Real Natural Remedy for Allergies

If you have allergies, I feel for you!  My allergies get really bad in the springtime, usually second week of May.  Some people get them bad right around this time before it gets cold.  I have tried everything over the counter for allergies, and for some reason, NOTHING works.  I have tried Claritin, Sudafed, Nasal Sprays, done an allergy test at the doctor, etc.  The drugs usually get me dried up, don't feel great, maybe it stops the symptoms for about 1 hour, but then after that, the dripping begins again.

I don't just have sniffles and I can pat it down with tissue paper.  I drip like a faucet!  I have itchy eyes and pretty much am useless to do anything since I have to constantly attend to my symptoms.  I have been looking for a natural solution, and think I have now found it.

To fight allergies, eat LOCALLY grown honey.  The key is locally grown to where you live.  The bees will gather the pollen from your surrounding plants into the honey, and bits of pollen act like a natural drug - helping your body build up an immunity to the flower and tree pollen in your local area.  I just discovered this amazing concept for fighting allergies, and it has some amazing affects!

What was a complete surprise in honey adventure is just HOW GOOD real, local honey tastes!!  My first spoonful instantly brought me back to 5th grade...  The taste of the honey was like the honey we used to buy at the grocery store growing up.  My mom would put this honey on grapefruit halves.  Extremely fragrant, extremely smooth.

This honey comes from Naperville, Illinois, and is completely locally harvested from fields in Naperville/Aurora.  I know the main beekeeper so I know that this honey is for sure, local and the real deal.

You can buy it here:
iHealth
1283 East Ogden Ave. #183, Naperville, IL

OMG GMOs!

Just came across this video: Pando House Rock: OMG GMOs!  It's kind of a cute way to share the story on why GMOs were started by big food corporations, but ultimately, GMO crops can't be the solution to solving world hunger.  The nutritional value of GMO crops are just not proven and the results so far as we look across the USA, Americans have access to so much food, yet they are starving for the nutritional value that they need, and obesity is the result from what I am calling the 'GMO starvation'.

This summer, we did a little experiment, and the results were scary.  We tried growing crops by a field that was sprayed with pesticides for the corn on the field.  I have walked through this corn field, and nothing grows on the field except for this pesticide resistant GMO crop.  Not even one tuff of grass - just dirt and corn (the pesticides kill everything else).  We planted some of our precious non-GMO squash seeds a few feet away from the field.  The squash plants started to grow in early summer, but right after the fields got the pesticide, all the squash plants started to grow stunted, none flowered, and none developed fruit.  The squash plant looked like it was dieing from non-natural causes (it didn't look like it was dried out by no water or yellow from no sun).  It looked mutated and stunted.  If this is what pesticides are doing to real, natural plants, then my question is, what is it doing to our bodies??!!  And, think about the GMO crop that seems to thrive with the pesticides, what is it really?!  I can't believe this is what food corporations are calling food.

It's this kind of stuff that gets me riled up.

Pando House Rock: OMG GMOs!

 

New Baobab Superfood Supplement: powbab!

I started out as a blogger about healthy food and healthy relationships back in 2009, and can't believe that the years have flown by.  But, as I started out looking for my passions in life, I have discovered that healthy living and healthy eating are what I love and have become passions of mine.  Wholly mine.  I desire so much to be healthy.  Without good health, I cannot enjoy this life or the fruit of my labor.

So, with my past posts on Baobab and More About the Baobab Tree, I have become seriously convinced about eating superfood, and baobab is at the top of my list.  I have made it into a supplement - and my brand is called powbab.  The product is the baobab superfruit chew.

Many people have tried the chews - and really like it!  It has fruity and tangy.  Chewy and natural tasting.  Each chew delivers 100% of your antioxidant needs, Vitamins C, E & A, and is way better than other synthetic immunity brands out there.  The raw and unprocessed fruit make a difference.  I take them traveling, eat them when I am busy, and like how convenient they are.

powbab is more than just a product - it is an extension of how a person found her life in hopes of helping the world become a healthier, happier and a more whole place.  Pursue your dreams, don't give up when times get tough. You never know what might happen if you can just hang in there and don't stop believing.

