Another week over

Yesterday was phenomenal. The work week was over after being briefer and easier than the previous one because I played housekeeper ("Hazel") on Monday, cooking and cleaning for everyone while they were at work, and on Tuesday and Thursday I spent the mornings thinning baby plants in the greenhouses. Tuesday evening's class was questionable, but Thursday we had a 3 hour Ayurveda class that I could have sat in for another three, (for those of you who have witnessed my struggle in trying to identify my Dosha, I am conclusively Pitta-Vata. I can't wait til next week when we start to learn about herbs for different constitutions. I also get to pick the teacher's brain at work because he does landscaping and I will be on his crew all week.)
And then Friday rolled around, and we all lazily rolled out of bed an hour later than usual and migrated over to the "Plant plant" (we live on the "Pharm farm") for Dagmar's nutrition class. Some things we learned:
-Eat vitamine B daily because it is water soluble and therefore gets flushed through your system quickly.
-To reduce arterial plaque/risk of heart-attack eat:
-Eat an anti-inflammatory diet (discribed below)
-Vitamin B, C, K2, omega-3 fatty acids
-Triphala (has the highest content of vitamine C; is a liver, gut, and blood cleanser; balances your bio-burden; and regulates bowels. Take a spoonful in some juice.)
-Garlic (Superfood in any condition)
-Natto (fermented soy, doesn't look appealing but is apparently very tasty. Eat raw.)
-Hibiscus tea (inhibits oxidation of LDL)
-Sugar Cane Extract, "policosanol," is an excellent alternative to cholesterol-reducing drugs that tend to do more harm than good. *Switch medication only under a doctor's supervision!!!!
-To treat high blood pressure eat chocolate, celery, and fermente foods such as miso, wine, cheese, and herring.

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet:
-Omega-3 fatty acids (oily fish, walnuts, flax, pumpkin seeds)
-Olive oil
-Game; Organic free-range or grass-fed beef (This is healthy meat. What's unhealthy for both you and the animal is when they are grain-fed and cooped up in stalls so their muscles don't harden, causing their meat to be rich in omega-6 rather than 3. Red meat being unhealthy is therefore a myth, it depends on where it's coming from)
-Whole, unproessed grains (most of the good stuff is in the shell), vegetables, fruit
-Raw, boiled, or steamed food (fried only on occasions when your body is craving it)
-Herbs: Willowbark, feverfew, boswellia, and other anti-inflammatory herbs

Depression and insomnia:
-Can be indicative of insufficient amino acids, diets with too little protein.
-Treated with whoe organic food, essential fatty acids and vitamin B's from grain and liver (my liverwurst obsession as a child shows that I was craving those), Magnesium from green foods, dairy, meat, seeds, apple cider vinegar, turmeric, green tea, ginger, rosemary, pineapple, Frankincense.
-Herbs: St. John's Wort (NOT if you're on oral contraceptives or other hormonal treatment; for the first month take a dropper-full every hour. After that your body will forever be familiar with it and will only need to be given a couple droppers 2-3 times a day, even if you haven't taken it in years), Rhodiola (EXCELLENT anti-anxiety herb,) Cat's Claw, White Willow, Arnica, Licorice (Don't take licorice for more than 12 weeks).

Insomnia:
-Exercise wil help
-Herbs: Kava, St. Jon's Wort, Rhodiola, Ashwaganda

-Sunlight is extremely important for vitamin D. Go outside for half an hour every day WITHOUT sunblock to absorb vitamin D. When you start getting pink put on the sunblock. Cancer develops when you get burned because it melts the fat under the skin in which many toxins are stored, not because the sun is inherently evil.


After that class we had another that tought us how to analyze tongues, and then we all got dressed up and went to dance our booties off at a local bluegrass show. It was soooooooo much fun.

And now it's time to enjoy the weekend and make some tinctures.
I hope you enjoy yours too!