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Author: flourishweb

Pain – how a plant-based diet can alter pain.

Posted on by flourishweb

The mechanisms behind how diet can reduce pain are complex, but they largely involve the modulation of three pathways: the inflammatory cytokine pathway, the arachidonic pathway, and the neuroscience brain perception pathway.

The Inflammatory Cytokine Pathway

The inflammatory cytokine pathway is one of the primary pathways involved in pain and inflammation. It involves the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are small signaling molecules that are produced by the immune system in response to injury or infection. These cytokines, such as interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), can cause pain and inflammation by activating immune cells and promoting the production of inflammatory mediators.

Modulating the Inflammatory Cytokine Pathway with Diet

Research has shown that certain dietary patterns, such as a plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, can help to reduce inflammation by modulating the inflammatory cytokine pathway. For example, a study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that a plant-based diet reduced levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the blood, which can lead to reduced pain and inflammation.

The Arachidonic Pathway

The arachidonic pathway is another important pathway involved in pain and inflammation. It involves the conversion of arachidonic acid, a fatty acid found in animal products, into pro-inflammatory eicosanoids such as prostaglandins and leukotrienes. These eicosanoids can contribute to pain and inflammation by activating immune cells and promoting the production of inflammatory mediators.

Modulating the Arachidonic Pathway with Diet

Research has shown that a diet low in arachidonic acid and high in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, found in foods such as fatty fish and flaxseeds, can help to reduce inflammation and pain by modulating the arachidonic pathway. For example, a study published in the Journal of Pain found that a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids reduced pain and inflammation in patients with chronic low back pain.

The Neuroscience Brain Perception Pathway

Finally, the neuroscience brain perception pathway is involved in how the brain perceives pain. It involves the activation of pain-sensing neurons in the nervous system, as well as the release of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine that can modulate pain perception.

Modulating the Neuroscience Brain Perception Pathway with Diet

Research has shown that certain dietary compounds, such as the anti-inflammatory compounds found in ginger, turmeric, rosemary, and clove, can help to modulate the neuroscience brain perception pathway and reduce pain perception. For example, a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food found that ginger reduced pain perception in patients with osteoarthritis.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the mechanisms behind how diet can reduce pain are complex and involve the modulation of multiple pathways, including the inflammatory cytokine pathway, the arachidonic pathway, and the neuroscience brain perception pathway. By consuming a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods and supplements, individuals may be able to reduce pain and inflammation and improve their overall health and wellbeing.

The Power of Nutrient Supplements: Do they Improve Your Health?

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Nutrient supplements are an increasingly popular way to improve health, with millions of people around the world taking them on a regular basis. These supplements come in a variety of forms, including pills, powders, and liquids, and can contain a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.

One of the main benefits of nutrient supplements is that they can help to address nutrient deficiencies. Many people do not get enough of the vitamins and minerals they need from their diet alone, and supplements can help to fill in the gaps. This can be especially important for people with certain medical conditions, such as malabsorption syndromes or chronic diseases, which may interfere with nutrient absorption.

Another benefit of nutrient supplements is their potential to support overall health and wellness. For example, some supplements, such as vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, have been linked to improved heart health and a reduced risk of chronic diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Other supplements, such as pre and probiotics, can support digestive health and immune function.

However, it is important to note that taking a single nutrient supplement can be harmful, especially when taken in high doses over a long period of time. For example, high doses of vitamin A can cause liver damage and birth defects, while excessive vitamin D intake can lead to hypercalcemia, a condition in which there is too much calcium in the blood, which can cause kidney damage and other health problems. Similarly, high doses of iron can be toxic, especially for children.

Research has shown that single nutrient supplements should be used with caution, and only under the guidance of a healthcare professional. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2019 found that high-dose supplements of some nutrients, such as beta-carotene and vitamin E, were associated with an increased risk of mortality. The study also found that there was no evidence to support the use of supplements for the prevention of cardiovascular disease or cancer.

In contrast, whole food blends like those that we make at Flourish Live Naturally can provide a variety of nutrients in their natural form, which may be safer and more effective for overall health and wellness. Our blends are designed to provide a wide range of nutrients in a natural and bioavailable form. The blends include a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and superfoods, and are intended to support overall health and wellness.

