The Lodge
I am rather adventurous when it comes to healthy food. This weekend I was feeling a little under the weather. I am not too sure where it came from perhaps a little overworked, maybe not chewing my food properly as I was rushing a lot last week, or as I recall it might have been that supplement I took with not enough water- felt like it was stuck in my throat and now matter how much water I drank it would not shift. This sort of developed into a discomfort and with the weekend upon us, I took the time to relax and get better. My symptoms were that I was finding it quite difficult to drink cold or room temperature water as it physically hurt my throat. So I did some research into how to help this kind of inflammation. At first as always you have to filter out lots of dramatic accounts or arguments. I knew I had just a slight throat infection and by the end of the weekend I intended to have it sorted.
Nature holds the answer...
From researching natural treatments I was pleased to read that ginger teas were on the list, this was what I was able to drink, although alone I was not getting huge signs of improvement. Saturday evening I opted for a vitamin C and then gargled with Himalayan Salt. Also within my research I came across aloe vera, slippery elm, Echinacea, honey and catnip all that help but none of which could not be found in my kitchen cupboards but they might be in yours so I thought I would share these with you. I decided upon an article on esophagitis, although this probably wasn't the best as I had read others to form my own opinion on what I needed to do, I found it the most straight forward with the list of natural remedies to try and why to try them. Also it was confirming to me that I had to turn to nature to provide the answer.
Last week I found a gigantic locally grown and spray free celery, I was delighted when I bought it. Little did I know it was going to be my saving grace at the weekend. I grated it into sauces, chopped it up into stews and now it was time to juice it to feel better.
Taking juicing one step further...
Upon waking on Sunday morning still with the feeling of discomfort in my throat, I decided to take my juicing that one step further, I do love a good vegetable juice more than a fruit juice. I have been finding juicing difficult in the cooler months, I like to be warm so I decided to juice vegetables with ginger to create that warming effect.
This all kind of happened rather quickly, I made a decision in an instance, from my research, my understanding of the body and the symptoms I had upon waking, I decided to bravely juice the following creating my take on a healthy Throat Tonic:
- 4 celery sticks
- 2 small carrots
- 7cm fresh ginger
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ lemon
Garlic?! Yes garlic, I kind of went: 1,2,3... Go! I threw it in for the anti-bacteria, anti-fungal properties and hoped that the ginger would overpower the garlic, also help with digestion as ginger sparks the digestive juices.
The last straw...
Taking one mouthful of the juice and realising that the garlic was rather pungent, I opted for a straw towards the back of my mouth and it worked a treat. I took small sips and held it at the back of my throat and very slowly swallowed. I left it a good couple of minutes between sips and my goodness could I feel it working. My throat began to tingle; it felt warm and activated, managed to drink about 175ml of the 200ml fresh juice, throat tonic.
Within a couple of hours my throat was much better, I did not have garlic breath thanks to the straw idea, I had taste buds and most importantly could enjoy water at room temperature again. By Sunday evening, Sunday morning was all but a distant memory both drinking fresh garlic juice and the irritated throat. Just to mention try to chew your food at least 25 times, take the time as it will digest effectively and if taking any supplements, be sure to take them with a full glass of water.
Finally I highly recommend trying this throat tonic to fight off the early onset of any throat discomfort, as well as gargling with warm Himalayan Salt water, ginger and marshmallow tea.
