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Warm, nutritious, delicious - great for a cold rainy fall day. A fast easy way to make a complete meal in one pot: Use about 1/4 to 1/3 cup per person of red lentils and 1/4 to 1/3 cups of quinoa. Then add a teaspoonful or more of ghee and spice mix ( see previous blogs) and salt ( Soma salt is best) and 1 bay leaf - saute for a few minutes until you hear the quinoa seeds start to crackle. This will coat everything with ghee and spices. Add water - Double the amount 2.5 to 1 like rice if you want a casserole consistency and if you want a soup - then add 3 to 1. But if you add too much water it will not be dense enough and loose it flavours. Once the mix has cooked for about 10 minutes you can add some veggies or not. I find zuccini and diakon either grated or chopped in small bits work best. At the very end add some parsley or fenugreek leaves ( dehydrated available at Indian grocers) and last but not least some lime juice to add a bit of sour taste. That way you will have all 6 taste...

Persistent Diarrhea. First lets look at the intelligence of the colon walls. They keep what the body need and then excrete what the body does not need. However at time this intelligent organ gets confused, overloaded and irritated. Let start with basics. Simple easy to digest breakfast - cooked apple with cloves. See previous entries as to the benefit of this simple and easy to digest start to the day - this gently nudges the digestive system while providing Malic Acid which cleans the liver and also cloves which has many beneficial effects on the digestion: it promotes enzymatic flow and boost digestive functioning. They can be beneficial for gastric irritability and dyspepsia. Cloves have even been known to treat cholera a severe disease of diarrhea: About 4 grams of cloves are boiled in 3 liters of water until half the water has evaporated. This water, taken in draughts, will check severe symptoms of the disease. If you find that you are having watery stools you might consider star...

Working part-time in a community pharmacy on the Sunshine Coast has moments of pure magic at times. Here is the story of one of those moments. It is a busy Sunday as usual. As in most small towns, all the doctors offices and clinics are closed and the Emergency Department at the hospital is overflowing with people waiting for hours to be seen. So people come to the pharmacy for help first, before going to the emergency. As a community pharmacist I am used to these types of questions. Also as a herbalist and integrative pharmacist I am always looking for ways to bring in the knowledge of herbal medicine when appropriate. On this day the opportunity presented itself. A gentleman in his 70's with a seriously lacerated finger that was infected came in asking for help. He had already been to the emergency the previous weekend to have his middle finger stitched. He was then put on an antibiotic, Clindamycin, and sent home to wait for the healing. A week had gone by and he had run out o...

When addressing skin disorders in a general non-specific sense, we must first look to the main organ of elimination the bowels. Emptying the bowels upon arising is best, otherwise the toxins get re-absorbed. Usually if we get up and hydrate our body by drinking room temperature water - 2-3 glasses - that is enough to get the bowels going. Adding lime juice to the water can help stimulate the liver which then gives the bowels assistance in elimination. We can also take herbs that will increase the intelligence of the bowel such as Triphala and Prakrit. Triphala is traditionally taken before bed. To increase its effectiveness you can soak 2-4 tablets of Triphala in a hot cup of water and drink before bed. It is very astringent/bitter in taste and some prefer not to stimulate the taste buds in that way and therefore just swallow the tablets with warm water. The liver is the big organ that processes the food we eat before it is distributed through the blood steam. This is called first...

Sometimes our digestion seems to be weakened for various reasons and we need to provide it with easy to digest and nourishing foods. Starting the morning with stewed fruit - apple or pear cooked with cloves is a good way to gently introduce food to the system. Apple and pear have good amounts of malic acid that gently supports liver function and cloves have a great deal of beneficial properties ( see previous blog) Once the fruit have digested and you start to feel hungry that is a good time to have your hot morning cereal. Quinoa, amaranth, oats, buckwheat - all nourishing and easy to digest. Buckwheat is particularly good as it has many bioflavinoids. See link to the benefits of buckwheat - wonderful for heart and cholesterol. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=11 Once breakfast is digested we can start planning for lunch. Lunch or the mid-day meal is the biggest meal. For according to ayurved when the sun is highest in the sky - that is the time when the d...

