Tulsi Tea (organic india)

Which is the first item that gets into your shopping cart?

Mine usually starts with Oil or Dal. The supermarket I visit starts with cosmetics from the entrace and gradually proceeds with bath requirements, clothes, accessories,..... last comes the oil, dal, veg & bakery sections. So I start from Oil / Dal section and go ahead...... by the time my shopping is over, i will be near billing section.

Orgnaic India's Tulsi tea caught my attention and swooooooooosh!...... it went inside my shopping cart. I prefer tea leaves over tea bags. Tea leaves gives a quality taste compared to tea bags.

The tulsi tea is a combination of Rama Tulsi, Krishna Tulsi and Vana Tulsi. Their other tea leaves viz., jasmine, chamomile, ginger, lemon etc have a mix of these three tulsi leaves in the ingredient list.  I went for this one. I can always squeeze in few drops of lemon or crush a piece of ginger to get the variation in taste & flavour.

The steeping process is same as the ginger honey lemon tea.

I just added few drops of honey as a very light sweetner. What a soothing tea it is!

The mix flavour is taking me... into ..... a blissful state...............................

c u with another cup of freshly brewed health tea!

bye

Ginger Honey Lemon tea

Natural Tea are rich in anti-oxidant. A cup of tea after a meal aids in digestion, dissolves cholestrol, help in weightloss along with exercise & controlled diet.  

 

Tea when brewed at right temperature, without milk & sugar, infuse good health. They taste best when they are just hot enough to sip unlike the regular milk teas.

Opt for tea leaves instead of tea bags as they make your tea taste best.

These teas help you relax, boost your health.

These tea leaves can be reused twice or thrice though the concentration may become lighter.

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Ginger Honey Lemon Tea (servings : 2 nos)

You will need :-

1. Ginger - 1" piece
2. Lemon - half a lemon
3. Honey - 2 tsp
4. Water - 2 cups

 Procedure :-

• wash, peel the ginger.

• CAUTION :- Ginger should never be used with peel. You have to remove the outerskin as the skin has the property of nullifying all the good qualities of a ginger. For any use, never forget to peel a ginger.

•  Grate the ginger and put it into a tea pot or a vessel or a thermoflask

•  Boil 2 cups water. Switch off and leave it for two minutes for the temperature to come down. Pour this water into the pot / vessel / flask and cover it with lid and allow it to steep for 4 minutes.

• Now in the serving glass squeeze in few drops of lemon juice

• Add 1tsp honey in each serving glass

•  Using a sieve filter the steeped tea into the glass. mix well.

• Enjoy your cup of healthy tea!

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BENEFITS :-

• This soothing combination aids in weightloss, boost immune system. Best during cold & flu.
• The antioxidant vitamin C from lemon prevent formation of free radicals. Good to fight cold.
• Ginger is used in therapies to control nausea, vomitting. It also helps in sweating thus assists detoxification process in the body
• Honey a natural cough suppressant, boosts immunity and a natural sweetner which makes your tea more interesting.

 

Cancer Symptoms - Keep a watch

I came across a pamphlet of a NGO called "global Caner Concern India" which works for cancer care in India.

Don't know how many of us are aware of the symptoms. Many a times it is diagnosed at the last stage (except few lucky ones) and it is very painful to see their life ending painfully.

My own MIL suffered Colon cancer and had a painful death. Though she showed many a symptoms associated with it and it was visible in her CT scan, it went unnoticed by the doctor treating her. She could not undergo the surgery as planned as it had already spread to her bladder, kidney and was spreading to other organs....

Healthy Food, healthy living, right body weight etc will help one lead a healthy life.

The pamphlet of the NGO gave a list of symptoms suffered during different type of cancers. Sharing it here because it may help the needy to identify it at right time to take the necessary diagnosis and treatment. But do not panic when you see similar symptoms for some other minor ailments. Keep your cool and take the medical help to diagnose the problem.

ORAL CANCER :- White or red patches inside the oral cavity or difficulty in swallowing or opening the mouth wide, thickening of the tongue.

LUNG / THROAT CANCERS :- Persistent cough ; chest pain ; blood in sputum ; shortness of breath ; weight loss or loss of appetite ; hoarseness ; repeated bouts of penumonia or bronchitis, difficulty in swallowing.

