My Herb pages
Bananas
Bananas, containing three natural sugars -
sucrose, fructose and glucose, combined with fiber, give an instant,
sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just
two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute
workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the
world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us
keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of
illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.
Depression:
According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering
from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana.
This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that
the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your
mood and generally make you feel happier.
PMS:
Forget the pills -- eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood
glucose levels, which can affect your mood.
Anemia:
High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood
and so helps in cases of anemia.
Blood Pressure:
This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in
salt, making it the perfect way to beat blood pressure. So much so, the
US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to
make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood
pressure and stroke.
Brain Power:
200 students at a Twickenham (Middlese x) school were helped through their
exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a
bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the
potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.
Constipation:
High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel
action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.
Hangovers:
One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana
milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the
help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk
soothes and re-hydrates your system.
Heartburn:
Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from
heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.
Morning Sickness:
Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and
avoid morning sickness.
Mosquito bites:
Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected
area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it
amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.
Nerves:
Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.
Overweight and at work?
Studies at the
Institute
of
Psychology
in
Austria
found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate
and chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found
the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report
concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our
blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two
hours to keep levels steady.
Ulcers:
The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders
because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw
fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It
also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of
the stomach.
Temperature control:
Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can
lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers.
In
Thailand
, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born
with a cool temperature
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD):
Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood
enhancer tryptophan.
Smoking:
Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6,
B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help
the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.
S tress:
Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends
oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance When we are
stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels.
These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.
Strokes:
According to research in "The New England Journal of
Medicine," eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the
risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!
So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare
it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrates, three
times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other
vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the
best value foods around. So maybe its time to change that well-known
phrase so that we say, "A banan a a day keeps the doctor
away!"
Sweet Potato
Researchers are saying
eating sweet potatoes can add years to your life. Choose sweet potatoes
that are a deep orange color, the deeper orange the richer it is in
beta-carotene. One sweet potato delivers 541 mg. of potassium, an
essential mineral that can lower even hard to treat high blood pressure Plus it
keeps brain levels of sodium under control, 2 things that work to lower your
risk of stroke. A recent study revealed that eating sweet potatoes could lower
your artery clogging LDL cholesterol levels by 29 % in four
weeks, results virtually identical to prescription cholesterol lowering
drugs. Fiber sweeps fat out of the digestive tract before it can even be
absorbed helping block the formation of artery clogging plaque. Sweet potatoes
contain 25% more powerful heart protecting nutrients than any other
vegetable. Eat just one or two each week and scientists say you slash your risk
of ever having a heart attack by 86%.
The fiber slows the
absorption of food in the intestines so it helps you avoid the ups and downs in
blood sugar that cause fatigue and food cravings. Adding a sweet potato to
a meal could keep you energized for up to three hours.
This spud contains a
19,000 IU per half cup serving of beta-carotene. Studies have shown that
beta-carotene is such a powerful immune system booster, just adding it to your
daily diet could cut your risk of cancer by as much as 70%. And now new
research shows eating half a cup a day could slash your risk of catching
winter colds, or even the flu by 33%. Beta_carotene
increases the number of infection fighting white blood cells in your
bloodstream, pumping up your virus protection, no matter how many sniffling
sneezing people you are exposed to..
Click
on the links for details on each herb.
Watercress kills cancer cells
It
can be found in ditches growing wild in BC. and also in grocery stores. When
I bring it home I wash it and put it in the lettuce spinner and have it on hand
in the fridge. I add it to many dishes.
It goes in almost everything. I have put it in spaghetti sauce, cabbage rolls,
meatballs, soups and scrambled eggs just to name a few. I also
use it in place of sprouts in a sandwich.
Allspice
Muscle pain?
Aloe
Angelica
Fatigue?
Anise
Colic?
Astragalus
Immunity?
Balm
Cold sores?
Basil
Black Walnut
Ringworm?
Cayenne
Heart cells
Celery
Cilantro
Cinnamon
Diabetes?
Cumin
Dandelions
Parsley Head lice
Oregano
Rosemary
Feverfew.
Migraines?
Revitalize Your Hair.
