Herbs for everyday living!

There are lots of exciting things happening in the world of my nutrition business. As you know, I am passionate about using food to heal and that I would much rather recommend food over supplements to bring balance back to your body. Saying that, for those clients who have not got the capacity or inclination to do lots of cooking, supplements can be a good alternative.

This passion arose from my training as a GAPS practitioner. The GAPS protocol only recommends the supplements that are absolutely necessary and the rest of the healing is done through everyday food and changes in lifestyle. Recently, I have become more interested in herbs so last week I started a ‘Herbs for everyday living’ course in London at the College of Naturopathic Medicine. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. Each week we study a different system in the body and we look at a handful of herbs that are very easy to source and particularly beneficial for that system.

Last week we looked at the heart and blood pressure. After a very short revision on the functioning of the heart and supplements that benefit it, we went straight into the foods and herbs that are particularly supportive to it.

Our teacher brought in a hawthorn branch which is very much in season and dripping with berries at the moment. If you look in your hedgerows, you can’t fail to miss these beautiful red berries.

Did you know that the very ordinary and common hawthorn berries supports the overall support the heart muscles, it helps remove plague, opens up blood vessels and helps to lower cholesterol as well as has many other benefits including being a wonderful antioxidant?

Here is my attempt at making a ‘hawthorn decoction’!

It makes a delicious a hot drink.  You can add a small amount of honey to make it a bit sweeter but I don’t think it needs it!

We also learnt about the wonderful properties, and how to get optimum benefit, from garlic, cayenne pepper and olive leaf.

We learnt about skin brushing. Did you know that brushing your skin gently with a special dry skin brush helps to tighten your skin, remove cellulite, stimulate circulation, increase cell renewal and cleanse your lymphatic system leading to a stronger immune system and detoxification support?

Finally we learnt about how to reduce the risk of varicose veins and haemorrhoids, both of which run in my family, so I was particularly interested in this information.

So there we have it, all this information in two hours. It was wonderful and I am thoroughly looking forward to my lesson this Wednesday evening which is focusing on the adrenal glands and nervous system.