STOMACH CANCER : Indigestion or hearburn, pain in the abdomen, bloating of stomach after meals, loss of appetite, weakness, tiredness, diarrhoea or constipation, blood in vomit.

COLON CANCER : Diarrhoea, constipation or any other change in bowel habits ; frequent gas pains ; blood in faeces

BREAST CANCER:- A lump in the breast or under-arm area ; change in shape, size or colour of the breast ; discharge from nipple ; dimpled puckered or scaly surface of the breast (like an orange peel)

CERVICAL / UTERINE CANCER :- unusual vaginal bleeding ; pain in the pelvic area, foul smelling or unusual discharge.

KIDNEY CANCER :- blood in urine ; frequent fevers ; weightloss or loss of appetite ; tiredness ; pain in the side ; anemia or high blood pressure

BLADDER CANCER :- The neeed to urinate frequently, painful urination ; blood in the urine

PROSTATE CANCER :- Urination problems

MELANOMA (SKin cancer) :- Change in size shape or colour of a mole or wart

finally the pamphlet stressed :- "Please note that these symptoms could be caused by something less serious too. However it is important that you consult your doctor for a proper investigation if any of the above symptoms persists for more than two weeks".

Along with the above symptoms i would like to mention certain things which we learnt from our experience that are important to be noticed and followed during the treatment.

• Generally cancer patients lose weight immensely, some have loss of appetite, difficulty in functioning of the affected organs etc.

• Cancer patients may suffer from an imbalance in their electrolyte level. Hence regular tests need to be taken and the salts to be supplimented with medical advise orally or through IV as per the requirement. Dip in electrolyte if go unnoticed for a longer period will affect the brain cells. The brain cell if affected dies and cannot be revived. The organs related to that part of brain function may fail. The patient may go to unconscious / vegetable state.... slowly they die... [ This we have experienced as the doctor during discharge never mentioned about the importance of electrolyte level cheking in the discharge advice... so she kept talking about old things forgtting the present... slowly she behaved like a child....]

• Frequent rise in temperature (fevers). In case of my MIL it happened everyday during the last stage of the cancer. As it was winter season all the doctors blamed it on the weather.

• Here I would also like to mention about a old thread in a community called Indus Ladies (you can see the link at the end of this home page) (a supportive natural therapy) by a member. We didn't had enough time to practice it. Hope it may help you.
  Supportive therapy to cure cancer approved

 To read experience of others on different types of cancers, please do check it here

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 My Mother-in-law suffered from colon cancer. The symptoms she experienced were :-

1. Frequent passing of urine / sensation to pass urine
2. Sudden immense weightloss
3. Frequent feeling for passing stool (though large intestine is clear)
4. Bloating of stomach, Gas formation
5. Tatelessness
6. Tiredness (low electrolyte level)
7. Daily fever during the last stage
8. Blood while passing Urine
9. Vomitting after seeing all the above symptoms

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CANCER IS CURABLE IF DETECTED EARLY.  

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Deepavali lehyam / legiyam

With deepavali / diwali festival fast approaching, many of you will be busy planning for the festivals, making sweets, shopping etc.

• Staying healthy before, during and after festival is very important to let the bliss continue for few more days following it. 

• Eating without any restriction and falling sick will kill all the fun that the festival had brought in.

• Eating moderately, slowly, enjoying what we eat, is more important.

• I prefer to include herbs from my kitchen into the daily menu. So among the goodies there will be some dish which is not only tasty but also aids in digestion. 

