General immunity: crushed ginger juice mixed with equal quantity honey, about a tablespoon every morning keeps the immune system strong and reduces the likelihood of catching colds
Phelgm (congestion in sinus, nose, chest) – lemongrass ginger chai, turmeric milk, kadha (Recipe – boil some cumin seeds, peppercorns, coriander seeds, ginger, and optionally tulsi, mulethi, cinnamon, and cloves in water until it reduces to half. Strain and consume. You may sweeten it with some rock sugar or jaggery. Honey mustn’t be added to hot liquids so avoid that. )
Lemongrass-ginger chai along with the homeo medicine justicia usually take care of colds and coughs very effectively. 
Incessant dry coughing – Place amla supari under your tongue and just suck on it. This is tremendously helpful when there is excessive coughing at night, preventing a restful sleep. 
Itching in throat/ throat infection – Keep a ball made with turmeric and coconut oil under your tongue and suck on it. This brings great relief. 
Fever – ajwain boiled in water (Also remove drishti/ nazar, many fevers disappear immediately upon doing this)
Migraines – Make sure food quality and times are consistent, apple on an empty stomach
Bad breath – 4 oranges with pith on empty stomach for a week
Bruises/ swelling – drumstick leaves ground with salt in mortar pestle
Burns – apply honey on it immediately. The burning sensation often increases but this prevents the burn from blistering. 
High BP – drumstick leaves soup (boil drumstick leaves in water until cooked, add salt and serve)
Diarrhea: black tea without sugar, sabja (holy basil) seeds soaked in water for 10 min
Excess heat in the body/ dehydration/ digestive trouble during weather change from winter to spring – 1 tbsp virgin coconut oil on empty stomach
Kidney problems – 4 drops gomutra ark in a glass of water first thing in the morning
Psoriasis – agnihotra ash mixed with ghee, applied and covered up with an old sock, overnight for a few weeks.
Excess body heat, i.e. weak digestion, breakouts, etc: Kokum juice, raw mangoes, curds, buttermilk
Thyroid Imabalances: Boil 2 tbsp of coriander seeds in 2 glasses of water for about 15-20 min. Strain, cool to body temperature, add honey and drink on empty stomach for a week. 
Premature greying/ hair fall: Boil 10 curry leaves in a glass of water until it reduces to half, and drink warm on empty stomach every morning
Diabetes: Eat your weight in kilograms divided by 100 = grams of a variety of fruit for breakfast. Weight in kg divided by 200 grams of a variety of salads including leaves right before lunch. Do this for a week for a reduction in sugar levels. 

Home Homeopathy Kit for minor problems

I share the following home remedies as a lay person who uses them for minor illnesses. The way we do it is we buy them in liquid form in 30C potency (so you would tell the shopkeeping to give you Nux Vomica 30, for instance) and put a couple of drops in a bottle of water, shake the bottle vigorously, and then take a couple of sips every hour or so. Do not take any medicine 30 min before or after food. Stop the medication immediately upon relief, do not continue taking the medicine. For anything serious, please do not self medicate, and check with a doctor instead. 

Digestion

1. 1. Nux Vomica: Nux vomica can be safely used to treat gastrointestinal diseases, a loss of appetite, depression, migranes and hangover. It is very useful if you have over eaten or eaten something wrong. Don’t take it right after or in combination with other medicines as this flushes your stomach and reduces the effectiveness of other medicines. 
   2. Carbo Vegetablis: Carbo veg is useful with issues of excessive gas‚ indigestion‚ bloating‚ and belching. It calms the digestive system
   3. Arsenicum Album: This is the number one remedy for food poisoning. It also helps with hay fever involving burning, watery, runny nose with a stuffy, tickling feeling during allergy attacks, swelling below eyes, potential wheezy cough, feeling chilly, anxious and tired.

