Abigails Herbs

If you want to lose weight and slim down, add protein to your daily diet. Include at least 2 ounces of turkey, beef, chicken, tofu or fish in every meal. Recent studies show that this is enough to double your metabolic rate for two hours!

The reason for this is because it takes a lot of energy to digest and to use protein. Another way to rev up your metabolism is to spice up your food with loads of chili powder, ginger, cayenne pepper, spicy mustard and turmeric. Hot and spicy flavorings help your fat burning liver to speed up its’ job. These spices increase your fat burning metabolism by as much as 25% for at least one full hour.

Spending time in the sun (about 20 minutes each morning) actually cranks up your weight loss by signaling  cells to burn fat faster for fuel. You can drop as much as 10 pounds in as little as six months. Drinking plenty of fresh, filtered water and eating a good-size breakfast in the mornings can also help you to lose weight by speeding up your metabolism.

Women in India fight off symptoms of cold and flu by drinking curry-laced broth and soup. Researchers at the University of California at San Fransisco report that this anti-inflammatory spice can relieve congestion, stuffiness and other symptoms within 10 minutes. Amazing! Just add a pinch of curry powder to 8 ounces of your favorite chicken broth or soup, heat it up and enjoy.

Additionally, we should all add avocados to our diets. They are packed with omega-9 fatty acids, which are essential oils that speed the conversion of food into the cellular energy needed to build strong immune cells. This can reduce your risk of a prolonged illness by 30 per cent or greater.  The research studies suggest a daily dose of 1/4 cup of avocado everyday.

Last of all, be silly. People who use the “downtime” of being sick as an excuse to laugh with funny videos or other humorous entertainment recover faster, plus cut their risk of a relapse by as much as 80 per cent. Laughter stimulates your brain to produce immunity-boosting hormones such as oxytocin.

Mint tea, either spearmint or peppermint, is amongst a group of foods which has been proven to help protect our bodies from predatory cancer cells. That’s right, the phytochemicals in this herb cut off the flow of blood and nutrients to cancerous tumors, thus starving them off without harming our bodies’ normal and healthy cells. If you can, pick fresh spearmint or peppermint  leaves from your garden, place them in a mug, cover with boiling water, cool and then sip. Remove the mint leaves, add ice and sweeten to taste. The good thing about this kind of tea is that you don’t need a tea bag. Use the fresh herbal leaves as they are!

Some other important foods which fight and prevent cancer are as follows:

• Sauerkraut : Believe it or not, the fermentation process loads it up with cancer-fighting compounds.
• Burgers, grilled medium-well; with less charring comes less exposure to cancer-causing chemicals.
• Lemonade (fresh); the compound in lemons known as limonene, is shown to cut the risk of certain cancers in half.
• Horseradish; Use as much as it as you can stand because this condiment stops cancer-cell growth by as much as 70% according to Michigan State University researchers. That’s because its compounds increase the liver’s ability to detoxify carcinogens.
• Filtered Water; a report put out by the Environmental Working Group suggests that home-filtered tap water is  safer than bottled water.
• Cigarette Smoke;  AVOID it because it contains over 60 different carcinogens which affect most of the organs in your body.
• Sunshine; get at least 15 minutes of sunshine per day to cut your cancer risk up to 36% by giving your body vital Vitamin D, a nutrient that shuts down abnormal cells before they can become cancerous. Avoid too much sun because even sunshine hurts if you get too much. If you are unable to get outdoors, take a supplement of at least 1000 units of Vitamin D everyday. Most Americans are lacking in Vitamin D and are suffering  from many different kinds of disorders as a result. Fibromyalgia is one example of such a disorder. Most of these illnesses can be avoided. Just ask your family doctor to test you for Vitamin D levels.

We can get a hold of the aging process and actually slow it down with the kind of foods we eat. That is so empowering!  We can actually take control of the way we age!  AGE’s are known as “advanced glycation end products.” These end products are the primary cause of aging. When these AGE’s or waste products build up in our body’s cells, they actually trigger tissue damage which leads to sagging skin, wrinkles and serious health woes such as heart disease and cardiac problems!

The more sugar that we put into our bloodstream, the quicker the AGE’s form. This is the reason that people with really high blood-glucose levels produce up to 50 times more of these AGE’s molecules. Fiber is good because it blocks the absorption of sugars and could cut our risk of AGE’s by 38 per cent. So, eat high fiber cereals and plenty of bran flakes for breakfast everyday.

Stay clear of foods containing high fructose corn syrup. This is a sweetener that causes AGE  formation to sky rocket. Cutting back on our intake of high fructose corn syrup, like sodas and candy, can cut our AGE levels by 35 per cent or more!

