My Tea Habit

Isn't it a wonderful relief that Summer is finally over! Three solid months of 35 degrees plus just isn't fair on a pregnant chick! But now it's cool at last. And that means I can drink tea again!




Antonio cultivating his tea habit

His favourite is chamomile













Herbal tea drinking is a habit I cultivated. My family's tea habit is a traditional Irish addiction to very strong cups of English Breakfast many times a day! While I don't object to a 'propper' cup of tea, I found it much more useful for me, health-wise, to cultivate a habit of drinking herbal teas. It's a perfect example of how to choose a health enhancing option over a health degrading one. (There are many stories floating around about how wonderful tea is for our health. The truth is the benefits are outweighed by the effect of the tannins on the stomach. A leather stomach doesn't digest food very well.) So during my years at the Perth Academy of Natural Therapies, where the student's common room kitchen was well stocked with some "out there" herbal blends, I learned to love the stuff.

I mean really love the stuff! I'm very proud of my extensive and eclectic tea cupboard! I feel that my approach to tea drinking is probably akin to that of our ancestors. Thousands of years ago, and until recently, people drank tea as a tonic, choosing herbal blends to suit the time of day, the season, their constitution or state of health. I use it simultaneously as a source of comforting warmth, a gesture of self care, and as medicine. I often turn to a tea for relief before any other treatment, if I feel 'below par'.

Right now my tea choices are influenced most by my pregnancy. During the first two trimesters I choose nettle and rosehip, sometimes separately and sometimes blended together. Rosehip is a great source of vitamin C, while nettle is a great iron source, as well as a good kidney tonic. After the 30th week of the pregnancy I will add raspberry tea, to strengthen and tone up my uterus for birth.

If I was feeling bloated or overfull,  I might choose peppermint tea, which is a calming and uplifting digestive aid. Chamomile is calming and soothing, and also a wonderful remedy for an unsettled stomach. I might even blend it together with peppermint for this purpose. I often order these teas when I'm out for a meal, partly because they're often the only ones available, and partly because they can be an antidote to any dietary indiscretions that may have transpired!

When a cold strikes I actually use tea as a primary source of relief. Besides taking such things as garlic tablets and tablespoons of coconut oil, I take teas containing such herbs as sage, calendula and golden seal. These three are antibacterial and help with lymphatic drainage, alleviating sore throats from glandular enlargement or infection. I also squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a cup, add a splash of water and drink this several times a day as it is a strong antiviral remedy, and I find it very relieving. Last week I had a cold, and, being pregnant, these gentle remedies became some of my only options. I also ate a handful of small, young nasturtium leaves daily as an immune boost. The cold was mild and lasted all of three days before I was fully recovered.

If I felt anxious or stressed I might choose white tea, vata tea (see below) or chamomile. Any of these would bring me down to earth. If I was feeling sad I might choose peppermint, lavender, rosemary or my personal indulgence tea, a cup of chai! (I've posted the recipe as I make it in the thermomix below)

Teas are a part of my beauty regimen. My beauty regimen is almost entirely focused on keeping my gut healthy, I do very little to my skin on the outside as I consider it too late by the time the skin cells have reached the surface! Ginger tea is especially good for the stomach and intestines, helping them break down the food we eat. Green tea is also a digestive aid, and mild liver tonic. In addition to gut health, hydration is important for the complexion. Any herbal tea is hydrating, while tea and coffee are dehydrating.

Ayruvedic medicine, which is the ancient Indian medicine system, offers tea tonics as wonderful daily balancers. I discovered in college that 'Vata' tea helped to relieve my period pains. Vata tea is also a wonderful digestive aid, and soothing to personalities prone to stress and anxiety. However if you are a 'hot' type of person, say you might suffer from reflux, or arthritis, dislike eating chilli and work in a creative or athletic capacity, the Pita tea is for you. Finally the Kapha tea is for those of us who are 'smell the roses' types, heavier set, robust and grounded people. Kapha tea can get you motivated and help with weight loss, sinus congestion, a sluggish bowel and even help alleviate depression.