2. Common Ailments 

   1. Aconite: When taken at the onset of a cold, aconite can stop the virus from progressing further. It is also very useful in fever. Just mix a 2-3 drops or 10 pills in half a glass of water and take a spoon of this every hour and the fever comes down quite rapidly. Aconite can also be used for joint pain, gout, inflammations and to speed up the healing of wounds. Apart from the pill form, aconite can also be used as a cream.
   2. Kali Bichromicum: Helps very quickly with sinus infections and colds with thick yellow discharge. 
   3. Ocimum: Useful for colds and allergic nasal discharge
   4. Justicia: Useful for common cold with cough, sneezing, tightness of chest, hoarse voice, constipation
   5. Belladonna: Severe throat infection and difficulty speaking
   6. Ferrum Phosphoricum: (6X) useful in anemia, pre-menstrual fatigue (Ferrumsip syrup is also very helpful in this)
   7. Calendula cream: Helpful with burns, cuts and insect bites
   8. Bach Flower Rescue Remedy: Useful in abating shock and sudden, intense emotions
   9. Oophorinum 3x, suck 2 pills thrice daily for 3_4 months to heal PCOD

3. Pain, Injuries, Etc.

   1. Arnica: Best for bruising, accidents, injuries and shocks. It can also be used to treat arthritis and the pain that follows dental work and jet lag. Arnica can also be used to promote hair growth. Depending on its use, arnica can be used in the form of pills, cream or oils.
   2. Magnesia phosphoric: This is a must have for women. It can be used to treat any form of cramps including menstrual cramps. It can also be used to treat tiredness, headaches, nerve pain, insomnia and to help a person relax. Magnesia phosphoric is usually prescribed in the form of homeopathic pills.
   3. Ruta: Strains and sprains, stiffness and bruised soreness, or pulls that affect the ligaments or tendons, cartilage and bone injury.
   4. Rhus tox: Rhus tox is a common homeopathic remedy for muscle sprains and bruising. It is also beneficial for people suffering from back aches, arthritis, sciatica and body aches associated with the flu. Rhus tox is usually found in the form of homeopathic pills. 
   5. Calcarea Phosphorica: (6X) Useful in times of rapid growth, like children and teenagers. Also useful when body may be deficient in calcium, like when there are joint pains on slight exertion or body pains due to cold. 

Recipes

Get-Well-Soon Khichdi (Serves 3-4)

1 cup basmati rice
1 cup split mung dal
1 tsp crushed ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
A pinch of asafetida (hing)
4 cups water
1 tbsp ghee

Heat ghee in a pressure cooker, add cumin seeds, and add ginger, turmeric and hing, followed by washed rice and dal.

Add the water and pressure cook for 12 min on low flame after the first whistle. (or pressure-cook until the second whistle).

Open the pressure cooker after pressure is released, add water if a change in consistency is needed, and serve with ghee, curds, and/ or thinly sliced ginger fried in ghee. This is a deeply nourishing khichdi with spices meant to aid digestion, and helps in recovery from digestive problems as well as colds and flu. 
If eating when not sick, you can add a variety of vegetables and more spices as well. 

Note: If you are using another rice, just use 3 times the water you normally use.

Variation: You can pressure cook the rice and dal alone with some salt until cooked. Then heat ghee, add cumin, crushed peppercorns and cashews (skip cashews if ill). Pour over khichdi, mix and serve with ghee, raita or coconut chutney. This is the recipe for pongal served by Tamil Nadu street vendors. 

Home made Hair Oil

500ml coconut oil
7-8 gooseberries
2 lemons
1 small onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
1/2 inch piece ginger
1 tbsp peppercorns
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp kalonji seeds
6-10 inches fresh aloe vera with skin
Plenty of curry leaves and neem leaves

You may use all ingredients or skip a few if they are not available. Combine everything and boil until the items have released their essence. Strain and massage into hair 2-3 times a week. 

Here’s a very nice list of foods to eat depending on your Ayurvedic dosha. 

https://www.ayurveda-parkschloesschen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/dokumente/newsletter/Gewuerze_2016_gb.pdf

We’ve eaten wheat all our lives and since the symptoms are not fatal, we never realise if we’re allergic to it. So I thought it’s a good idea to just mention the symptoms here so that you can decide if you want to check.

Bloating: You’ll find your belly area fat, at times even when you haven’t eaten much.

Constipation / Diarrhoea: Stools tends to be hard, followed by loose

Fatigue: You feel so, so tired, without having exerted yourself. May feel like sleeping all the time and it’s never enough

Abdominal pain /heaviness: Belly may feel heavy/ painful even when you haven’t eaten too much

Headaches: Another common symptom, people may also develop migraines.

Skin Problems: Acne, psoriasis, urticaria, hair fall are all common symptoms as well.

Iron Deficiency Anaemia: and also dehydration, palpitations and dizzy spells when you suddenly get up are quite common.

Joint pains: Frequent joint pains and at times heightened sensitivity to cold is also common.