Adding one-half teaspoonful of cinnamon to our coffee or cereal each day will give us a huge dose of protection from AGE’s. The reason for this is because cinnamon is packed full of phenolics; plant compounds that block the formation of AGE’s, according to the latest research. Nutmeg, Jamaican allspice. apple pie spice and cinnamon are all spices which inhibit aging cells from forming and protect all of us from deleterious effects of aging.

Believe it or not  -  beef  stops sugars and proteins from binding to create AGE’s, so research reports.  Eat 4 ounces  of slow cooked pot roast three times per week to slow down exposure to these harmful compounds of sugar and corn syrup. Beef  is loaded with carnosine, the natural compound that prevents AGE’s from doing their cell damage.

I will outsmart the cause of aging as much as possible. I want to stay healthy and strong with as few wrinkles as possible. So, join me in the fight against the deteriorating aging process and claim your  access to the  positive and healthy aging process. There is nothing to dread. Aging is not the end of the world, so let’s all grow into our golden age gracefully.

According to the 5000 year oil medicine system of India, called Ayurveda, neem oil is probably the best blood purifier on the planet. It is rich in fatty acids so it is a wonderful skin moisturizer and its’  lypolytic action is great for the skin when applied topically. I have a friend who uses neem oil for his excema and he reports that it takes rashes away, prevents scars from forming and relieves his itchiness too!

I need to let him know that he should also take the neem leaf extract in oral form while simultaneously applying the neem oil to his skin. The combination of both forms should do away with his excema all together. Never consume the oil full strength. It will purify your blood, but neem is a very strong oil, so dilute it with vegetable oil before consuming it. Use 3 tablespoons of neem oil to one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Warning: neem is excellent; I love it, but the smell of this wonderful oil is awful! You may like the smell of it but it absolutely repulses me. Individuals have reported that it is effective as an anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-fungal agent.

The FDA has not yet tested or evaluated this product, so I am making a disclaimer that all reports of neem’s effectiveness has been by anecdotal records only. Most people report that it gets rid of skin parasites and heals wounds while preventing scarring – even acne, burns and even rosacea. There has been no empirical, scientific data as yet. The ancient Ayurvedic practitioners report that it has worked for them over hundreds of years but it is not sanctioned in the USA yet.

Some people use it to treat scalp dryness. They massage the oil into their scalp prior to shampooing. Sulfur products have typically and traditionally been used to treat skin parasites, however, sulfur dries out the skin, while neem moisturizes it.

Incidentally, neem oil has been reported to be successful at treating mange in animals. Just add 1 tsp. to 8 oz. of your pet’s favorite shampoo and apply to your pet’s skin regularly.

It is also an excellent insect repellent. Since it is organic and natural, just mix 1/2 teaspoon to one cup of warm water. Shake and spray all around the perimeters of barns, windowsills, counter tops, door screens and home entrances and you will see how it keeps pesky moths, fleas and other pests away. You can always add some perfumed oil to the mixture to downplay the unpleasant odor. Remember, I shared with you how my one friend drank a couple ounces of the neem oil (undiluted), and he reported to me that his whole body felt much healthier and stronger by the very next day!

I have met several Americans who suffer from arthritis. Usually, as we enter our middle  years, arthritis seems to enter our lives. I believe that this painful condition, (inflammation of the joints) can be prevented in many cases. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), however, is in a completely different category as it is an auto immune deficiency disease. RA then, requires treatment from a rheumatoid specialist.

However, regular arthritis can be avoided by eating the right foods. Onions,cherries, fish loaded with Omega-3 fatty acids, turmeric and ginger are just a small listing of all the anti-inflammatory foods available to you.

Ginger also helps to alleviate aches and pains. You can eat ginger in the form of candy, brew it as tea, or enjoy it in stir fry meals. This great herbal root is a natural anti-inflammatory that gets rid of muscle pain and arthritis stiffness in much the same way that Advil, Ibuprofen and other medicinal non-steroidal drugs (called NSAIDS) do. There is a full report of this data in the Journal of Pain.

In my late thirties, I was starting to experience joint pain in my finger joints and in my neck, but after I started eating the right foods and, the arthritic pain stopped.  I have no pain now and I am older now. It is so ironic; I feel much  younger now than when I was actually younger!

Be open to enlightenment and your habits will change. A healthier lifestyle is available for all of us. Just start choosing the higher vibrational foods and herbs. It all starts with small, daily choices. Your body and your mind will then be in synchrony with the earth and your heart beat will beat in rhythm to the pulse of the higher frequencies of the universe.