Have a Cold? Eat Garlic, Ginger and Lemon
January 7, 2009 at 5:59 am 8 comments
Let me start with the symptoms I don’t have. I don’t have a fever, a stuffy head, a sore chest or a cough. I do have machine-gun style sneezing, a runny nose and a sore throat.
Meghan suggests garlic and I’m heeding her advice (hint: look on the right-hand side of the blog and click the ‘Garlic Cure All’ tab for her video).
I’ve been cooking with garlic, putting it raw into some salad dressing with lemon and olive oil, drinking ginger and lemon tea and swallowing garlic oil capsules like they’re candy.
Pre-rehab, I would reach for an over-the-counter cold remedy, drink lots of black tea (with a bit of 1% milk) and embrace a life characterized by pyjamas and day-time TV. Oh, and probably some soup-either from a can, or made from homemade chicken or turkey stock.
Things are different now and I’m looking for healing foods. Knowing that any meat or dairy based soup is out, do you have any culinary suggestions for combatting the common cold?
If so, please pass them on. Sniff.
Entry filed under: 12 Grain Program, Diet Rehab, Food, Health. Tags: Cold remedy, common cold, garlic, ginger, lemon, natural, vegan soups.
1.
Meghan Telpner | January 7, 2009 at 9:24 am
Ginger tea! Simmer 1/4 cup sliced ginger in 6 cups of water for 20 minutes. Add a dollop of honey to taste and squeeze of lemon. Enjoy!
Also- half a lemon and 1/4 tsp of cayenne mixed in water will get the circulation going. Can add Stevia for a sweetener.
A couple drops of oil or oregano under the tongue and swallowed with water or diluted with a little olive oil will also kick up the immune system.
Gentle exercise, some easy yoga with twists helps get the lymph moving and circulating, make sure doors of elimination are open (meaning pooping and skin brushing regularly) and rest.
As for Over the counter cold meds- apparently they shorten a cold to seven days, where without them, you’d be sick for a week
Feel better!
2.
Breanna | January 7, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Oil of oregano DEFINITELY. You smell/taste pizza for days, but it totally works.
3.
Jen | January 7, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I make a soup of grated carrot, shredded cabbage, green onion (or white), a bit of sweet pepper, and lots and lots of grated ginger. It’s very warming when you feel under the weather, and because it’s mainly grated it’s quick to prepare and quick to cook. Hope you feel better soon!
4.
Jen | January 7, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Oh, and if possible, stay home, sleep in, and do nothing for a whole day as soon as possible. That makes more of a difference than anything.
5.
Kicking Cravings « Diet Rehab: A 12-Grain Program | January 8, 2009 at 7:30 am
[...] am really missing my black tea with milk, but the ginger tea recipe that Meghan described in yesterday’s comments is a fantastic substitute and [...]
6.
Lesbiche | January 26, 2009 at 2:57 am
Nice site you have!
7.
Rachel Curry | December 14, 2011 at 10:22 pm
This was helpful!
8.
Rachel Curry | December 14, 2011 at 10:34 pm
I’ve heard it called “The Brew” or “Witches’ Brew”… and it works. Boil water in a saucepan (4 cups?) Blend 5 lemons, a big hunk of ginger, and 2 garlic bulbs in a blender. (It helps to add about a 1/2 cup of water to start, then add pieces of each ingredient bit by bit. as it blends. No need to peel or chop – just add the ingredients whole.) Dump the blended mixture into a strainer and let any juice dribble out into a bowl. Then dunk the strainer (with mixture) into the pot of water (just boiled, set off the burner). Let steep. Repeat in another pot of water (same mixture, just brewing again). Discard the gloppy mess, combine the two teas that you have made to the juice you have set aside in the bowl. Drink hot or cold. I add honey. The proportions of each ingredient are guessed… that was just what I did last time I made it. You can adjust to your liking, or your level of desperation to get better.