One of the advantages of taking a whole food blend like those produced by Flourish, is that they provide a broad spectrum of nutrients that work together in synergy to support optimal health. This is in contrast to traditional supplements that often contain high doses of individual nutrients, which can lead to imbalances and potential toxicity.

So, our advice is, always chose natural and wholefoods, over single supplements.

5 Ways You Can Detox Everyday

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Detoxifying your body daily will give your organs and microbiome the boost they need to work optimally every day. By turning our favourite daily detox tips into habits, your body will feel noticeably lighter, brighter and ready for anything.

1. Eat natural anti-inflammatory foods

If your body is inflamed – whether due to injury, stress or inflammatory health conditions – it could definitely benefit from a detox.

Incorporating more natural anti-inflammatory foods into your diet will help to reduce the inflammation levels in your body. Foods that fight inflammation include tomatoes, spinach, avocado, blueberries, almonds and turmeric.

Having studied the health benefits of turmeric, we understand the power that this golden spice contains. That’s why it’s the key ingredient in our Turmeric Blend, a health supplement specifically formulated with natural ingredients to reduce inflammation within the body.

2. Take prebiotic supplements for gut health

Digestion and detoxing go hand-in-hand. Giving your gut the tools it needs to efficiently digest and remove harmful toxins from the body means packing it full of prebiotics.

Prebiotics feed the probiotics in your gut, an abundance of which helps to maintain a healthy and balanced microbiome. Eating prebiotic-rich foods like chicory root and green bananas will help to keep your gut healthy, cleansed and ready to digest.

If you don’t have any prebiotic-rich foods on hand, taking prebiotic supplements regularly – like our Prebiotic Blend – will give you the nutrients your gut and body need to detox and thrive.

3. Give your body a liver cleanse

As the body’s filtration system, the liver has a huge job to do in separating out toxins from nutrients and removing them from the body. In order to detox every day, you need to eat foods that support detoxification and give your body a liver cleanse.

Beetroot is a powerful source of nutrients that help to cleanse your liver by speeding up the body’s waste excretion process. We use beetroot powder in our Dailly Detox blend to target liver function and improve the organ’s filtration rate.

4. Drink water

We need water to survive. By staying hydrated, our body has a much easier time performing its natural functions and processes.

Drinking water regularly aids digestion, promotes smooth joint movement, regulates body temperature and removes waste and harmful toxins from the body – which makes it quite the detoxifying drink!

5. Sweat it out

Sweating helps to remove heavy metals and harmful toxins from the body – a process aided by water, so make sure you’re drinking lots of it.

There are many different ways you can sweat the toxins out, so simply choose your favourite. Try doing some intensive exercise, taking a hot yoga class or relaxing in a sauna. The choice is yours!

Get your detox on

Detoxifying your body reaps a myriad of rewards. By detoxing every day, you will have more energy, improved digestion, easier movement and a more upbeat attitude. Sounds like a detoxifying dream come true!

Everyday Foods That Will Boost Your Mood

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Feeling down in the dumps could have more to do with your diet than you might think. Research is showing that eating healthy foods may help to improve your mood and make you feel happier.

If eating an unbalanced diet has the power to make you feel blue, just imagine what eating nutritious meals could do for your wellbeing. Here are just a few of our favourite mood-boosting foods.

Beetroot

Beets are already one of our go-to veggies for a liver cleanse, but they can actually make for a pretty powerful mood-booster, too. These purple liver-lovers are packed with betaine and tryptophan, both of which have been found to improve your mood.

Tryptophan can make you sleepy but we’re okay with it because of the significant role the amino acid plays in producing serotonin, the feel-good hormone that floods our body when we’re in a good mood.

We’ve embraced the power of beets by making beetroot powder the key ingredient in our Daily Detox blend, which targets liver health. Taken regularly, it may even help to improve your mood.

Green tea

Green tea has been a popular drink in China, where it originated, for thousands of years. Since it’s discovery, it has grown in popularity across the rest of the world.

For centuries, green tea has been used to improve mental clarity and cognitive function, and further research into the drink has proven this to be true.

Green tea is packed with phytochemicals that work together to improve your mood, including L-theanine, an amino acid that helps you to feel relaxed. It also contains enough caffeine to keep you alert without feeling jittery.

Spinach

Being iron-deficient has shown to significantly decrease your energy levels and make you feel constantly fatigued, which can negatively impact your mood. By incorporating iron-rich foods like spinach into your diet, you’ll be able to keep your energy and your mood up.

