How to Stay Healthy in the Holiday Season
If asked, most people would say that the reason people get ill in the winter is because of the cold weather.
But if that were true then why is there a season for it in warm weather climates too?
There are a lot of medical explanations about people being indoors more and traveling more during those months, but do you really think they hold water? You don’t get ill because you went to birthday parties and a wedding or two throughout the year, so why should winter Holidays be any different?
Well, this is just a theory, but only because it wouldn’t behoove the current beneficiaries who would never pay for any studies to make it well known. There is one thing very abundant during those months: Candy and cake and other confections. SUGAR in other words, and sugar suppresses the immune system. And with a suppressed immune system, voila! All the symptoms you suffer from are the body’s way of doing some house cleaning when the going gets tough. It may or may not also include those famous germs in its house cleaning. Only after all that happens then the other purported “reasons” given for ‘the season’ can come into play, compounding its frequency.
We start with Halloween and before the immune system can recuperate, we have Thanksgiving, and then Christmas for the majority. Even non- Christians get involved in Christmas Holiday celebrations by my observation. I never saw anyone in the office refuse the candy canes and cake going around because they celebrated a different holiday at home.
Christmas is awfully fun and the Jewish people in my neighborhood even got Christmas trees, too. When I said, “Wait! I thought you were Jewish”, my friend's mother got a sheepish look and replied, ”Hanukkah Bush?” This was back before Hanukkah Bushes were a thing and probably why they became common. Nobody wants to be left out of Christmas gaiety. So, on top of all the Italian goodies we had Jewish goodies, too. I just fell in love with halva, and rugulah is yummy!
Now, far be it from me to put a damper on all this delicious fun. But how do you stay healthy during the holidays?
Well if you are aware of what sugar does to you when you eat it, I think that it would go a long way in helping to prevent yourself from getting ill from it. You could cut down on what you might usually indulge in, compensate with extra rest and nutrition and plenty of water to enhance your immune system, or maybe create versions of desserts that use less sugar or more wholesome sweetener like jaggery, maple syrup, honey or stevia.
Jaggery is just evaporated sugar cane juice or date palm juice. It is amazing that in its more natural form without all the minerals and molasses taken out of it, it is a healthy food in moderation. For instance, you would never even think of using refined sugar to prevent tooth decay, but jaggery is actually used to prevent tooth decay. People actually suck on it to keep their teeth healthy. I guess it must be the minerals in it that makes the difference. It’s just another example of nature's recipe versus the “refined”.
Personally, the rare times I indulge in junk, I want it to be the traditional stuff. I guess I just like pureness all around. Pure junk tastes awesome!
And if I am going to do it, it's gotta be worth it. Maybe I would think differently if I did it often.
But what does sugar actually do to you when you eat it? Well if you look it up you will find talk about the sugar spike which makes you feel wonderful, followed by the crash, when the emergency of the spike is met with an over-compensating amount of insulin resulting in too little sugar in the blood.
This, unless you do it often, is not too catastrophic. If you do it now and then your body might even release the right amount of insulin with practice, but if you do it too much then the body will get tired of dealing with the free radical damage that spikes in sugar wracks upon it and start turning its nose up at insulin. Have you heard of insulin resistance? Well, that’s it. It’s the body tissues protesting to save themselves.
But that is no solution because if the blood vessels get damaged, then you can get all the symptoms of a serious and all too common health problem beginning with a D, and the tissues won’t get proper nutrition. Then you have to severely change to a diet of no sugar and use rehabilitative herbs to re-convince the body that it is safe to respond to insulin again. But that is another story I would love to go into at another time.
Right now I would like to tell you about the free radical effect of the sugar spike. I have not found this explanation to be available in a quick search. At best, swelling, heat and redness of the whole body might be mentioned but nothing in detail.
Sugar molecules are like microscopic razor blades, and you can imagine what a whole rush of these invading the body’s tissues would do.
It runs the whole body down in general and the damaged tissue has to be healed. The organs of the immune system, mainly the Spleen and the Thymus are particularly susceptible to this. Those organs make your immune cells. And while they are healing their own tissues they kind of slip on the white blood cell making job.
After a month of rest from sugar they are barely recovered and they get hit by the next holiday and then the next. Remember me mentioning that about 80% of function has to be gone before you get a symptom? Well, the third blow does it for a lot of people. Also, if I imagined things from the organs’ viewpoint I might just quit on principle! That’s probably when the body starts turning its nose up at insulin instead of going through all that again. When you think about it, it’s a wonder that it doesn’t do that more readily.
I think there used to be an herbal and nutritional education commonly known by housewives because it is passed down in their recipes for desserts. That is another reason I like traditional recipes. Here is a list of herbs that can offset the free radical effect of sugar.
- Cinnamon
- Cardamom
- Nutmeg
- Cloves
- Mint family of herbs
- Ginger
- Tulsi (Sweet Basil)
- Turmeric
- Allspice
- Licorice Root
- Anise
- Star Anise
Look how you often find the better tasting ones incorporated right into desserts! I don’t think anyone would survive gooey cinnamon buns without the cinnamon!
The thing is that these days the majority of spices used in foods are killed with radiation, high heat and/or preservatives, so unless you ensure that your cinnamon or whatever spice you are using isn’t treated like that, you may not get the originally intended benefits of the herb.
Another solution is to make a tea to have with the dessert. Some cultures do this, like the custom of having a Tulsi Chai tea with desserts. Tulsi is a prized tea for overall health, huge on antioxidants and the Chai part could have spices such as cardamom, cinnamon and ginger added. Delicious and health saving. Get creative. Your own kitchen concoctions could be a lot of fun and you never know, you might come up with a new tradition or rediscover an old one that has been lost. We at Herbal Roots provide capsules of herbs with no additives or preservatives and organic to boot! You can just add them right in. Just twist open the capsule and sprinkle.
If you have missed on the above and you feel yourself getting weaker or you are actually coming down with something, here is a list of herbs you can use to help stop it, or if that doesn't happen, can help you recover fast.
- Turkey Tail Mushrooms- this is a real goodie. It strengthens the stomach and the spleen, something really needed in a sugar spike. You can add capsules of Turkey Tail to your coffee which really enhances the taste and texture. In fact, this is so beneficial to overall health that you might want to incorporate it into your everyday diet. Besides helping the immune system, it protects the liver, helps sugar metabolism, is an antioxidant, enhances the function of the nervous system and increases beneficial bacteria in the gut.
- Garlic- old time remedy for whatever ails you; improves strength, cleans out the blood, keeps little beasties at bay
- Echinacea- famous for boosting immune system
- Goldenseal- famous for combining well with echinacea
- Elderberry- can be taken for prevention all year around; protective benefits get stockpiled for when you need it
- Ginger- the Asian cousin of garlic which additionally strengthens and warms the stomach
- Turmeric- helps heal tissues and supports sugar metabolism and helps the immune system among other things
- Fennel- a vegetable that looks kind of like celery and has a licorice taste. Italians always have it around for the holidays. It is perfect for any digestive discomfort. Even if you are suffering because you have stuffed yourself silly and you couldn’t eat another bite, you can eat some fennel and it soothes and gets rid of that feeling like you are going to pop. It is a godsend. I guess it takes down that swelling. It does help tissue heal and will help with any discomfort, even respiratory. It is an all-around antioxidant.
Well now, all of this data should ensure that you can stay physically healthy for the Holidays. I hope so. A lot more fun can be had when you are healthy, and that fun is contagious and I am looking forward to it coming around to me.
Celebrate your heart out!