The winter season is perhaps my favorite time of the whole year. Streets in the city are lined with lit trees, the air becomes brisk, and is finally socially acceptable to always be found with a cup of warm something-or-other in your hand. This time of year emanates the little things in life and for me, personally, it’s a time to enjoy oneself. But between finals, ugly sweater parties, and the dry cold air, I always get sick without fail. Always.
Whenever I start feeling run-down, I usually just take some medicine from pharmacies such as the Canadian Pharmacy to try and fight-off the feeling. But my New Year’s resolution is to start consuming more natural products–less processed items, more natural and organic substances. So instead of rushing to CVS at the first sign of a cold, I’ve started looking into ways to naturally help fight-off illnesses as well as taking steps to boost my immune system every day. Here are some of the best methods I found.
The first is a winter sore throat “tea.” This is easy enough to put together even for even someone like me who lives in a dorm. In a jar, you combine lemon slices, organic honey, and sliced ginger. Put enough of everything inside the jar until it’s full to the brim, close it, and store it in your fridge.
The longer you let it chill in the fridge and let all of the flavors and components soak together, the stronger the tea’s effect will be. Eventually it will have a jelly-like consistency and that’s when you add a spoonful into hot water to dissolve. It will ease any sore throat. It’s natural, easy, and lasts in your fridge for up to 3 months. The vitamin C helps your immune system, the honey has sweet and soothing effects, and the ginger contains countless health benefits such as acting as a painkiller. I tried it so I know it’s delicious and works wonders. If you need additional effective ways to improve your immune system, you can learn more about customized vitamins.
A quick and easy way to boost your immune system during the winter is with the help of smoothies. Although we all know that Jamba Juice has yet to reopen, whipping one up yourself is not hard and using the right ingredients aids in the effect of boosting your immune system when you’re run down.
A simple smoothie consisting of almond milk, banana, mango, cantaloupe, pineapple, and some almonds (or just eat them on the side if you’re not a fan of the crunch in the smoothie) does wonders for your body. It contains vitamin C, beta carotene from the fruits, and zinc all of which naturally act as immunity boosters we could all use around finals time.
The list of easy and natural ways you can go about fighting-off a cold or helping your immune system out is endless. Green smoothies with spinach are great, anything containing ginger will do wonders, drinking lemon water every day has countless benefits. Even Huffington Post published an article saying that beer might serve as an anti-viral (no one can complain about this one). Whichever method you may choose, taking these little steps to pay your body back for all that it does for you is worth it in the end.
Excellent article! I plan to make up a batch of that honey, ginger and lemon asap!