Spinach also contains magnesium, a mineral which helps with serotonin production in the body. Eating this leafy green regularly will increase your happy hormones and ensure that you stay energised throughout the day.

Bananas

Like beetroot, bananas contain tryptophan, which means that eating them helps to boost your serotonin levels and improve your mood. Eating a banana can satisfy your sweet craving and give you an energy boost at the same time.

Green bananas are a wonderful source of prebiotic fibre that your gut will love – and a happy gut makes for a happier, healthier you.

Turn your frown upside down with mood-boosting foods

The foods you consume can impact your body and mind in so many ways, and it’s important to eat only the things that make you feel good. Stick to mood-boosting foods on a daily basis and you may just find that your mood stays lifted for longer.

Natural Remedies for a Better Night’s Sleep

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A good night’s sleep gives your body time to rest and recuperate in preparation for the coming day. But when your sleep cycle is out of whack, it can throw everything else out of balance, too.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, there are a number of things you can do to help improve your sleep and fall back into a natural rhythm. We’ve listed our favourite natural remedies for improving your sleep below.

Drink turmeric tea before bed

With all of the health benefits of turmeric packed into our Turmeric Blend, we already know the power of this enticing spice.

Not only is turmeric a powerful natural anti-inflammatory, but it also helps to aid digestion. This is crucial to your sleeping pattern because if there’s food in your stomach, your body will delay melatonin production (more on this soon) and it will take you longer to get to sleep.

Speed up your digestion and counteract your body’s natural response with a cup of turmeric tea before bed. The turmeric will help to get things moving along, prevent you from having to go to bed on a full belly, and ensure that your melatonin production happens on time.

Get your sunshine hours in

Melatonin is a hormone that makes you feel relaxed and sleepy, and it’s pumped through your body at night to help you sleep. Healthy melatonin production is easy – all you need to do is get your daylight hours in.

The production of melatonin is intrinsically linked to your body’s natural cycle of waking and sleeping.

In order for your body to know when it’s time to wake and time to sleep, you need to absorb as much natural light as possible during the day. That way, your body will know when to release larger amounts of melatonin throughout your system (at night) to help you sleep.

Change your diet

The food you put into your body has a huge impact on how your body functions. When it’s loaded with unhealthy food, it can’t work at optimal capacity. Instead, you can expect to see poorer digestion, decreased mood, ongoing fatigue and bad sleep patterns.

Transitioning over to a natural anti-inflammatory diet that consists of nutritious, balanced meals and healthy snacks will help to keep your body functioning optimally and improve your sleep – as well as other physical and psychological aspects of your life.

The team at Flourish are passionate about our plant-based diet because of how positively it has impacted our own – and especially our co-founder, Chris Ashton’s – lives.

Get moving

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: exercise is beneficial for your health in so many ways. Not only does regular exercise make you stronger and fitter, but it also helps to improve your mood, aid digestion, increase your energy levels and promote better sleep.

Aim to get moving – whether it’s for a walk, run, cycle, strength training or other type of fitness – for at least 20 minutes a day.

Due to pre-existing injuries, health conditions or general preference, you may find that high-impact exercise is not for you. If this is the case, opt for some low-impact alternatives.

Yoga is a calming, low-impact exercise that has been shown to improve sleep quality with regular practice.

Get a better night’s sleep

Whether it makes you feel irritable, tired, unable to focus or hungrier than usual, a poor night’s sleep can impair your waking existence in many ways. We recommend trying out these natural remedies to improve your sleep quality and feel more energised and tranquil during the day.

Healthy Eating Tips While Working From Home

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Working from home has become the norm for many of us and we’re experiencing a whole range of benefits as a result.

However, having our desk so close to the pantry can make it easy to fall into unhealthy habits. The good news is that maintaining a healthy diet while working from home is absolutely possible. We’ve shared our tips on how you can make healthy eating at home work for you.

Drink water

Water is an important part of your diet and many of us aren’t drinking enough of it in our day-to-day lives. Oftentimes, when people feel hungry or start to crave food, it’s actually because they are thirsty. So drink up your water!

Drinking water provides our body and mind with many benefits, including improving our skin, preventing dehydration-related headaches and aiding our digestion.

You don’t have to worry about measuring your water intake (unless you want to), but rather try to simply be aware of how much water you drink throughout the day. Always have a water bottle or full glass nearby so that you can take a few gulps before turning to food.

