’Tis that time of year. You know… When all of your best intentions about not scarfing down mass quantities of holiday delectables go out the door. What to do when you’re at a holiday gathering and your belly is starting to bloat like a hot air balloon, but you forgot to wear stretchy pants? Well, if you planned ahead, you take out your little brown bottle of digestive herbs.
If you like to cook, drink tea, or simply enjoy a variety of tastes for your sophisticated palate, you have undoubtedly used ginger at some point in your diet in several different ways. Available for ingestion as a fresh root, a powder, a whole leaf, and even pills, ginger has played a large role in kitchens and medicinaries for centuries all over the world.
When I was little, I would suffer from terrible stomachaches in school. They were so bad that I would have to go to the nurse’s office at times and even be sent home. It turns out I was lactose intolerant—that coupled with having high anxiety did not mix very well.
Bitters are plants that work by activating the bitter receptors on the tongue (and elsewhere in the body). Bitter receptors, in turn, trigger the production of digestive juices and enzymes so that by the time your food hits your stomach, the digestive system is revved up and ready to go.
If you have ever been in the backseat of a car on a winding road and started to feel nauseated, dizzy, and just plain awful, you have experienced motion sickness. We often feel symptoms of motion sickness when we are on a boat, a train, and even when flying on a plane. Children can sometimes get motion sick when playing on swings at the playground or when on rides at the fair, such as a spinning ride, or one that has you hanging upside down.
Colchicum belongs to the family Liliaceae or Lily family of the genus Colchicum L. or colchicum P that contains two species. Colchicum autumnale is also known as autumn crocus or meadow saffron. It is an early fall blooming perennial and is used in areas where summer flowers are fading.
Mallows are great plant allies for our health. You may be familiar with marshmallow root, but did you know that the flowers and leaves are also good medicine? And that other mallows are equally useful? These include Hollyhock (Alcea rosea), that beautiful and easy-to-grow ornamental plant; Globe Mallow (Sphaeralcea species), a denizen of more desert-type areas; and Wild or Common Mallow (Malva neglecta & M.
Nutmeg is native to Indonesia on the Spice Islands and grows on an evergreen tree known as Myristica fragrans. Its name is derived from the Latin word “mix,” meaning nut, and “muscat,” meaning musky. Nutmeg was exploited by a few traders who knew where the archipelago was located and they monopolized the market.
A loss of appetite can really get you down in more ways than one! When you don’t eat you lose vitamins and minerals. The herbs I’m going to cover in this article are great for stimulating the appetite, as well as stimulating digestion.
Knowing that there are kid-friendly herbs that you can give your little ones in a time of need can be incredibly comforting. Too many over-the-counter medications have negative side effects and fillers that are difficult to pronounce. Mother Earth’s medicine is the first medicine there ever was and in my opinion, the best medicine available.