Winter booster shots - Ayurveda style

I was talking to a few people over the weekend about how to use Ayurveda to help support our immune system during the winter months, and I promised to upload a simple recipe for a booster shot our family has used for years. So here's a bit of background on Ayurveda and the recipe at the bottom.

Ayurveda has been used for centuries to support health throughout the entire body. In Ayurveda, health is much more than the absence of disease. It is about bringing our body and mind into balance, along with our senses and spirit. The use of herbs and spices is a gentle but powerful approach to bringing the doshas back into balance.

Ayurveda - as did Hippocrates, the Father of Modern Medicine - strongly supports the concept of using our food as medicine, believing that all good health starts with the correct diet and good digestion. There’s an old saying which goes something along the lines of: "If you have the right lifestyle and diet, you won't need medicine. If you don’t have the right lifestyle or diet, medicine won't help you."

Now that we’re moving into winter, we automatically adopt some Ayurvedic principles, whether we know it or not. We tend to get a little slower, more introvert – staying at home more, lighting fires, eating warmer, oilier foods. We change our cold, crisp salads and iced tea for nourishing stews and warming soups. We might add curry spices or warmer, oily, starchy ingredients to our diet. We also start to feel like we should curl up and sleep longer. If we follow Ayurvedic principles, we try to live in tune with, or flow with the seasons, in harmony with nature.

One of the things I like to do, starting in autumn and continuing throughout the winter, is take an anti-inflammatory and vitamin C booster shot. But this booster shot is a drink, not a needle :) Made with fresh oranges, turmeric and cayenne pepper, this shot is excellent for supporting our health during the colder months. I make a lot of it, filling a litre bottle, and we take a shot every morning with breakfast.

This shooter is suitable for balancing all dosha types, as long as you drink it in moderation.

Oranges, besides being delicious, are one of our winter fruits and freely available in South Africa at this time of year. Oranges are rich in Vitamin C, which supports a healthy immune system. Orange is particularly good for the lungs. Taking Orange helps to calm Vata-Kapha dosha, removes excess mucus from the lungs and gives relief from the symptoms of asthma. This is due to the Ushna (hot) potency of Orange.

Turmeric really is a wonderful spice and is a pharmacy unto itself. It has many, many health benefits, is good for intestinal flora, strengthens digestion and metabolism, helps to warm and stimulate the blood and bolsters the immune system.

As a wealth of scientific studies has found, this golden spice contains potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that are valuable in preventing and treating a variety of diseases. In Ayurvedic medicine, turmeric is an important detoxifying agent. Turmeric is used in Ayurveda to balance all three doshas.

According to Ayurvedic medicine, consuming cayenne pepper increases the secretion of hydrochloric acid that helps digest food and benefits your digestive system. Cayenne is also shown to improve the elimination of waste products, increase your blood flow and strengthens your circulatory system. It shows results within seconds after ingestion.

Cayenne's peppery heat stimulates secretions that help clear mucus from your stuffed-up nose or congested lungs. A tea made with hot cayenne pepper very quickly drains the mucus membranes lining the nasal passages, helping to relieve congestion and stuffiness.

The health benefits of orange, turmeric and cayenne are so numerous, ideally you'd want to have some every day. There's an easy way to accomplish this — by making yourself a fresh batch of shots, the recipe to follow:

* Take the juice of 8 large fresh oranges and pour the juice into a covered jug or bottle.

* Add 2 level teaspoons of turmeric and 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

Please take care when using turmeric because it stains everything it touches!

(You can adjust the amount of cayenne pepper according to taste. I like it quite strong, but if you’re new to this type of booster shot, you might want to start off with half a teaspoon and see how it tastes. It’s a matter of getting used to it.)

* Shake the mixture up and allow to stand for at least 5 - 10 minutes if drinking immediately, but preferably overnight, so the spices blend and mellow.

* Shake the bottle well to agitate the sediment and blend ingredients before pouring and drinking one small glass daily, ideally before breakfast, when it is most beneficial.

If you like the taste of ginger, you can experiment with adding a heaped teaspoon of grated fresh ginger to the mix too.

Enjoy!

Mx