Angela: It’s cold and flu season! Time to make every meal packed with herbs and spices that boost your immune system. It’s as simple as adding cinnamon to your porridge for breakfast, drinking ginger tea and adding loads of herbs and spices to soups and slow cooked meals for lunch and dinner. Here’s my top 5…
Ginger
Ginger is great for colds and chills. It’s good at clearing phlegm and mucus from the respiratory tract. It’s also good for circulation and helps the body get rid of toxins. In winter I always have ground ginger in my handbag to add to hot water when I have cold hands and feet to get the circulation pumping.
Garlic
Garlic is the first thing I reach for in winter. I add it to everything to fight off colds and flues. Garlic is good for increasing immunity and increasing blood circulation. The anti-bacterial and anti- fungal properties are good for gut health and help balance the good bacteria in the gut.
Cinnamon
The active compound in cinnamon ‘cinnamaldehyde’ is great for treating colds and flues by killing bacteria that improves the function of the respiratory system. It’s also anti-inflammatory which helps the body to fight infections.
Cloves
Is a tiny spice with giant health benefits. They have anti-bacterial, analgesic, anti-fungal and anti-septic properties. Alleviate the pain of sore throats and upper respiratory infections, and improve the digestive system by soothing the gastrointestinal tract to prevent stomach aches, nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting.
Turmeric
Turmeric is a beautiful golden colour. It’s used a lot in Indian cooking. It contains an active ingredient called curcumin, which gives turmeric its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties, which helps the body fight against degenerative diseases. Research has also shown that adding turmeric to flavour foods may help prevent the growth of cancerous tumours in the body in addition to benefiting the cardiovascular system. Turmeric increases immunity my enhancing the health of your liver.
Conclusion
It’s that time of year when we crave soups, stews and slow cooked meals. It’s so easy to add herbs and spice to make them taste insanely good and be rewarded with the health benefits. Add as many as you can to decrease the chances of colds and flues this winter.
1 Reply to “5 Herbs and Spices to beat Colds and Flu this Winter”
Given the alcohol content of a hot toddy may or may not render the drink an effective wellness solution, do you have any practical and sustainable solutions for regularly working these herbs and spices into our eating? What quantities/ doses are we talking?
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