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My dad was born in the Philippines and when he was growing up, all the over-the-counter convenience we have at the local pharmacy now was not available then. That, and he lived in a small island, away from the local city. So, if a family member got sick, my grandma would whip up a herbal remedy to cure the ailness. This tradition was passed on to my family by my father who seems to believe that “all that crap you can buy at the store is never going to be as good.”
We are going to take a page from his herbal cold remedies and talk about the age-old healing qualities of ginger. In Asia, ginger is used for its therapeutic and anti-viral qualities to cure the common cold, nausea, and ease depression. When ingested, ginger warms and stimulates your internal your organs and is great for people who have a “cold body”. Always buy fresh ginger by looking for a root that has smooth skin with a few joints and twists.
When I feel like I am coming down with a bug, I use these simple home remedies:
A SIMPLE CUP OF TEA
Make Your Favourite tea. Do not use milk or sugar. Grate fresh ginger about 1/2 a teaspoon. Let it steep and drink. Use honey for added sweetness. If tea is not available, a simple cup of hot water will do. You will not taste the ginger as you drink your tea, but you will feel that instant warmness on your throat and chest.
GINGER RICE
If you are like me, and you like eating rice with almost every meal, adding ginger to your rice is also a great way to boost your immune system. I make really small ginger cubes, add it to the water in the pressure cooker and let it cook.
From what I hear, Vancouver is experiencing a very bad flu season this month. It is just as nasty as it comes. Since I work from home, I do not get a chance to go out that often. And still, I caught it! What a way to start fall! Hopefully, these remedies will work for you as it has for me.
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I hope people keep passing on these herbal remedies as the pharmaceutical companies keep trying to control them, forcing us to all purchase them from large corporations at a hefty price!
I always do the ginge rin the tea trick! Let me tell you, it really does work at helping you feel a bit better. I highly suggest it!
Timeless Herbal Cold Remedy…
My dad was born in the Philippines and when he was growing up, all the over-the-counter convenience we have at the local pharmacy now was not available then. That, and he lived in a small island, away from the local city. So, if a family member got sic…
Ninikins, it really does better than most medications or flu beverages around.
I’ve been fighting off the nastiest flu / cold, or whatever this hideous thing is, and I think I am recuperating faster than most!
Wow, I didn’t know this! I’m kinda like a frequent sufferer of colds (blame it on my lousy daily diet) so, remedies like this always interest me.
Thanks for sharing, Sharon
I’m also a firm believer in honey and lemon hoemade drinks to help the throat. Or a warm whisky. Very helpful!
I will have to try these. This is perfect timing in the sense that I have a nasty cold right now. Thanks for sharing.
Ninikins, a friend actually told me that you get a better result buying beeswax instead of honey.
You roll it into the ball and let it sit on your upper gum. It melts like candy and it’s good as an immune builder and getting rid of colds.
I am actually going to hunt me some beeswax today. To see if it works.
SageMother, you are so right! Medicines are a scientific derivative of most common herbal remedies.
Nihal, I get colds so quickly also it’s so pathetic. Sometimes they just stick around for a day or two, and sometimes I get what I’ve been fighting off for the last two weeks.
And along with me being sick, I seem to have eaten everthing in the whole house.
Tater03, hope you feel better!
LOL — Sharon you know the saying “Feed a cold, starve a fever”. So it’s good you are eating “everything that isn’t nailed down”.
I hope you’re feeling better soon. I always do the natural stuff as my first line of defense rather than clog the waiting room at the Doctors office (notice how many will enquire as to whether or not you’ve been to the Doctor? They seem to forget there is no _cure_ for the common cold!). I drink lots of herb tea, as well as tea with lemon and honey (a natural expectorant).
I always drink tea and honey to get over a cold. It always helps, and I very rarely need to take any other types of medication.
Samantha, I know. When I finally get out of this crazy haze, I will realize that my clothes no longer fit…. But in the meantime, my honey has been so nice to constantly supply me with icing cupcakes to keep the misery down.
Jewel, I don’t either. I only do when it is a dire must-need situation and I have to get some sleep. Other than using it as a sleeping aid, I don’t medicate myself in the daytime.
It’s bad enough being my usual cheery self….