 Visit www.powbab.com to check out the product!

Why Are You Getting Married?

This summer, I am reading through a book with my small group called The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller.  It has been an engaging read so far, and interestingly, I think it has been applicable for the single and perhaps very revealing for the married.  Hopefully that means, the single will be more prepared and the married will be solving problems...today.

I thought I would just quote this passage from the book, as I think it is quite insighful.

In Western culture today, you decide to get married because you feel an attraction to the other person.  You think he or she is wonderful.  But a year or two later--or, just as often, a month or two--three things usually happen.  First, you begin to find out how selfish this wonderful person is.  Second, you discover that the wonderful person has been going through a similar experience and he or she begins to tell you how selfish you are.  And third, though you acknowledge it in part, you conclude that your spouse's selfishness is more problematic than your own.  This is especially true if you feel that you've had a hard life and have experienced a lot of hurt.  You say silently, "OK, I shouldn't do that--but you don't understand me."  The woundedness makes us minimize our own selfishness.  And that's the point at which many married couples arrive after a relatively brief period of time.

Boy, that was a dose of reality...more to come in a future post!

Yellow Watermelon!

Fourth of July is coming up, and I love watermelon.  Last year I also wrote about watermelon around this time.  This year, the message remains the same - gentlemen, eat your watermelon!  It has lots of lycopene which helps to prevent prostate cancer.  Ladies, eat your watermelon because you need lycopene too!

However, the surprise I have for you is that from our garden, we tried to grow heirloom yellow watermelon.  Check out my pictures!

Sliced Yellow Watermelon

There it is, it's really yellow!  It does taste like watermelon, this one was not as watery but still tasted just like watermelon!  I would think the nutritional qualities are slightly different, but otherwise, tastes like watermelon!  Though when I eat it, I am thrown for a loop, I must say...

Yellow Watermelon

In case you feel unsettled and you just need to see the familiar red watermelon, I have included a picture of our 'mini' watermelon from our garden.  You can't really tell it's minature - but the size of the seeds are kind of big for the fruit, and there is a slight rim around the right, along the peel.  It fit perfectly in a bowl :).

Seeded Watermelon

Amazing Artichokes

Artichokes deserve their very own post!  Simply because artichokes are the detox powerhouse.  However, many people, including myself don't *really* like to buy them because they look at the vegetable and think, how would I eat this thing????  Don't worry, I used to think that way too...and here is my attempt to debunk your hesitations.

First, let me talk about the incredible properties of artichokes.  They are a liver-cleansing food, in other words detoxification.  Detoxification is important for battling diseases and keeping a healthy body.  Artichokes are a good source of silymarin, which helps protect and nourish the liver.

According to herbal experts Joe and Teresa Graydon, Ph.D. (authors of The People's Pharmacy), patients with chronic gastrointestinal (GI) upset who were given artichoke extract showed incredible improvement.  Another study showed patients experience relief from stomach pain, nausea and vomiting.  [Remember, findingfoodorlove.com does not provide medical advice, please consult your physician--but what awesome results!]

Second, how to consume whole artichokes.  After you buy a artichoke from the store, you will want to peel the outside layers by the stem, remove any fibers or small leaves at the bottom of the artichoke.  Next, cut the spikey tips of the artichoke leaves.  After you go around cutting all of them, cut off the top where all the leaves start to bunch up so you end up with something that looks like my picture.

Steam the artichokes for about 15-20 minutes.

That's it!  Now eat.  Just pull the leaves off and scrape the base of the leaf with your teeth.  When you get down to the heart of the artichoke, remove the hairy 'choke' (inedible fuzzy part).

