Can you practice being happy?
Happiness, relief, contentment it turns out they are as important to our mental health as hand washing , exercise and sleep are to our physical health. Can we learn happiness? Is it something that we can do in our daily rituals? View full article →Guest Blog: Taking Care of Yourself So You Can Take Care of Others
A faster recovery from Norovirus - peak season for the stomach bug is January/February
A recent conversation with a colleague "It was 2am. I woke up and there was something terribly wrong. I had returned from a flight around 9pm and had felt fine when I went to bed but now my stomach was in knots, I had a fever and was aching. I felt weak. I raced for the bathroom....." and the rest of the story for the next 48 hours was very, very unpleasant.
Fortunately there are ways to help recover and get back on your feet. The "FBF" Fight Back Five™ - Ginger, Turmeric, Mint, Honey and Lemon will be you BFFs before all this is over.
Norovirus Case Peaks January to March Each Year
Source : CDC Center for Disease Control Prevention
The culprit, most probably Norovirus. This highly contagious virus shows itself with peak outbreaks in North America around January and February. The CDC ( Centers for Disease Control ) reports that this is a story repeated over 20 Million times a year and results in over 50,000 hospitalizations from the dehydration and complications that result. The young and old are particularly susceptible. The symptoms of nausea, cramps, throwing up, diarrhea, fever, aches can leave you weak for days.
The CDC advises that this is a virus spread by direct contact with infected people or food or surfaces they have contacted. The best defense is like your mother told you - wash your hands, don't touch your mouth and avoid touching things that infected people have touched. All of this is good advice but try going to the mall, airport, cruise ship, daycare, aged care, office, restaurant, dorm room, cafeteria...and touch nothing that someone else has touched. Fact is 20 million of us are going to get it anyway - so do what you can to reduce the chance of infection and make sure you have a plan to help speed recovery for you and your loved ones. What most people need help with includes:
- Cramps
- Nausea
- Inflammation
- Gentle Rehydration
Fortunately, there are time tested foods that many people, including my colleague, have reported may help you through the worst of it and get you back on your feet ASAP.
| Ingredient | Helps With |
| Ginger | Nausea |
| Turmeric | Inflammation |
| Ginger or Turmeric Green Tea | Hydration, nutrients |
| Honey | Inflammation, nutrients |
| Lemon | Hydration, vitamins, nutrients |
These are shelf-stable products that you can have on hand when the inevitable happens. Keep some at home and as an emergency package for your next trip, your kids dorm and your parents aged care facility.
Verdant Kitchen
Anxiety - don't let it steal your happiness
 Anxiety is a silent epidemic. "A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.."
Like so many natural body mechanism Anxiety has deep roots in our history and physiology. A certain level of Anxiety is critical to our lives. It focuses us on being prepared, to think through new events and choices. It stops us from getting too close to the edge of a cliff or from doing something we are going to regret.
But like other built-in systems in our bodies that help us maintain a natural state of wellness, a functioning feedback system for Anxiety helps keep us safe not just for now and today, but for tomorrow and the future. It is when anxiety becomes chronic and takes control of our lives that this friendly and helpful natural process can become an enemy within. Just like other natural processes, the aim is not to eliminate anxiety but rather to ensure it happens at an appropriate level. It is to not allow it to become a chronic issue that robs our quality of like and negatively impacts those around us.
Anxiety can take many forms and often requires professional medical help to correct, but there are many things we can do to concisely manage our Anxiety.
A full-on panic attack is relatively easy to identify but for this conversation, I want to focus on a less obvious problem. A general level of elevated Anxiety. Stress and Anxiety are closely linked. It may be overly simplistic but the Stress we fell often leads to Anxiety. One way to think of it is Stress being the "trigger" and Anxiety being the "response". Clearly the best option is to de-stress our lives. As we all know this is much easy said than done, but it is the key to good health.
Here are five steps to manage Anxiety
1. Where possible remove or reduce the cause of the stress that triggers our Anxiety
2. Understand how we feel and when Anxiety is not at a healthy level.
The symptoms of anxiety are different for each person.
You will see that the actions to reduce Anxiety are closely linked to the same list to reduce stress with the addition of a major focus on our Diet. Stress causes damage on many levels in our bodies and a solid immune system and strong liver, kidneys and digestive system is critical to help our bodies deal with the impacts of stress and anxiety.
Plant-based diets with the addition of fermented foods, natural antioxidants, and anti inflammatories plus fiber rich prebiotics and live culture probiotics help build a maintain an active defense to damage and fast healing.
Don't underestimate the importance of daily routines and rituals. As a start, focus on our "end of day" routine. Prepare your body and mind to let the troubles of the day go. Feed your body with the compounds it needs to repair during our sleep hours when the body performs its key maintenance functions.
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Liquid Concentrates - good choice for complete adsorption of natural botanical compounds
The question is how to get these powerful compounds to where they are needed in the body?
Healthy Travel: How to Ready Your Immune System Before and During Traveling
Travel Essential - stories from a Million Mile Road Warrior
Over the years I have traveled well over 1,000,000 miles and have lost count of the countries I have visited. I have learned a few things over those miles and one thing I am sure of is that it is no fun to be sick when you travel. It's bad enough when you travel for business and miss meetings but when you travel on vacation with family..
What does the USDA Organic label really mean? Top 5 questions we are asked.
There is a lot of bad information about the word "organic" and what the USDA Organic seal means on a label. At the Verdant Kitchen, we have managed three separate USDA Organic locations including our growing farm, our on-farm processing, and our production facility. We have learned a lot of the years about what it does and does not mean.
If you want positive change - start with your daily routine.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today" There are lots of time tested saying and proverbs that have a similar theme. Small changes made now add up to big changes across time.
How to fortify your day with #ArmoredCoffee.
Try this - make your favorite cup of coffee. Add one dropper of Liquid Concentrate, stir and drink.
Choose from any one of the Liquid Concentrates for your needs and taste. The Turmeric containing products also contain Black Pepper to maximize the time the Turmeric remains available for your system.
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