been shown to feed bacterial infections.

Fresh Air

This is an important way to clear infections from you room/house.  People often forget that is a room is closed up it is just recirculating the same air.  This means it is also circulating any spores of infectious diseases that have been carried into the room.

Banana Coconut Muffins; Gluten, dairy, and egg free.

This is the first of my muffin series, continuing my banana obsession.  It's a sweet way to get fruit into your brekky.

Ingredients:

Gluten-free flour, 2 cups
Soy Milk, 2 cups.
Egg replacer, 2 teaspoons
Bicarbonate of soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons
Sugar, 1 cup
3 Ripe bananas
Desicated coconut, 1/2 cup

Directions:

Pre-heat the over to 180 degrees. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir the egg replacer, sugar, bicarb, and desicated coconut.  Mix the soy milk thouroughly, an electric mixer may need to be used as gluten-free flour has a tendendcy to form lumps.  Mash the bananas in a seperate bowl and then stir the mash into the muffin mixture.  Grease a muffin tray or two.  If you have muffin paper cups it is advisable to line the muffin tray with these as it makes it easier to remove the muffins from the tray.  Place the muffin mixture into the lined trays and pop into the oven.

The benefits of cereal

I went off cereal for a very long time.  This is partly because my dairy allergy was not fully picked up on until I was well into my 20's.  Having cereal with cow's milk when you're allergic to it is just a recipe for a bad tummy.  Needless to say, that for quite a while the thought of eating a bowl of cereal was enough to make me feel ill.  However, I have recently started eating it again and realised there were benefits. :)

1) It's cheap.  No-Brainer there.  A 500g box of Gluten-free cornflakes will last me 7-10 days.

2)  It's simple.  There's no possible way it can upset your stomach unless you are actually allergic to one of the ingredients.

3)  Cereals are mostly starchy carbohydrates rather then sugar.  This is an important point in that quite often nutritionist will tell you how sugary cereals can be.  Coco pops, for example, has 35g of sugar per 100g.  On the offset, this sounds like a lot.  What people don't realised that this sugar content is halved when milk is added; slowing down the overall absorption of the sugar and giving your body time to burn it off before converting it to fat.

4)  Most cereals are fortified.  Those of us with dairy allergies can really struggle to meet our daily calcium requirements.  Most cereals now contain 57% of the Recommended Daily intake of calcium.  Making it just that bit easier to get enough calcium.  Fortified cereals also contain Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, B2, Folic Acid, B12, and Iron.

Shaving the electricity bill

Those costs just keep rising.  It is getting harder then ever to prevent the money from leaving our pockets. I've complied a list of ways in which to save on your electricity bills.  Some require money, so require none.  Hopefully there will be a suggestion here everyone can use.  Of course, if anyone has suggestions to add, feel free to leave a comment.

1)  If it's not at use, the object goes off at the wall.  Most important tip there can be - as this automatically cuts down on consumption.

2)  Question whether you need to run the item or not. eg. tumble dryer - Clothes will dry just as well on a clothes line or an airier.  Vacuums - do you need to vacuum?  On hard floors sweeping is just as effective.  We have so many electrical appliances at our disposal, quite often we forget that there are other ways of getting things done.

3)  See what other companies are offering to sell kilowatt hours at.  Do your research, the quickest way to a lower bill is to switch to a cheaper Company.  A note of warning however, make sure you do your research on the companies reputation as well.  The last thing you need is to end up in a  contract with a cowboy company.

4) See what alternatives you can get hold off.  Solar power generators are quite easy to get a hold of and will run quite a lot of you electrical appliances if it is placed in sufficient sunlight.

*  If you own your own property it is well worth seeing what alternatives you can have installed on your land.   Solar power is good by wind turbines can be better.

5)  Make sure your property is well insulated and that windows are thickly glazed.  These will cut down on the cost of heating/air conditioning.

6)  Heating or cooling your property/room.  Have your heater set to the lowest temperature you can stand and rug up.  Conversely, set your air conditioning unit to 25 degrees and find other ways of keeping cool.

7) Moderate the temperature of your bathes/showers and use less water.  The less water used and the lower the temperature you desire the water to reach, the less electricity is used heating the water.

8) Upgrade any electrical appliances to newer appliance with good energy use ratings.  The older alliances and electrical are the less energy efficient that are likely to be.  Items made in the last decade have had to pass much stricter codes then their predecessors.  Again this an area in which you will want to do your research.  Just because it's new does not mean it is the better option.

9) Upgrade all your light bulb to more energy saving versions.

Garlic butter; dairy free

Garlic butter is very simple to make.  It is perfect for use in home made garlic bread or as a savoury spread for sandwiches.  It is a perfect condiment to melt over vegetables or salad.  the uses of garlic butter are only limited to your imagination.

Of course I shouldn't call it butter!

Ingredients:

450gs of margarine; room temperature
4 cloves of garlic; minced
2 teaspoons of chives; finely diced
50gs of margarine; cubed

Directions:

Melt the cubed margarine in a frying pan as a low heat.  Lightly fry the minced garlic.  It is important to to this over a low heat so that the garlic doesn't burn - If it burns is will be incredibly bitter.  After approximately 8 minutes of shallow frying place the pan to one side to cool.  Place the rest of the margarine in a mixing bowl and blend in the fried garlic, including the oil, and the chives.  when the herbs are blended through scrape the margarine mixture into a Tupperware container, cover and place into the fridge to set.