The Kindness Chronicles - Healing Foods

Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician, who is thought of as one of the most important people in the history of medicine, said "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." How true it is that foods have incredible healing powers. If you read my post All is Forlorn for I've Lost my Mind, you know where I'm coming from here. 

We wouldn't need food to survive if it didn't play an important role in our lives - keeping us strong and healthy. When we're not, it's time to turn back to food to see what exactly it is that we're needing. Very often a food craving means there is something specific you need. For example, when we're craving sweets it's because we haven't had enough protein. 

Sometimes it take a little Googling to find out what the food your eating is providing to you. However, some foods, just by the way they look, tell you what they're good for. The carrot, round, is good for the eyes. Walnuts almost exactly resemble the brain which is why we call them "brain food." Kidney beans help the (maybe you've already guessed it) kidneys. Tomatoes resemble a heart and help the functions of it as well as maintaining good blood flow in the body. Get this - an avocado takes 9 months to grow, much like a baby in his mom's belly, and can you guess what it does? Balances hormones in women and promotes health in the cervix and womb. Wow, right? Wow.

So what is the kindest thing you can do for yourself when you're sick? Heal yourself with the foods that are designed to heal you.

Here is a list of some of the more common ailments and what foods you can eat to heal yourself naturally. 

Stomach Aches

An aching in your tummy is a sign that something has gone amiss. It might be that the good flora has been over powered by the bad flora. It might be that something you ate contained a contaminant and your body is trying to fight it off. It might just be that you ate something you really shouldn't have. No matter what, your go-to foods are ginger, peppermint, and coconut. If you can't find the actual foods, teas are excellent for this. Either way, by eating or drinking these your stomach ache will cease as your body will have extra nutrients from these foods to start balancing the scale between good and evil again.

Headaches and Migraines

Pains in the head can be caused by a lot of things, like crazy coworkers and the traffic jam on your daily commute to work, however, they are also caused by life factors like stress and tension and more commonly, by dehydration and nutrients your body is lacking. They can also be caused by bad food chemicals like synthetic sodium nitrates which are found in lunch meats, bacon, and dried fruit. 

To remedy this grab yourself a handful of almonds and drink a lot of water, a whole heck of a lot. If you get migraines, eat a handful of almonds weekly, or daily if needed. Your migraines will go away. I've seen it happen on people who had chronic issues with no return once they implemented this into their daily life.

Sore Throats

I hate sore throats, however, I used to hate the terrible tasting medicine associate with it even more. Now I don't have to worry about that thanks to pomegranates, cherries, and plums. Think about the color of your throat and the color of these foods. Similar for a reason. It's the antioxidants in them that heal you up when you're feeling an aching since you're missing what they provide to fight off the illness and inflammation. These foods can be hard to find year round so my advice is to get yourself some POM juice. Drink one or two of the little ones (pom and cherry mix, if you can find it) and you should be good to go within 24-48 hours. I have used this method several times and it never fails me. 

Congestion

Got a cough that just wont go away? Feeling congested in the chest at night? Any and all congestion problems can be healed up with pears or pear juice. The juice of the pear breaks down the ick that is causing you discomfort. Incredibly helpful, I promise you. A friend of mine used this after she'd been on cough and congestion medication that hadn't done any good and voila! All her congestion went away after she went the pear route.

Canker Sores

Canker sores are things of nightmares. Stress, injury to the mouth, or even elevated levels of the amino acid arginine may cause them. You may have heard that garlic works, but did you know that coconut milk and kiwi's kick the behinds of canker sores like it's no ones business? Well they do. Kiwi's in particular are like Jackie Chan to the bad guy canker sore. You do not want to mess with the kiwi!

If you want to go the coconut route, get a can of all natural coconut milk (the coconut milk in cartons is not the same) and hold it in your mouth as you drink it. Otherwise, eat one kiwi. The pain will go away and the sore will heal up faster than you can imagine with both methods. And if you have a doosey of a sore use the Triple Threat Technique: Drink some coconut milk, eat a kiwi, and put Alum powder on the sore. This will burn because of the intensity of the sore itself, but by the next day all (and I mean ALL) the pain will be gone and the sore will be healing up like you wouldn't believe. If you frequently get canker sores eat a kiwi a week. Problem solved.

Detoxing

Toxins build up in our bodies the same way dust builds up on our furniture. You clean and clean and it just keeps coming back. This is due to the bad foods we eat, the chemicals in the air and in the products we use. Lemons and grapefruits are the go to foods for this. Put the juice from lemons or grapefruits in your water and get the toxins out that way if you're not a big fan of eating them. Do this on a regular basis and you'll be ahead of the game.


 Update---> A friend asked about a treatment for ear aches. Mullein Root is the most common treatment, however there is another option. Get a cloth and soak it in hot water, as hot as can be withstood. Fry up some garlic in a pan with olive oil. Put that, plus the juice from it, in the cloth. Hold the cloth over the ear, tightly, letting no air in. It will create a steam bath and start pulling whatever gunk is in there out, plus letting just the right amount of oil/garlic in.

If you have any other food remedies you need, shoot me a note. 
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