Anxiety: People tend to be highly strung and easily stressed too.

Brain Fog: It’s as if your brain has shut down, you simply cannot think, at times.

What You Need to Do

If you have a lot of the problems described above, please simply avoid wheat in all forms (atta, maida, rava, barley, most soy sauce, most chocolates, possibly beer, etc)

You’ll probably see a difference in your weight and health in a couple of weeks and a drastic difference in about 6, if you really are intolerant to gluten /wheat. I’ve observed that every time I eat wheat, I get a reaction that lasts 2 weeks.

You could get an allergy test if you’re in the habit of visiting doctors. I hope this helps. My estimation is that a lot of people today are quite allergic but completely unaware.

I should mention that I’ve observed that even those who are not ‘medically’ allergic to wheat have shown similar symptoms and they have been cleared upon avoiding wheat. So a medical test can confirm if you do have the allergy, but if it doesn’t, there’s no way of really knowing if it is messing up your life, unless you actually stay off of it for 6 weeks

Wheat causes heightened reaction to sugar as well, so you’ll get a lot fatter than normal every time you eat sugar. Another common (but not in everyone) symptom of usually gluten + lactose intolerance is teeny tiny pus dots on the back of the upper arm. Not everyone is lactose intolerant, but A1 milk is certainly not very helpful to the body and many people I know have switched to vegan diets after they’ve moved out of India because they couldn’t digest the milk anymore.

So What Do I Avoid?

Grains containing gluten – wheat (including wheat varieties like spelt, kamut, farro and durum, plus products like bulgur and semolina), barley, rye, triticale and oats (pure oats themselves don’t contain gluten, but packaged oatmeal does – gluten free oats are available on bigbasket)

Other products containing gluten – Soy sauce, chocolates both contain gluten normally. (Gluten free options are sometimes available, though expensive)

Gluten free grains – corn, millet (bajra, ragi, proso, kodo, little mille), rice, sorghum (jowar).

Gluten free pseudo-cereals – amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa.
All seeds like chia, flaxseeds, sesame, etc are gluten-free

What!!! Can I Eat Anything At All?

I know the list sounds intimidating and it is appalling how many foods contain gluten today – which is probably the reason why the body is starting to reject it. In 5-star buffets I have found that I can eat barely a third of the items available, sometimes even the salads have croutons!

But if you’re going to do the cooking, actually there are plenty of options and you may

Poha is a nice option for breakfast, especially if you make it with a lot of vegetables instead of the standard, plain version. You can still eat idli, vadas, sambar, chutney etc. You can make chapatis with rice, jowar, rajgira and kuttu. I made a banana brownie the other day with kuttu ka atta and it was absolutely marvelous!

You’ll be surprised to find that within no time you’ll actually have no craving at all anymore.  My go to substitute for rotis is jowar and for Western (pancakes, cupcakes, cakes) it is buckwheat (kuttu). When I feel like eating Atte ka Halwa, I just make Amaranth Halwa instead and actually find it more soothing.

People have been concerned about substituting wheat with rice because rice has such a bad rep. But really, it is unreasonably infamous. There are 40,000 different varieties of rice. The most starchy ones are actually eaten in places like Vietnam and Assam where people have much fewer health problems. The least starchy ones are probably basmati, which I have found most weight-inducing. Carbs and starches are good for health, they are a critical part of a healthy diet. Just like fats – which also we’ve tried to take out and many people have replaced it with highly toxic refined oils, of which the absolute worst is rice bran oil – nothing less than poison.

A balanced diet is one of moderation. I remember going to a South Indian household and finding that their regular lunch was pepper rasam, potato palya and white rice. No protein! And the ratios were horrible. Rice should be a part of the meal, not filling up half or more of the plate. And then it’ll work just fine. Millets are the latest in-thing but too much millets can also cause problems. So moderation is the key.

If you’re looking for a post talking about scientific opinions on the effects of microwaves on food, then you’re in the wrong place. But then, common sense will tell you that science does not know everything, especially with regards to health. And a little bit of research will tell you that scientific studies can be rigged. And they are, frequently.

So who do we trust then? Ourselves. Not a very easy thing for those who rely on their five senses, but if you’re in touch with the deeper aspects of yourself, then it is much easier. I can sense energies. A friend who can see auras (the energy field present around people and things) recently contacted me regarding the effect of microwaves on food, and this is the discussion we had.

R: Hi Ashwita,