Ginger and Green Onions

Sometimes the best remedy for colds and flu can be found right in your refrigerator.  If you keep ginger and green onions on hand during the fall and winter seasons, you’ll be prepared to beat the bug!  This remedy consists of three ingredients: water, fresh ginger, and green onions.  (Helpful tip: you can store the ginger in the freezer and just take the amount you need each time.  It will store longer that way, and be easier to grate.)

Cold and flu remedy preparation: Boil 4 or 5 slices of ginger and 2 or 3 chopped green onions in about 2 cups of water for 5 minutes and voila!  You have made yourself a tea that can help with cold and flu symptoms such as headache, chills, cough, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.  This tea can also help with joint pain that tends to get worse with cold weather.  It is best to drink the tea at the first signs that you are getting sick.  It will be more helpful during this time, but you can drink it throughout the duration of the cold or flu.

Tomatoes from Heather's garden

It always amazes me how the seasons bring about exactly what we need at the time.  The dog days of summer bring an abundance of mouth-watering tomatoes, and just in time!  Tomatoes are very cooling in nature; counteracting the accumulated heat of the season.  They hydrate the body and relieve Liver heat which may show up as high blood pressure, red eyes, and headaches.  Tomatoes also purify the blood and treat areas of stagnant blood, either when eaten as a food or when applying thin slices of tomato topically.  Tomatoes also encourage digestion and can be used to help with indigestion or constipation.

Tomatoes are not for everyone, though.  As a kid, I couldn’t stand tomatoes and had to sit at the dinner table a long time before I would finally force myself to take the required one bite of each vegetable on the table.  Tastes aside, tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family, so they can be allergens to some people.  They are also best avoided if you have arthritis.

Vine-ripened tomatoes are the best nutritionally speaking, not to mention super tasty!  Here’s one of my favorite quick, easy, and delicious ways to use the tomatoes from my garden:

Pasta with Salsa Cruda

(from the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites cookbook)

Bring a large covered pot of water to a boil for cooking the pasta.  Meanwhile, chop about half of the tomatoes into bite-sized cubes and place them in a large serving bowl.  Add the basil and red onions to the bowl.  Coarsely chop the rest of the tomatoes and place them in a blender.  Add the oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic and puree until smooth.  Transfer to the serving bowl.  When the water comes to a boil, add the pasta, stir, and cover the pot until it boils again.  Uncover, stir the pasta again, and cook until al dente.  Drain the pasta, add it to the serving bowl and toss well.  Serve immediately.

“Sustainable” seems to be a buzzword these days, and it is something that is on our collective mind as we look toward the future.  You don’t often put the words “sustainable” and “healthcare” together in the same sentence, but I have found a way for these words, and more importantly, their meanings, to be together in a complementary way.

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine offers an excellent model for sustainable healthcare.  (There I did it; those two words can be used together!)  Let’s count the ways…

1. Acupuncture uses your body’s own resources for healing.
2. Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine have supported and sustained the healthcare needs of millions of people over the past 2,500 years.
3. Acupuncture can be safely used as treatment for as long as you want; the cumulative effects of acupuncture continue to be beneficial.
4. Most acupuncturists use lifestyle education as a way to keep your healthcare costs down and allow you to take control of your health.
5. In acupuncture, diagnosis is made by using tools of observation such as feeling the pulse and looking at the tongue, therefore acupuncture can be used anywhere in the world for a wide range of diseases and injuries.
6. The tools of acupuncture are simple and relatively unchanging; this healing tradition has been effective for hundreds of generations.