Caffeine-free herbal tea is a great alternative to water for keeping you hydrated. We recommend mixing in a teaspoon of our natural anti-inflammatory Turmeric Blend with your next lemon or ginger tea.

Stock your fridge and pantry with real food

By eating a healthy, balanced diet loaded with nutritious food, we feel more energised and are more productive in our work. Not only does plant-based food help to keep us full and satiated for longer, but it also produces the mental clarity we need to focus on the job at hand.

The food you eat can either negatively or positively influence your mental health, which is why it’s important to make the healthy food choice as often as you can.

Do this by keeping your fridge stocked with fruits and vegetables, your pantry packed with nuts, seeds and spices, and your Flourish health and prebiotic supplements front and centre.

Plan or prep your meals ahead of time so that when lunch rolls around, you’ve got a healthy meal ready to go.

Keep healthy snacks on hand

Working from home makes mindless snacking a very easy habit to fall into, but it isn’t a good one – especially when the snacks you’re munching on are sugary, fried, high in salt or carb-heavy.

Being so close to the pantry doesn’t help with the mindless munching. Take matters into your own hands and ensure that the snacks being stocked in your home are healthy ones. It’s much easier for you to reach for fruit, carrot sticks or protein bars if they are the only available option.

We love to have a mix of sweet and savoury treats on hand for snacking, such as almonds, apples and homemade sweet potato crisps. We’ve listed some of our favourite snacks below.

It’s all about making the right food choices

Staying healthy while working from home comes down to a simple choice. You can either eat food that helps you flourish or consume unhealthy food that doesn’t (we recommend the former!).

By incorporating these healthy food tips into your daily routine, working from home will be a much healthier and energising experience for all.

5 Natural Ways To Reduce Stress

Posted on by flourishweb

Living in a modern, fast-paced and technologically-advanced world has a bigger impact on stress than you might think. There are numerous variables that can lead to stress, including workload, home environment, social interactions and even the technology we so love.

Because stress can negatively affect your health – from high blood sugar and a suppressed immune system to autoimmune conditions and depression – it’s important to adopt practices into your life that may help to reduce your stress levels.

1. Eat a natural, anti-inflammatory diet

When you’re under a lot of stress, your body produces higher levels of cortisol, the stress-response hormone designed to alert you to danger. Too much cortisol in the body for an extended period of time may cause inflammation.

To counteract your body’s inflammatory response to stress, start eating natural anti-inflammatory foods like spinach, avocado, berries, dark chocolate and turmeric.

Made with 100% natural plant-based whole foods, our Turmeric Blend is specifically formulated to reduce inflammation in the body and ease the joint pain and other symptoms associated with it.

2. Do gentle exercise

Exercise is a good way to relieve stress, but the type of exercise you’re doing matters. High intensity workouts actually contribute to raising your cortisol levels – which, for a stressed-out body already filled with the stuff, isn’t good.

Gentle exercise like walking, yoga or moderate cycling won’t increase your cortisol levels, but it may still help to relieve your stress and even release endorphins to make sure you feel good both physically and mentally afterwards.

An interesting aside, just 8,000 steps per day helps to keep your metabolism burning.

3. Breathe deeply and meditate

Being under a lot of stress may make you feel overwhelmed during your waking hours and even while you sleep. To combat the overwhelming effects of stress, try introducing a calming meditation practice to your daily routine.

Apps like Headspace offer guided meditation which may be a helpful tool for those of you who are new to the practice or just like having a soothing voice in your ear. Yoga and focused breathing are also forms of meditation that may help to reduce your stress.

4. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep

Sleep plays a key role in improving your general health and wellbeing. If you’re not getting enough zzz’s each night, you are more likely to become stressed during the daylight hours.

People need roughly 7-9 hours of sleep per night in order to feel rested and ready for the day ahead. To help prevent stress, make sure you’re getting enough sleep and giving your body the time it needs to rest.

5. Minimise your screen time

As much as we don’t want to hear it – and especially during a time when watching tv, scrolling through socials or reading the news might be your only form of entertainment – too much screen time may cause and exacerbate stress.

Not only is too much screen time attributed to stress, but it may also lead to long-term problems with vision, sleep impairment, negative rewiring of the brain, and a heightened experience of anxiety or depression.