• Deepavali lehyam is one such dish which helps in digestion and calm down your stomach. You can google for the pictures if to know how the herb will look like so that you can procure them from the store selling the herb (naatu marundu kadai / jadi booti dhukan).  Let  us go to the recipe

Ingredients :-

• 1 tbsp - Kandan Thippili / dried long pepper
• 1 tbsp - Airisi thippili / pippali (small and looks like grains)
• 1 tbsp - Chukku / Dry ginger / Sunth
• 1 tbsp - milagu / Black peppercorns / kalai miri
• 1 tbsp - Jeeragam / Cumin seeds / Jeera
• 1 tbsp - Omam / ajwain / caraway or carom seeds
• 1 tbsp - pattai / Cinnamon / dalchini
• 1 tbsp - chitharathai / Thai ginger / alpinia galangal
• 7 Nos. - elakkai / cardamom / ilaichi
• 1 cup - Jaggery
• 2 tbsp - Ghee / nei / clarified butter

Procedure :-

1. Dry roast each ingredient separately except jaggery and ghee.
2. Powder them separately.
3. Dissolve jaggery in water and filter
4. Heat the jaggery water, when it comes to boil, add a tablespoon of each of the dry roasted & powdered items and keep stirring in a low flame
5. when it thickens, add 1 tbsp ghee / nei and keep stirring
6. when it becomes thick like a paste, remove from fire
7. Add the remaining 1 tbsp ghee and mix till ghee mix well
8. cool and store in a clean bottle.

You can add some sugar candys (kalkandu), if you want, to the above Lehyam.

The above lehyam aids digestion, fights food poisoning, cures gas trouble and lot more health benefits.

But eat moderately so that you can enjoy the festival and take precautions to prevent yourself from falling sick because of over eating (which kills all the happiness & fun you had during the celebration)

Wish you all a happy & safe deepavali.

Weightloss Tips

For weightloss, physical work out and regulated diet helps a lot. Sharing some weightloss tips which I follow.

1. Early Morning - in empty stomach have this drink which not only helps weightloss but also boost your energy level.  [Squeeze in half lime, 1tbsp honey, 1" piece of ginger ground, warm water.] Honey has two properties. If taken with warm water early morning it helps in weightloss. If taken with milk at night it helps to gain weight.
2. Include barley water twice in a week.
3. Include horsegram in your diet weekly once. Both barley & horsegram increase body heat hence use it max 3 times in a week.(in powder form, gravy, water form)
4. Keep drinking hot water instead of normal water (heat should be bearable). Jeera water is the best.
5. Do stretchings frequently in between your chores. If you have tummy,  stomach crunches will help you shed those extra fat.
6. Reduce sugar and rice intake
7. Make a big vessel of soup so that you can heat & take it through out the day when you feel hungry
8. Never skip your food as it will only make you hungry & crave for goodies.
9. Before a meal have a bowl of soup to bring the appetite down
10. Your meal should contain fiber, protein, essential vitamins & minerals. So include whole wheat Indian Bread (without oil), a big bowl of vegetables / Greens (not fried but boiled or if at all fried use olive oil), a small cup of dhal, a cup of buttermilk, a small cup of salad (this will also reduce your appetite and give you a filled up feeling), a small bowl of rice (optional).
11. Night have your food 2 or 2.5 hours before you go to sleep. Staying awake late night will only make you hungry and end up eating extra. Have a light dinner & go early to bed.
12. Oats Porridge (without sugar) for breakfast. If you feel hungry in between, help yourself with n number of bowls of soup till your lunch time or fruit bowls.
13. If you talk on phone, walk n talk
14. Every day make it a point to go for a brisk walk. If you have starting trouble then don't buy provision on monthly basis. Buy only those items which you need in bulk quantity (viz., rice, atta etc) for a month at one shot. Other items you try to buy it from local store during your evening walk. This will push you out of house for a nice evening walk.
15. Never use curd, but have buttermilk for rice or to drink.
16. Use Native oils as they suit your body more as per the climate of the place you live in. Gingely oil is considered very good for cooking. Never let the oil reach smoking point (except the mustard oil).
17. Have sufficient sleep.
18. If you are a greentea lover then go for it.
19. When you are enjoying yourself eating yummy food, when you crave for one more helping, stop your thoughts there because that is how your body tells you to stop.
20. Chew well and eat not in a hurry. As your brain takes sometime to receive the signal from the stomach that it is filled up, slow eating will help you eat the right quantity.

Moongphali chat / kadalai sundal / Groundnut salad

Groundnut belongs to legume family and not a nut as the name suggests.  It helps to fight malnutrition, by providing 30 essential nutrients & minerals, no transfat.

So if your child is a poor eater, please go ahead and give this wondernut in various forms.

