Natural Allergy and Cold Remedies

Anyone who has ever lived in Central Texas for a few years has experienced the misery - or known someone who has - of the dreadful cedar fever. This hideous allergy creeps up in December, and by January, it's going full force, making people believe they have the flu. Some even claim it's literally attacking them in horror film fashion, like The Fog or the Swamp Thing.

Some people hide out at home, or wear face masks, and others leave the area for a month - some move away altogether. Others take cortizone shots, if they have good health insurance, and other overdose on over-the-counter allergy medicine. I've never taken shots (no health insurance since 2006), and I've never had the luxurious option of temporarily living elsewhere. (Although one day, I am hoping to be sustainably self-employed and have my off-grid home built in Terlingua, Texas.) And to be honest, most years, I'm only very lightly affected, with occasional sneezing and sniffles throughout January.

But there have been some years, I've simply had to take something, otherwise, I couldn't sleep at night or properly function at work. I tried all varieties of Allegra, Claritin, and Zyrtec - the plain one and the one with decongestant. The 12-hour kind and the 24-hour kind. The generic variety and the brand name variety. The gel capsules, tablets, liquids, and powder packets. After rotating through all of them, I never quite figured out which worked best. Sometimes, the non-decongestant varieties didn't work at all.

Pharmaceutical cocktail and Sleepytime tea owned by the corporate Hain Celestial Group

I did figure out, however, that the "D" version of any of these allergy medications made me horribly jittery. That's why they make you show your driver's license and sign off when you purchase it - thanks to speed addicts who figured out how to use pseudoephedrine as an ingredient. And then I started thinking, what other unnoticeable side effects are these drugs possibly causing? According to the FDA's own website, "Most drugs that undergo preclinical (animal) testing never even make it to human testing and review by the FDA." No thank you, FDA, I don't really want to be your human guinea pig.

So what then?

I started using homeopathic antihistamine drops and Activated Quercetin, which you must start taking several months before allergy season hits for maximum effectiveness. I developed tasty recipes for Ginger Tea and Chicken Soup (see below) after researching natural immune system boosters. These are also good when you feel a cold coming on. I also started drinking lots of raw kombucha tea and taking vitamin C.

The verdict - I think it worked! This past cedar season, I was starting to have pretty serious allergy reactions. One Saturday night, I felt as if my head were going to explode, and I was ready to don a hatchet and chop down all the cedar trees in Texas. Even though I didn't remember to start taking the drops until halfway through December, after religiously using them and a regular intake of my famous Ginger Tea and Chicken Soup, my symptoms subsided. For several weeks after I was over the cedar, others were still suffering.

Fighting off cedar allergies is definitely not a science. Who knows, maybe next year, my preventives and remedies won't work like they did this year. At any rate, it's a delicious way to get through the cedar season, and I'm at least confident that I'm not poisoning my body. What's your favorite cedar remedy?

Old timey and natural cold and allergy remedies

Ginger Tea

• 10-20 slices of raw ginger
• 2 cups of water

Bring to a boil - simmer for 15 minutes at low-medium heat
Strain into a cup
Add desired amount of raw honey
Add desired amount of fresh lemon juice



Chicken Broth Soup

• Homemade chicken stock (it's really easy - buy a whole broiler chicken for dinner one night, and when all the meat is gone, throw the bones in a pot with onions, thyme, carrots, and anything else you feel like throwing in there; strain the broth into a mason jar and keep in the fridge or freezer for later)
• Organic wild or brown rice
• Garlic (preferably raw)

Throw desired amount of rice, and as much garlic as you can handle, into the broth. Eat. Enjoy. Keep the vampires away.

The Truth About Your Meat: It Used to be Alive

What did Mr. Fish do to deserve your disgust for his looks, especially if you're going to enjoy his flesh?
(Photo courtesy of Denise Chan, Flickr Creative Commons)

That beautifully buttered, seasoned, boneless, skinless filet of salmon you eat was once a slithery, scaly fish with googly eyes swimming in the ocean. So then, why is it so gross to buy a whole fish from the market to bring home to cook? Why was I tempted by the perfectly pink square slab of boned and skinned salmon, even though it was five times more expensive? Why did the girl at the check-out register cringe and squeal in disgust at the sight of the fish?

Because we are so far removed from our food, we forget that our meat comes from live, moving animals with legs, fins, eyes, and mouths. How many of us would kill an animal for food, if we had to? Would we be able to look the cute, furry lamb in the eye, knowing that hours later he or she will end up on our plate in broiled cubes with mint and feta? Would you be able to pluck the feathers off the chicken before putting it in the oven?

These situations don't even require us to kill the animal - they simply requires us to come one step closer to the animal's state of being alive. A fried chicken leg has become something we eat out of a box, not the part used by the chicken to walk around the farm (that is, if it's lucky enough to be a free-roamer). Sometimes, it's not even referred to as a leg, but as a drumstick. We call meat steaks and filets, not muscle and flesh. We eat beef, not cows. Pork, not pigs. Poultry, not chicken. Seafood, not fish. Yet, that's what it is. We are eating cooked, dead animals.

So, I resisted the temptation to buy the boned and skinned fish. And even though the whole fish had its tail and head cut off, and it had already been gutted, it still looked like a fish - not the kind you eat on a plate, but the kind that wiggles around in the water with pulsating gills and glub-glub mouths. It looked frightening, unappetizing, and monstrous. I decided to be brave and get more intimate with my fish.

At first, I didn't want to use my fingers to rip open the plastic wrap on the Styrofoam tray. I held one end of the tray with a paper towel and tried to remove the wrapping with a fork. When that method quickly proved inefficient and clumsy, I was forced to use my fingers. I tried not to to be bothered by the feeling of the slippery scales against my skin. And after a few minutes, I discovered the scales weren't as slimy as I had thought them to be. It was cold and clammy, but not slimy - and surprisingly smooth. Then I had to put the fish in the sink to rinse it.

Although I was comfortable touching it here and there, I couldn't bring myself to grab it firmly with my hands. I awkwardly slid it off the tray into a colander on the sink. I was able to rinse one side of the fish without touching it. But flipping it over to its other side - well, I was just going to have to go in there grab it with two hands. So I did. No choice. You can't spear a fish with a regular eating fork, and you can't use salad tongs to grab it.

After covering it in olive oil and stuff it with herbs, then wrapping it tightly in foil, I was becoming less and less squeamish about the fish. I had to keep reminding myself it was just like the salmon filets I purchased at the store, except one or two steps of preparation back in time - closer to its state of being alive. Otherwise, there was no difference. It's a great exercise, if you ever have the opportunity to choose a whole fish over the fileted fish. And if you find you can't do it - well, then, you decide - should you really be eating it? (For the record, this was some of the best fish I've ever had. Cooked on the grill. Highly recommend it. It's inexpensive, feeds many, and will impress your friends.)