I read a study, years ago, that said a person with a cold will get over the initial stages in about 5 days, without meds. Someone who takes cold meds gets over the initial stages in 7.
The biggest difference between these two situations is probably rest. Those who take cold meds are avoiding stopping and allowing the body to muster its immune response, so the cold lasts longer!
SageMother, you are so right! People who do tend to medicate more are the ones who can’t stop and rest. They need to go on with the rest of the world.
In that case, it does take a longer time to get rid of a cold for sure!
Great tips!!! I wonder do you have to use fresh ginger or can you use ginger that is in the form of a spice?
3Plus3, you will have to use fresh ginger because chances are all the nutrients are gone by the time it gets to its spice bi-product.
Thank you for that. It was very intresting. I have always used ginger for my holiday baking, and now i know why I always feel better when I am smelling it!
Echos, I’ve never used ginger for baking before, but just the other day a friend of mine was telling me about a cheesecake recipe using a gingerbread crust.
I think I might try that for Christmas.
A cup of hot tea sweetened with a little honey sure makes me feel better when I have a cold. Lemon tea with honey is good for my sore throats too.
Laura @ Laura Williams’ Musings’s last blog post..Canning Time - Spaghetti Sauce
Laura, doesn’t it just makes sense that natural herbal remedies taste better than what you can buy at the pharmacy. You would think that these companies would make our cold syrups a lot more better to ingest.
Yum,,,, you can your own spaghetti sauce? That is definitely something I’m going to have to check out.
It does taste better and honestly.. it’s better for you. God created the herbs and man created the icky cough syrups that do nothing but to hype you up on stuff you can’t even pronounce.
lol… I got the email saying there was a reply and the mention of canning spaghetti sauce and I was thinking “I don’t remember posting a link to that” But yes, I do can our own spaghetti sauce, as well as sauerkraut, make many of our jams and jellies, and other veggies, fruits, etc. Including dehydrating things as well. I also make our own apple cider vinegar. It’s really easy and the taste of homemade vinegar is far superior than the pasteurized stuff in the stores. I’ll be posting the how to on making the vinegar in the next few weeks. I have a few canning posts up on my blog now.
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I love apple cider vinegar. I absolutely have it on almost anything. I’ll make sure to drop by and pick up a couple of your recipes….
I thought I had commented on this one. Anyway, I always just use a ton of garlic. Now, that’s not very ladylike… stinking to high heaven. However, when I start to feel the slightest bit like I’m going to get sick, I just pile on the garlic in my food. Garlic is a purative and kills all sorts of germs. If you’re spiritual/pagan many religions (including ancient Christianity) believe(d) that garlic protected against evil spirits and demons.
Oddly enough, cinnamon also works fairly well. Too bad they taste really weird when mixed together. I would imagine that it might be possible to make some sort of tasty dish from garlic and ginger. For instance, I don’t think a bit of garlic in the ginger rice would hurt it any. But then again, I just love garlic… though my wife won’t kiss me for a while after I eat it… then again, she won’t kiss me if I’m sick either. So it evens out. LOL
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Nathaniel, of course no kissing is allowed when you are passing all the *icky* germs around
I’ve heard of garlic being good for you when you are coming down with a cold, and I’ve had roasted garlic before with plain rice. So, it’s safe to assume you can have ginger rice and roasted garlic. That even sounds fantastic!
I’ve never heard of cinnamon before. I really must try that. Do you just grate fresh cinnamon on your tea? Or something like that?
I think cinnamon oil has antibiotic properties. I would imagine that you could grate it into tea. That sounds pretty good actually. Or just a couple drops of actual cinnamon oil into it… that way it’s not chunky.
If I remember right, Greek cooking puts a lot of cinnamon on things like meat. It tastes pretty good, although strange at first, and like I said, it kills germs. Dad once accidentally put cinnamon in meat loaf. It wasn’t bad actually, we still ate it. But I’m the guy who likes salsa and cookies… so my taste buds may need some calibration.
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Cinnamon oil…. Hmmmm. Wonder where I can go and buy that. My immune system is really low and anything that helps me fight off my next cold is quite helpful.
I am also going to try the beeswax theory. Now, I can’t wait to get sick
I have been putting ginger into my tea when I was ill for a long time but I had not though about eating the ginger rice as well. Thanks for the great ideas.
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