1. You can boil & give them in a chat form as I have shared here.
2. Roasted peanut with little salt sprinkled over it.
3. Soak it along with other ingredients of adai & make nice adai dosai
4. Make peanut powder chutney & use it as a side dish even for rice.
5. Make masala pea nut but if you bake it instead of frying it is very good for health.
6. Roast & coarsely powder peanut, add it to the dry vegetable dishes
7. Chikkis (burfi)

and many more recipes.....

As we are experiencing pre-monsoon showers, hot beverages & snacks are in our monsoon recipe list.

Sharing with you a  healthy & simple recipe to make a nice colourful  Nutritious evening snack.

Ingredients :-

1. Ground nut - 1 cup (Fresh ones)
2. Onion - 1 no. (finely chopped)
3. Cucumber -1 tbsp (finely chopped)
4. Carrot - 2 tbsp (grated)
5. Raw Mango - 1 tbsp (optional)
6. Green chilli - 1 no. (optional)
7.  Lemon juice - few drops
8. salt to taste
9. Coriander leaves -2 tsp (finely chopped)

Procedure :-

• Pressure cook the groundnuts with skin adding water & salt
• Remove the pearls & discard the shells
• To the pearls add chopped onion, cucumber, raw mango, grated carrot, finely chopped green chilli, coriander leaves, salt, lemon juice and mix well
• Yummy & nutritious snack is ready to eat.
• Tastes best when served hot. So keep all the other ingridients ready, steam the nuts. Then add the other ingredients, mix & serve hot. 

Serving suggestion :-

To make the snack more interesting, serve it hot by steaming the pearls so that it stays hot and keep the other ingridients ready to be added to the groundnut before serving.

If you don't have fresh ones, then you can soak the dried ones & pressure cook it.

Beating the Heat - Naturally

Summer is ON. We are in the peak period of the season known as 'Agninatchatram' or 'Kathiri veyyil'. Let us see how we can beat this summer.

1. Lemon Juice + ground mint leaves + blacksalt + sugar = excellent summer cooler
2. Panagam is also good (jaggery water + elachi powder + Dry ginger powder + lemon juice)
3. Buttermilk
4. Pazhayadhu
5. Tender Coconut is the nature's best energy drink
6. Soak methi seeds overnight and have it along with curd in the morning
7. Milkshakes, smoothies using fruits
8. Cucumber, watermelon, muskmelon are good
9. Fresh juices
10. Gulkand (made using good quality edible roses)
11. Root herbs like nannari in sherbet form is available in the market
12. Onion is very good so can include that in raita form (raw onions)
13. Ice apple (eng) / nungu (tamizh) / Tari (hindi) / Tadgola (marathi) and the Juice called Nira (marathi) or Padhaneer (tamizh) is also very good to beat the heat. The juice is pungent hence you can dilute it adding water, add in some sugar and drink. (check wikipedie for more info Borassus flabellifer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 

• Bathe twice a day the bath before you hit bed will give you a nice sleep.

• If you like short haircuts, go for it as this is the best season. Easy to clean & maintain.
• use cotton dresses. Try to avoid wearing tight wears. 

 

• Keep a towel always handy to dry your hair if you sweat excess. this will also prevent from catching cold during a hot summer day.

• Ladies, Minimise your time in  the kitchen by bringing in raw salads, easy to cook receipes, fruit shakes, sandwiches,  Raita etc into your menu which will save you as well as healthy for your family.

• Always carry water bottle with you so that you will not get dehydrated and this practice will also prevent you from waterborne infection that may be caused as the outside water source is not known.

•  Use good sunscreen lotion to protect your skin and also you can give it some luxury treatment by rubbing cucumber / tomato / curd to the skin

•  You can add some rosewater to your bath tub

•  Carry an umbrella with you (preferably cool shades like blue & green colours)  

 

• Spray your favourite deo in your hankie, lighly moist it. While walking in hot sun, use it which will cool the skin on your face.

• If you can tolerate, dip a towel in water, squeeze, put in on head on afternoon hours for sometime, which will also leave you cool

• Apply coconut oil to hair before taking hair bath, few drops of castor oil on the centre of your head daily, will cool you.

