Home Remedies

Spice up Your Summer

Many people don’t realise how our kitchens and herb gardens are a wealth of treatment possibilities. Summer discomforts such as indigestion and bloating from festive season excess and family barbecues can effectively be treated with humble herbs and spices. So spice up you and your families lives with some of the following treatments.

Holiday dinners can often groan under the weight of heavy fatty meats such as dressed ham, mutton, roast lamb and chicken, with the cold cuts eaten for days afterwards. Digestion of these meats can be helped by adding a dash of horseradish sauce, and is very simply prepared:

Mix together 1 Tbsp of dried horseradish, 1 Tbsp vinegar, 1 Tbsp of water, and salt to taste. This will make 2 Tbsp of prepared horseradish.

For a creamy version add a little plain yoghurt or mayonnaise, but be warned - fresh horseradish has a greater kick due to the volatile oil content! Horseradish is a cholagogue, which is a substance that stimulates bile production from the gallbladder, assisting in the digestion of fatty foods. Horseradish can also help with indigestion and flatulence.

A number of herbs and spices are well known digestive stimulants, which is why there is a custom of adding them to food. They are brilliant to include in meals that you may typically find quite heavy. Spices such as ginger, cardamom and cinnamon can be added to a number of sweet dishes, and chai tea, which contains all these spices, is a refreshing after dinner beverage that aids the digestive process. If you are a chai lover, fresh is best, so rather than going for the supermarket variety, try the following recipe:

Mix together 2 tsp fresh grated ginger, ½ tsp of freshly crushed cardamom seeds, 8 whole cloves, 1 cinnamon stick or ½ tsp of cinnamon powder and 4 cups of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add 2 cups of milk or milk substitute and bring back up to boil, then serve. This chai is delicious with a little honey or whole, unprocessed sugar. Play around the spices to find a brew that suits your taste.

Chai is particularly suited to people who may be prone to blood sugar imbalances, and commonly crave something sweet after their evening meal. One of the key ingredients, cinnamon, helps regulate blood sugar by having an insulin like affect and aiding the uptake of blood sugar into cells. The cardamom content will help with the digestion of milk; however alternatives such as soy, oat, almond and rice milk may also be used.

Over indulgence can result in gas, bloating and may even cause griping pains. Culinary herbs and spices with carminative and antispasmodic functions such as cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel and ginger are great in this situation. Cumin is particularly brilliant for relieving gas, as its therapeutic applications include being a stomachic, carminative, digestive stimulant and antispasmodic. In addition cumin contains compounds that fight inflammation, pain and swelling. To make a tea with cumin steep one teaspoon of dried and gently crushed cumin seeds in one cup of boiling water. Let the cumin seeds steep in the water for ten minutes, and then strain out the seeds. Drink one or two cups a day after eating, to relieve griping and bloating. Fennel seeds can also be used in a similar fashion for a tasty tea, or simply chew on a few seeds after eating.

And finally, on hot summer days there is nothing better than the traditional peppermint in chilled water. These old traditions often have wisdom behind them that has largely been forgotten. Ever notice how a mint lolly makes your stomach feel cool? Peppermint is not only great for digestion, calming and soothing the stomach, but it is diaphoretic, which means it reduces heat in the body – grand for a hot summers day! And guess what, its also great for indigestion from over eating...so get out in the garden and wise up on your plants!