Natural Detox Tips For The Holidays

With all the delicious foods to choose from during the holidays, there are times when we overindulge. To deal with our lack of constraint that can produce an upset tummy, here are some natural and inexpensive remedies to jumpstart digestive systems back into high gear.

Herbal teas

Warm and soothing, these caffeine-free herbal teas can ease an uncomfortable, bloated system upon contact.

Peppermint—Used for centuries to ease the digestive system.

                      Assists with dissipation of gas and indigestion.

Chamomile—With anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic properties,

                       the calming effects of this tea also help relieve stress,

                       which is often linked to digestive problems.

Lemon grass—Soothes the digestive system and calms the nerves.

Green juices
Green juices are packed with nutrition, enable the release of stored toxins throughout the system, and help can cleanse your digestive system, helping to move things along while providing an extra dose of readily available nutrients.

Start with vegetables that are gentle on your system—

like celery and cucumbers—adding a little apple to sweeten things up.

Natural enzymes
Pineapples contain the digestive enzyme bromelain, and papayas contain papain. These natural enzymes support the digestive system in breaking down and absorbing nutrients from the foods we eat.

Consuming the fresh juice from these fruits can help relieve gas,
upset stomach and occasional constipation and diarrhea.

Citrus
Warm lemon water is used to alleviate digestive distress, support liver detoxification, normalize digestive juices, and reduce intestinal bloating.

Mix half of a juiced lemon with eight ounces of warm water.
Drink upon waking, on an empty stomach.

Spice
Ginger stimulates digestion by speeding up the movement of food from the stomach into the small intestine. Widely used all over the world for many digestive disturbances, ginger has been found to soothe the digestive lining and balance gastric juices, making it a great remedy for overeating.

Peel and slice a two-inch piece of fresh ginger.

Add to three cups of boiling water.

Brew for five minutes, strain and sip the tea slowly.

Optional: add natural sweetener to taste.

Naturally fermented
Naturally high in probiotics, foods such as raw sauerkraut provide beneficial enzymes that increase the digestibility of any food. This enhances lactic acid, which in turn promotes the growth of healthy flora throughout the intestines as well as preventing the growth of harmful bacteria and increasing nutrient absorption.

This is a condensed article. Read Heidi Fagley’s original article at: http://www.naturalnews.com/038188_holiday_food_detox_tips.html

Fabulous Foods

Witthaya Phonsawat | freedigitalphotos.net

Eating Beans and Lentils Daily Balances Blood Sugar and Prevents Complications in Diabetics

Jonathan Benson

More evidence has emerged debunking the appropriateness of a whole grain-based diet for diabetics, which mainstream health authorities often recommend as beneficial for managing the disease. A New study out of Canada reveals that regularly eating beans, lentils, and other legumes instead of grains can help effectively promote and sustain healthy blood sugar and cholesterol levels, suggesting that diet alone may be all that is needed for many diabetics to properly manage and even cure their condition.




Click this link to read the full article: 
http://www.naturalnews.com/037711_lentils_blood_sugar_diabetics.html#ixzz2Dj3xhmpu

Product Spotlight!

Short & Sweet

Pregnancy, Taxes, & How to Savor Candy

‘Avoid sweetened drinks’: Scandinavian scientists warn pregnant mothers that artificially and sugar-sweetened drinks may be linked to preterm childbirth. 

http://www.beveragedaily.com/Regulation-Safety/Avoid-sweetened-drinks-Scandinavian-scientists-warn-pregnant-mothers

A Bitter Sweet Symphony? Consumers who prefer milk chocolate have a significantly lower threshold for bitter tastes. http://www.confectionerynews.com/Formulation/A-bitter-sweet-symphony-Consumers-who-prefer-milk-chocolate-rapidly-reject-bitter-flavours

Because of health benefits attributed to walnuts, FDA calls them a “new drug” and restricts the kind of information that may be listed on the packaging.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/07/fda-says-walnuts-are-drugs.aspx?e_cid=20120307_DNL_art_1

'Fat Tax': Like all simplistic ideas it falls down at the execution, as the progress of the policy in Denmark shows—it simply doesn’t work in practice.

http://www.confectionerynews.com/Regulation-Safety/Fat-tax-why-is-Denmark-such-a-quitter

CDC researchers concerned about looming potential of untreatable gonorrhea, due to the disease’s increasing resistance to antibiotics. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/13/cdc-warns-untreatable-gonorrhea-is-on-the-way

Optimum Candy Physics—Austrian-based researchers claim to have calculated the optimal way to enjoy spherical candies and make them last longer.

http://www.confectionerynews.com/Formulation/Optimum-candy-physics-How-best-to-enjoy-M-Ms-and-Skittles

"O" Zone

Learn How To Read Your Body By Looking At Your Tongue

Part 1: Color

Warning: We are going to be learning really cool things, but you will need to be okay with looking at tongues and learning what 4,000 years of experience has taught practitioners of Acupuncture. 

In Acupuncture, which is a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the tongue is a vital part of diagnosing patients’ conditions and the quality of their health. 

Acupuncture is based on any imbalance in our body, mind and spirit.  Imbalance is usually described as:

• Being too hot, or too cold
• Having too much energy in your system, or too little
• Being driven by an internal problem, or an external problem
• Being too Yin, or too Yang. (In this article, we will focus on the first three imbalances.)

Whenever something is too hot, it is manifest by the color red.  If it is too cold, it is manifest by the color white, or paleness.  If the condition is caused by too much energy, there will be a dark color.  If there is too little energy, there will be a pale color. 

So, what can your tongue tell you about your health? There are many tongue characteristics that indicate the quality of your health. This article will help you to identify imbalance in your system by monitoring your tongue’s color.

The tongue is broken down into areas. Use this chart as a guide to where the imbalance is:

If your tongue is normal, your health is mostly good:

If your tongue is red, you have too much heat inside your body:

If your tongue is too pale, you are lacking energy somewhere in your system:

 If you have a dark tongue, it means you have too much energy, or a congestion of that energy:

If you have a purple tongue it means you have blood congestion in the body (compare the color to the “normal” tongue, rather than to the dark tongue):

Watch your tongue every day: If you see that it is out of its normal range, come in to get your body back on track before you actually get sick.  By learning to watch your tongue, you are beginning to practice true preventive health care.

-Dr. O.