• If you don't have air conditioner then dip an old saree in water, dry it inside the room. You can even tie it around your bed like musquito net, let the fan on and sleep cozily inside it on a hot summer afternoon.

•  Use a good quality goggles      as they also filter bad rays and will make your eyes comfortable while walking under hot sun. 

• In an earthen pot pour good drinking water, two whole lemon. This will give you nice flavour to the drinking water which not only quenches your thirst but also the flavour will leave you feel fresh

•  Select some cool colours  & shades for your upholstery and Bedcovers. 

• Bring in some nice potted plants that suits an indoor living to brighten up the scene with some living greenery.

• Try to spend evening hours in an open ventilated area like park or a garden which will be refreshing for you as well as save some electricity with the natural breeze.

Don'ts

1. Avoid going in hot sun wherever possible
2. Never drink cold water after roaming in hot sun. Water at room temperature or Hot water though may not be liked by many quenches thirst on a hot summer day. (ushnam ushnena shanthi is a saying
3. Avoid carbonated drinks

geared up?!! 

Dos and Donts suggestions for those who are fitted with pace makers

Sharing with you the info I have come across on pace maker. A heart specialist gave the following advise for those who are fitted with pace makers.

Pace maker is fitted to increase the pumping rate of the heart. Normally it should be within the range of 60 to 90 beats per minute and it varies depending upon one's activity and stress levels. When it reduces drastically, pace maker is fitted to increase the heart pumping function to normal level.

1. Pace maker will only help to increase the heart beat and cannot prevent heart attack. Hence have to careful with the eating & living habits.
2. Pace maker will not function inside a magnetic field, hence let you doctor know if you are prescribed for MRI scans and avoid going to places where magnetic field is there
3. Always carry the certificate or the card which says that pacemaker is planted in your body, this is to avoid the problem that may arise during a security check as the metal detector will raise an alarm. Especially while travelling by flights or going to temples or malls which has metal detector.
4. If the person who has got a pace maker fitted in his or her body dies, please remove the instrument with the help of a doctor before making cremations as it may explode during that process.

Ways to keep our food Healthy

In today's life we come across various research articles published in papers about the crops [hybrid, pesticides, their medicinal effect], kalories consumed, etc.

Some opt for organic food. But how much organic they are depends on the recommendation of the regulatory authorities and it varies. Awareness is always good but too much of contradictory articles will only leave us

Lack of time due to racing run, has made us just buy and consume whatever available. So let us discuss here and follow some simple rules with the crops available in the market to make it as much healthy as possible to eat. Many of the things, we know. So let's do a brush up!

What we need to do to keep our food healthy:-

1. Devotion
2. Time
3. Awareness
4. Remembering what we leant
5. Action

I divide the process of making our food healthy as follows :-

1. Selection
2. Storage
3. Washing & cutting
4. Cooking
5. Eating

Let us see each of the above process in detail :-

SELECTION :

Whether it’s a fruit or vegetable, the selection process is very important. I have heard in medias during my childhood days that shapes of the vegetable we eat is good to the organs they resemble in our body, e.g., Bitter gourd for pancreas, Drumstick for nerves and so on.

1. The skin should be smooth without any cuts.
2. Should look fresh.
3. If you find a hole made by an insect, that means it doesn’t have much of pesticides. If there would have been pesticide then there is no room for insects!
4. Colour is an important factor. Many vendors add aritificial colouring agent to give the veggies a fresh look. Hence if you find them extremely colour, give the benefit of doubt. Immersing them in water will show whether the colour is natural or not. Added colours will come out and colour the water. This type of colouring is done mostly with veggies like Carrot, greenpeas, parwal
5. If you find the country vegetables especially tomato, brinjal, potato, please go in for it as they are more healthy compared to the hybrid ones
6. For root vegetables like carrot, raddish, beetroot, if you get them with leaves, the leaves will show you how fresh they are. The root as well as leaves can be used in your curry / subzi.

Storing :-  

Irrespective the quantity you buy, storing is an important process to save your health as well as wastage .