Reduce your stress naturally

While your stress levels may be directly influenced by your workplace or personal life, there are a number of ways that you can work towards reducing the pressure you feel naturally.

By exercising regularly, eating right and taking time away from the screen to breathe, you may be in a much healthier headspace and able to better combat any stress that comes your way.

Fight stress-related inflammation with our Turmeric Blend

How Prebiotics Help Your Body Thrive

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Prebiotic supplements are all the rage right now, and you might be wondering why. While prebiotics and probiotics may sound the same, and while they both work in harmony with the gut, they each have two very different roles within the body.

Prebiotics play such an important role in helping your body to thrive because they are the food that the probiotics in your gut eat. There are many prebiotic foods you can eat to help balance your gut, including chicory root, green bananas and oats.

The health benefits of prebiotics

Prebiotics do more than simply feed the 1000+ species of bacteria in your gut – their influence is much further reaching. By taking plant-based prebiotic supplements like our Prebiotic Blend, you will be benefiting your body in more ways than one.

Promote digestive health

It takes a good balance of probiotics to maintain a healthy gut. By feeding prebiotics to the probiotics in your gut, you boost the presence of good bacteria living there and in turn, boost your digestive health.

A balanced gut may help to minimise the risk of diarrhoea, constipation and other digestive problems, as well as work to promote regular bowel movements.

Boost immune system

Boosting your immune system means preparing your body to defend itself against any harmful bacteria that may try to make a home in your microbiome.

Your gut teaches your immune system how to react to and manage any pathogenic bacteria that enters the body. When your gut microbiome contains a healthy and diverse colony of probiotics, your immune system may be better placed to fight infections and win.

Improve mental health

More and more studies are beginning to show just how significantly gut health affects mental health. By rebalancing the bacteria in your gut, your serotonin levels – 90% of which are produced in the digestive tract – may increase, improving your mood and your mental health.

Enhance absorption of nutrients

When the probiotics in your gut are thriving, they help nutrients be better absorbed into your body. With better nutrient absorption comes better overall health as your body reaps the powerful benefits of vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium and magnesium.

Support your overall health with prebiotics

By incorporating more prebiotic-rich foods into your diet and taking our Prebiotic Blend daily, you can feed the probiotics in your gut, maintain a healthy balance of bacteria in your digestive system, and help your body thrive.

Help your body thrive with our Prebiotic Blend

Natural Remedies To Help Aid Digestion

Posted on by flourishweb

An unbalanced gut microbiome can lead to all sorts of digestive problems, including constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, IBS and even depression. When it comes to rebalancing your gut, it’s all about supporting it with the right nutrients.

While whole food, plant-based prebiotic supplements like our Prebiotic Blend may help to aid digestion, there are a number of other natural remedies that can also work to get your bowels moving again.

It all starts in the mouth

A very simple but effective way to aid your digestion is by chewing. The average Australian chews their food 5-6 times before swallowing.

Interestingly, digestion begins with the brain, by first smelling, looking and breathing deeply before a meal.

Rather than 5-6 times, you should actually be chewing each piece of food 15-20 times, which then allows the digestion-brain feedback loop to kick in.

Activating this feedback loop causes a cascade of hormones and enzymes to be released and allow for proper digestion of your food.

Try chewing each mouthful food 15-20 times. Alternatively, if you really want to, try chewing until the food is liquid before swallowing.

Up your fibre intake

Fibre is good for your digestive system because it helps add bulk to your stool and keeps your bowel movements regular. If you’re looking to increase your fibre intake, start by incorporating a variety of fruits, vegetables and nuts to your diet.

By eating foods high in inulin fibre – a soluble type of fibre classified as a prebiotic – you’ll feed the probiotics in your gut and help to balance the bacteria living there.

Chicory root

While it’s probably not the most readily available food on the supermarket shelf, chicory root is a great source of inulin fibre. Try adding it to your diet by switching out your morning cup of coffee with a chicory alternative instead.

You can also get your inulin fix from our Prebiotic Blend, a natural health supplement that’s packed with plant-based whole foods to load your gut with only the good stuff, including chicory root, green bananas and cinnamon.

Drink lots of water

To make sure that your bowels are moving regularly, it’s important to stay hydrated. Not drinking enough water makes you more likely to experience constipation. Often caused due to a dehydrated colon, constipation can be prevented by simply increasing your daily fluid intake.