When spring arrives both nature, and our body which is built on the same principles, start to open and flow. The cold of the winter is gone and the warmer sun starts to melt and enliven. This is the perfect time to heal and rebuild. Time for spring cleaning. The body naturally starts to eliminate the old dead tissue that is clogging all our vital channels. Both our nadis or vibrational bioenergetic channels ( knows as meridians in Chinese Medicine) and our shrotas or physical channels: arteries, lymphatic channels, and microchannels in our cell walls etc. All these channels must be healthy and clear for toxins to flow out and nutrients to flow in. In previous postings we discussed "ama" or undigested food that is the clogging element. When we eat to much or to late at night or old left over food or food that is clogging by its very nature we create "ama". Food that are clogging are the nightshade family - potato, tomato, eggplatn and bell peppers, large beans, wi...

Skin/eczema/acne Someone just asked me what they could do for their son's acne. We start with hydration, digestion and diet. Again, even if we drink water it may not penetrate into the cells therefore the herbal water or "Smart Water" as recommended in the early writing is essential if we are running into problems with skin. Then we look at diet and digestion. Eating meals on time and not eating late at night. We want to give our digestive system a rest from 6 PM to 6 AM - this is when the body rests, rejuvenates and detoxifies. Especially we do not eat clogging foods after 6 PM - if we are young and have a strong digestive fire we might be able to handle heavy cheeses, burgers, fries, large beans, winter squash - all these foods clog our channels - but if you eat then in the evening - even a young healthy person will be put to the test to digest those foods to good product - this then puts a great deal of strain on our liver which takes our dumb food and turns it into i...

Ayurved uses the knowledge of circadian rhythms to optimize healing. During the 24 hours cycle we see that our human body and nature all around us passes through Vata, Pitta and Kapha 2 times. If you take your clock and divide it into 4 hours period - starting in the morning from 6 AM to 10 AM - this is the Kapha time of day, then from 10 to 2 PM is the Pitta time of day, form 2-6 is Vata time and then into the evening this repeats - Kapha, Pitta, Vata. Since Pitta is the transformative energy and the predominantly fire element - it accelerates digestion and detoxification. There for Ayurved recommends eating out biggest meal at noon - when the sun is high in the sky. When we pass through the second Pitta cycle form 10 PM to 2 AM - this is the time to be sound asleep - so that the pitta transformative energy can detox out body and regenerate it. Therefore with these understanding it is recommended to eat during the day, not to skip meals and also not to eat after the evening meal that ...

Migraine headaches will be the topic for the next few posting as I have a few people asking or help in this area. First and foremost as in all conditions the importance of hydration can not be overestimated. I would first like to ask you to all go out and buy Dr. Batmanghelidj's book "Your bodies many cries for water - you are not sick; you are thirsty. Don't treat you thirst with medication."' When you read this book you will develop a much deeper relationship with water. After air it is the second most important thing on our planet that keeps us alive. Without air we die. Without water we can survive a bit longer but ultimately we would die of dehydration. There are many people walking around in severe dehydrated conditions. Once of the best way to hydrate the body is with a simple herbal tea. Herbal water: 1 to 2 litres of boiled spring water - boil it for about 1 or 2 minutes and then add the following: 1/2 to 1 teaspoonful of Coriander seed, Fennel seed, Mar...

In the winter season we are accumulating Kapha ( more earth and water elements). This is the time of runny noses and coughs and colds especially in children. In the life cycle Kapha disorders predominate in childhood, Pitta disorder in midlife and Vata disorder in the elderly. Therefore it is not a surprise to see kids with runny noses or the elderly with insomnia or tremors. Having this knowledge the key is to not create more problems by adding diets and life style that would aggravate these conditions. Here are some simple things to remember when dealing with children and runny noses. Look to diet and rest first. The most common foods that increase Kapha are sugar, wheat (any white flour and most processed food) cheese and other heavy milk products, especially if they not been boiled and served warm, anything cold. Getting your children away from sedantary activities such as computer games and TV and getting them to run and play and also to get to bed early and up early. Adding som...