1. Always buy them as per the requirement and frequently. As the veggies or the fruits takes few days time to reach our hands from the production place. So they are not very fresh. Hence buy it every two to three days. If you cannot avoid bulk buying due to lack of time, take care in storing them atleast.
2. After coming home, immediately segregate & clean them e.g. for cauliflower, you can cut the hard stems, remove roots of coriander leaves or any greens – this will save the space for you and help keeping the storage compartment clean.
3. Washing, drying them completely and then storing in refrigerator is a good habit.
4. Store them in separate cloth / netted bags (this will help in ventilation)
5. Every day, take them out. Wipe them with a dry cloth (to remove the moisture content which leads to decaying) and putting them back in the bag. This is just a 10 minutes process.
6. Curry leaves can be stores as sprigs in a steel container by putting a tissue at the bottom and this will keep them fresh for even 3 weeks.
7. Green chillies : remove the stalk. Place a paper or tissue on the bottom of the container and store them. This will keep them fresh for 3 weeks.
8. Coriander Leaves – clean them, remove the roots. Place them in a container with a tissue at the base and at the top. Excess moisture will be absorbed and will keep them fresh for a week. There are other methods too. Placing them in a jar of water.
9. Do not store apple in refrigerator as the gas emits will spoil the other veggies / fruits too. Its always better to store fruits outside with a netted cover (preventing flies) and buy them evey 2 – 3 days time.
10. Bananas can be stored for long time, if they are hung in a thread like they do here in shops.

Washing & Chopping :-

1. As much as possible, wash the vegetables thoroughly using your finger and palms and then cut them. (The water used for washing & the peels can be fed to the plants your grow). Even leafy ones, after removing the roots, wash them thoroughly and then cut them. Because if a cut vegetable is washed it loses some of its nutrients and then again in cooking process.
2. Cut into medicum sized pieces. This will help saving the nutrients for us in the cooking process.
3. As much as possible, cut vegetable just before cooking. Storing of cut vegetables though may sound convenient but not a healthy habit

Healthy Cooking :-

1. Do not overcook vegetables otherwise it will lose its important nutrients.
2. Partially cooked vegetables are always good. If it doesn’t suit your digestive system, then try to take a soup daily by grinding the partially cooked vegetable into nice paste.
3. Salt comes to our hands with added iodine. If it boils for long time it loses the sodium. Hence try using half salt for cooking and add the remaining salt after you finish the cooking.
4. Research articles say, ‘Cooked food stays good for only few hours’. But its not possible for all to follow this in busy life. Hence try to compensate it atleast during the weekends.
5. To avoid transfat, use fresh oil for frying every time. Do not let the oil smoke. The fried oil can be used for seasoning purposes (tadka). Use a shallow bottomed kadai then you may require only less oil for frying purposes.

Healthy Eating :-

1. Not just having raw vegetable / fruit salad is healthy.
2. Take food when they are in warm temperature. Cold food is not an healthy option.
3. ‘Eat to live ; don’t live to eat’ is a saying. This will keep one healthy. we have to devote some time in eating our food. Chewing them properly will ease the work of the stomach and helps the digestive process.
4. Eat atleast two hours before you go to sleep. This will again help the digestion process. Prevents the workload to your digestive organs.Also help you give a sound sleep .
5. Always Eat in moderate quantity. Fill half of your stomach with food, the next ¼ by water and the remaining ¼ is for air. This system will give you a good digestive power.
6. Eating sathvik food helps you keep healthy and calm . Excessive oil or spice will make a treat to your tongue but not to your body / health.
7. Eat when you feel hungry . Not out of temptation.
8. Eat on time. Letting your stomach keep guessing the time of food flow is not good. It has become a trend of today to stay awake till late night and take food as per convenience. This is definitely not healthy. Once you regularize the eating habit, your stomach will automatically set its biological clock. I have observed in coporate world, where people don’t care for health but comfortably finish their conference / meetings and then give the least priority for food. This fuel to health is an important component which keeps you active to accomplish a task. Hence devote for a timely lunch and then continue with your work. ‘If there is a will, there is the way.
9. Eating together is always good. If children are trained with this habit, it increases the family bonding at dinner table too. If you cannot afford it daily, atleast try practicing it during weekends. This save your valuable time too and let you enjoy your leisure time like others in the family. Ofcourse, the co-operation of family members is needed in this activity.

You are all with your inputs to benefit others.
Wish you a healthy & happy life