I can eat with no dip.  It's really healthy.  It does take some work to eat, but in my opinion, when we have to work for our food, I think we eat better portions.

Source: The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth by Jonny Bowden

Breakfast for Champions

Hello! SUMMER!  Can't believe we are already in June, and I have a feeling this month is going to fly by!

Summer is ALL about eating more fresh vegetables and fruit because so much of it is in season, flavorful, and just makes life so immensely enjoyable.  Speaking of which, I snapped a picture of my fruit plate, which I call a breakfast for champions!

I eat in order of least sweet (or not 'as' in season) so that I can end on the most naturally sweet.  Here I started with the blueberries, apricot, kiwi, and ate the pineapple and watermelon interchangeably (but I think in the end the watermelon won, it was just so good.  The blueberries are now coming into season, but the ones we recently bought from Costco were not as sweet and plump as they have been in the past).

In addition, I have been starting breakfast with a plate of fruit.  During summer months with abundant fruit, it's a good time for me to change up my breakfast routine, which is usually oatmeal as I write in past posts.  I also read about a theory that eating fruit BEFORE your meal increases your enzyme absorption from the fruit.  Over the last couple of months, I have been trying this out.  At the very least, it does open up the palate and is very refreshing in the morning.

However, I do eat whole grains or something like oatmeal afterwards, as I have had stomach aches in the past when I only eat fruit for a meal.  Perhaps I am healthier these days, since my stomach is not as queezy when I consumer only fruit, but thought I would just note that for any wary eaters.

Up close picture of my yummy fruit :)

Michael Pollan's 'Food Rules'

An interesting animated video when it comes to the production of our food and the fossil fuel we need to do it.  Let alone the unspoken impact agriculture has on our environment.  We in the US really need to rethink how companies are growing our food and not let our current agriculture food framework dictate how we grow, eat and use energy going into the future.  Individual gardening is the first step in my opinion.  One can be very productive on even a plot of land the size of a car or two.  Turning this land that is currently mowed by gasoline and laden with pesticides into productive land to feed our mouth and our family's, organically.  Something to think about.

Michael Pollan's 'Food Rules' In Stop-Motion (VIDEO)

More on the Baobab Tree and Fruit

The baobab tree is an unusual tree found in Africa.  Perhaps the next big touted superfood, which is why it has peaked my interest.  From a healthy food perspective, baobab is a mainstay in the local African's diet, and has interesting medicinal purposes that people use it for in that part of the world (discussed further in this post).


Over generations, many names have been given to this mystical, HUGE tree.  In the desert, people can even stay inside the tree for shelter, at the base of the tree.  Adansonias trees can reach heights of 5 to 30 meters (16 to 98 ft) and have trunk diameters of 7 to 11 meters (23 to 36 ft).  20+ feet diameter for a trunk?!  The typical common name for this tree is baobab.  However, it also possesses other names including boab, boaboa, bottle tree, tree of life, upside-down tree, and monkey bread tree.  The generic name honours Michel Adanson, the French naturalist and explorer who described A. digitata.

In terms of medicinal purposes, the ancient Egyptians used it for treating fevers, dysentery and bloody wounds. For generations in Africa, Baobab is often given as a calming agent for those with a fever, but is also used to combat diarrhea, dysentery, small pox, and measles.  My friend who is from Togo says that her mom uses it as part of the post pregnancy recovery diet.  The baobab, like many other cultural traditional medicines, have been 'tested' by humans for 1000s of years.  No current day 'clincial' study can match that kind of dataset!

When talking about baobab fruit's nutrition, it seriously beats out most fruits that we eat in the US.  Baobab has 5x more potassium than bananas.  3x more antioxidants than blueberries.  Baobab is high in antioxidants, which slows oxidative damage and helps decrease inflammation.  It also has 2.5x more calcium than milk.  Baobab is super high in dietary fiber, especially pectins.  Half of the fruit is fiber. 

Source: Wikipedia, baobab.com