Drinking water (and other non-caffeinated fluids like herbal tea) will help to keep your colon hydrated and make using the bathroom a much more pleasant experience.

Get your body moving

Regular exercise is good for you in so many different ways. Not only can it help with improving your mood, increasing your energy and facilitating weight loss, but moving your body on a daily basis can also help with digestion.

Studies have shown that moderate daily exercise can help to speed up the digestion process and get food moving through the body faster.

Natural health supplements

We believe that prebiotic supplements should contain only natural, plant-based whole foods – just as Mother Nature intended. That’s why our Prebiotic Blend is made with only natural ingredients and nothing else.

Specifically formulated to aid digestion and feed the probiotics in your gut, our Prebiotic Blend harnesses the power of chicory root and 8 other plant-based whole foods to balance your bowel for the better.

Help your body to help itself

By taking care of your body, your body will take care of you. If you’re having digestive problems, start looking at how you can provide your body with the nutrients it needs to better digest the food you’re putting in it.

Help your digestive system with our Prebiotic Blend

Foods To Fight Cold & Flu Naturally

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Not only is food the main source of energy, but it can work as a natural medicine, too. When you’re fighting a cold or the flu, eating the right foods will help you exponentially on your road to recovery.

We’ve listed 5 of our favourite healing foods that help to relieve the symptoms of cold and flu and shorten its overall duration.

Turmeric

The health benefits of turmeric go far beyond the anti-inflammatory properties that the golden spice is known for.

Turmeric’s curcumin is not only a natural anti-inflammatory, but it also has anti-infective properties that can help to fight viruses, bacteria and fungi – including those that result in a case of the common cold.

By taking our Turmeric Blend daily, you may lower your body’s inflammation levels and give your immune system the boost it needs to keep you in optimal health throughout the winter season.

Vitamin C-rich fruits

Everyone knows that you should eat oranges and lemons when you’re sick, but many of you might not actually know why. Fruits like lemons, oranges, grapefruit and limes all contain vitamin C, which helps to reduce the severity of the common cold, as well as it’s duration.

Capsicum and kiwifruit are also a wonderful source of vitamin C, which you can easily add into your stir frys, salads or smoothies.

One of our favourite go-to drinks for soothing cold symptoms contains just 3 ingredients: honey, lemon and hot water. Simply mix a teaspoon of honey with some freshly squeezed lemon juice in a mug of hot water, and add a lemon slice or two to garnish.

Manuka honey

Native to New Zealand, manuka honey makes a marvellous home remedy for a sore throat due to its antibacterial properties – properties that traditional honey does not contain.

The antibacterial and antiviral properties in manuka honey help to reduce inflammation in the back of the throat while also fighting against the bacteria that cause you to feel pain in that area.

After sipping on one of our favourite lemon and honey drinks, you’ll notice that your throat feels soothed and less raw. This is because manuka honey doesn’t just fight harmful bacteria – it also coats the inner lining of the throat, relieving the pain you experience there.

Garlic

Like turmeric, garlic contains natural anti-inflammatory properties. However, what makes it such a powerful flu combatant is the sulfur compounds it forms after being chewed, crushed or chopped.

Not only do these compounds help to reduce the duration of colds, but they also help to prevent you from getting sick in the first place. Get your daily garlic fix with our favourite pasta alternatives.

Ginger shares manuka honey’s ability to relieve sore throats, as well as turmeric and garlic’s natural anti-inflammatory properties.

However, what sets this spice apart from the rest is its antimicrobial properties. These properties make ginger a food primed to help fight infections – including those like the sore throat-causing cold and flu.

Rest and recover

While there are many beneficial foods that can help to relieve the symptoms and shorten the duration of the common cold, the most important thing to do when you’re sick is to rest, stay hydrated and sleep.

Move away from the screen, put your work aside, curl up in bed and let both your mind and your body rest. Allow your body to focus on fighting the infection and healing, and not on anything else.

Put it all together as a preventative by making an oxymel. An oxymel is a herbal tonic used as natural medicine made from a mixture of honey and vinegar – though it can include other ingredients, too.

Making your own oxymel at home is easy. Simply take some manuka honey, add crushed ginger, garlic, grated fresh turmeric and a little finely diced capsicum. Crush these ingredients together to form a paste and then add it to lemon juice and warm water. Drink up!

Prepare your body for the flu with our Turmeric Blend