Boil a large pot of
water. Remove from heat. Add 1 cup of rosemary and 2 cups of sage and 1/4 cup of
peppermint. let this steep over night. I put this into some spray
bottles and the rest is in an ice cream bucket in the garage until I need it.
Spray it on your head a couple of times a week. This is suppose to promote hair
growth and darken grey hair. You can get the herbs at any health food
store. I paid under 3 dollars for all three of them.
Build up your
immunity
Zinc is used to build many of the body's immune
compounds. Zinc rich foods include wheat germ, wheat bran, lean
beef, oysters, shellfish and milk. It is recommended that women
take 9 mg daily and men take 12 mg daily. But be careful, more is
not better. Long term daily intakes of 50 mg will suppress the
immune system.
Echinacea won't prevent a cold or flu, but will cut
your recovery time in half. Echinacea's active ingredients
enhance the immune system by increasing white blood cell
production. The herb is also mildly antibacterial.
Vitamin
C can shorten your
cold and ease symptoms. At first sign of a cold take vitamin C
every hour or two to maintain blood levels of the vitamin. One
cup of orange or grapefruit juice every hour for eight hours
would do it. But you can take 200 mg of vitamin C through out the
day until your total dose reaches 1000 mg. There is no point in
taking the total dose in one shot, your body can use only 200 to
300 mg at a time.
There are
literally thousands of chemicals existing in our food supply.
Take one, like nitrates for example. These form
powerful cancer causing agents in the stomach. If you have
health problems that can't be identified, perhaps cleaning up
your diet may be the answer. It certainly couldn't hurt. Talk to
a naturopath doctor to see how to check for chemical toxicity.
Here are some ideas on bounce and
coca-cola that are
From the book "Polish Your
Furniture with Panty Hose" by Joey Green.
Copyright 1995, reprinted with permission.
For more alternative uses for products, visit www.wackyuse.com
BOUNCE...the
stuff you use in your dryer:
1 Repels
mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt
loop when
outdoors during mosquito season. (Lordy, I wish I had
known this
before I lost two quarts of blood while watering
plants!)
2 Eliminates static electricity
from your television
screen. Since Bounce is designed to help eliminate
static cling,
wipe your television screen with a used sheet of
Bounce to keep dust
from resettling.
3 Dissolves soap scum from
shower doors. Clean with
a used sheet of Bounce.
4 Freshens the air in your
home. Place an individual sheet of Bounce
in a drawer or hang one in the closet.
5 Prevents thread from
tangling. Run a threaded needle through a
sheet of Bounce to eliminate the static cling on the thread
before sewing.
6 Eliminates static cling from
pantyhose. Rub a damp, used sheet of
Bounce over the hose.
7 Prevents musty suitcases. Place an
individual sheet of Bounce inside empty
luggage before storing.
8 Freshens the air in your car.
Place a sheet of Bounce under the
front seat.
9 Cleans baked-on food from
a cooking pan. Put a sheet in the pan,
fill with water, let sit overnight, and sponge clean.
The antistatic agents apparently
weaken the bond between the food and the pan
while the fabric
softening agents soften the
baked-on food.
10 Eliminates odors in
wastebaskets. Place a sheet of Bounce at the
bottom of the wastebasket.
11 Collects cat hair. Rubbing the area
with a sheet of Bounce will
magnetically attract all the loose hairs.
12 Eliminates static electricity from
venetian blinds. Wipe the blinds
with a sheet of Bounce to prevent dust from resetting.
13 Deodorizes shoes or sneakers. Place a
sheet of Bounce in your
shoes or sneakers overnight so they'll smell great in the morning
And now, Coca-Cola:
1 To clean a toilet: Pour
a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet. Let the
real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean.
The citric acid in Coke
removes stains from vitreous china.
2 To remove rust spots from chrome car
bumpers: Rub the bumper with a
crumpled-up piece of aluminium foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
3 To clean corrosion from car battery
terminals: Pour a can of
Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the
corrosion.
4 To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a
cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the
rusted bolt for several minutes.
5 To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of
Coca-Cola into the baking pan;
wrap the ham in aluminium foil, and bake.
Thirty minutes before
the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to
mix
with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
6 From clothes: Empty a can of Coke
into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent,
and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will
help loosen grease stains.
7 It will also clean road haze from your
windshield.
And... WE DRINK THIS STUFF!
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