Nature kindly provides plenty of nutritional medicine for cold and flu season. The overproduction of mucous occurs not just with colds, but through improper diet and food combinations. Many people who suffer sinusitis, asthma and bronchitis can dramatically reduce unnecessary mucous production through a smarter diet.
FOODS TO GO FOR
Warm and spiced winter foods help to open the airways, for example. A plain vegie broth made from winter staples and greens (spinach, kale, silverbeet, rainbow chard, beetroot beet-top leaves, and in particular, cauliflower and celery, makes ideal sipping to help clear mucous. Citrus fruit is a great mucous liquidator, so pick a plump winter grapefruit for breakfast, and squeeze winter’s lemons and limes into drinking water.
On those weary days, when you feel like staying put and bundling yourself into a woolly jumper and bed socks, try this excellent restorative tea from food-for-healing expert, Sam Gowing. You can feel it hugging you from the inside after every sip.
Sam Gowing’s Restorative Beet-Top Tea
Restorative Tea
Ingredients:
1 bunch of beet tops (the leafy, red-stalked end of beetroot)
2 stalks lemongrass
1 large piece of ginger
Handful Vietnamese mint leaves
Kaffir lime leaves (crunched)
Method:
Blanch the washed leaves and stems for 5 minutes in boiling water. Add lemongrass, minced ginger and mint leaves. Reduce heat, simmer gently for 30 minutes. Strain and sip as a restoring tea.
Liv Mitchell
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Liv Mitchell is a senior yoga teacher and freelance writer/editor.