Finally, my indulgence tea is another Indian inspired one, chai! I love a good chai. When I feel a hankering I take a teaspoon of black leaf tea and put it in the thermomix with a stick of cinnamon, some cloves, some cardamom pods, a star anise, a good chunk of fresh ginger and some peppercorns. I blitz them for 10 seconds on speed 9, then add a cup of water. I boil this at 100 for about 7 minutes, then add raw honey and raw milk, and strain into a big mug! Sometimes I make a big batch of the brew (before adding milk and honey) and put it in the fridge in a milk bottle. Then I can use it as a cold chai smoothie. I put a third of a cup of the brewed tea into the thermomix with a banana, some raw or nut milk, 2 raw egg yolks and some honey and blitz at speed 7 for 20 seconds. Great breakfast on the go!

What is your tea habit? Get eclectic and try something different next time you have a tea break!

"Catching a Cold" - Germ theory and the immune system

How and why does sickness occur? This is truly a multi billion dollar question. Yet to me it's fairly simple. Here's my take on illness.

I hear people around me make reference to "catching a cold" from someone, or blaming their illness on germs in their environment. It makes me realise what a fantastic job advertising is doing for chemical cleaning products. If it was essential to douse our homes and children with pine-o-clean in order to prevent illness, why is it that we're more unwell now than we were before it was on the market?

In the 19th century in France there was a guy called Louis Pasteur. He proved the theory that disease was caused by pathogenic microbes, which became known as "germ theory". He also provided several solutions to common causes of poisoning, and this is why we now pasteurise milk, to make it hygenic and increase shelf life.

In the time since then we began to discover the fabulous complexity of the human immune system. We still have not finished discovering its fabulousness and complexity, but we do know that its role is to protect us from these nasty germs. In the 19th century the germ was an important discovery which saved many lives, however, in these hygenic and sanitised times of the 21st century, I think we're ready for the next step. It's time we took responsibility for our own immunity.

To my mind, germs are a part of our environment, part of our ecosystem. They inhabit our bodies (skin, mouth, throat, intestines etc) at all times and always have. They live in harmonious balance with our immune system. That is, unless our immune system is under assault. This is inevitably the case for all us city dwellers. In order for our immune system to function well there are several things we need. They are:

Clean air, free of pollutants and chemicals
Clean food, free of pollutnants and chemicals
Clean water, free of pollutants and chemicals
Exercise and
Sleep

In addition to these basics, other immune strengtheners include anything that feels good, such as massage, laughing, dancing, hobbies etc.

Therefore the reason our immune systems are under assault these days is because

our air is full of pollutants and chemicals, from industry and cars etc
our food is full of pollutants and chemicals, from modern farming techniques, refining of foods and food additives
our water is full of pollutants and chemicals, such as flouride and 'cleaned' with chlorine.
we live increasingly sedentary lives
we don't sleep well thanks to caffiene, electricity, stress and late nights

So if these are the true reasons why we're sick, should we treat with more chemicals? I would suggest not. I'd also like to point out that when it comes to germ killing, few chemicals come close to being as effective as a single drop of essential oil. The best choices for cleaning are eucalyptus, tea tree, lemon and lavender. In addition to these, I use Eco Store cleaning products in my home. But when it comes to my immune system, I choose to eat organic foods, limit sugar, dairy and refined foods, drink filtered water, and get good sleep and regular exercise. There's not much I can do about the air, short of vote Green! And I could certainly use more massages! I honestly never get sick unless I'm stressed and or eating badly. I can even cope with a certain amount of sleep deprivation provided my diet is really good. For me, this is totally worthwhile.

Recently I treated a woman who came to me complaining that she'd had a cold for two years continuously. She was on a high daily dose of rhinocort and nothing she took was helping at all. She was certainly not pine-o-clean deficient. I'm sure her home was very hygenic. As it turned out she had a severe milk intollerance. One week later she was symptom free (and rhinocort free) after eliminating the dairy products from her diet. It's worth remembering that dairy is a common cause of excess mucous production, which can lead to cold symptoms and sinus infections.

Finally, my advice if you do have a cold is see your Naturopath! A Naturopath can help you to kill the infection and also bring your health back to 100%, where it belongs, by identifying and treating the cause of the problem. For ideas on how to treat yourself at home, check out my blog "Get Well Soon" from May last year.