Tag: honey

Honey and Cinnamon Diet

The Benefits of Honey and Cinnamon: Honey and Cinnamon  work well together.  This combination has been used over centuries to help treat colds and flu and other minor health ailments.   Note: Some people have an allergy to cinnamon: cinnamon does not necessarily work for everybody.  Ask your doctor or naturopath or ayurvedic practitioner before you use cinnamon as a treatment.

Nowadays, many people are looking to the honey and cinnamon diet to help reduce weight,  and to help lower cholesterol and blood sugar.  In my experience, honey and cinnamon really do work together to help you lose weight;  but of course, the amount of weight lost will  depend on  what and how much you are eating whilst you take this remedy.

Effects of Honey-Cinnamon-Ginger-Lemon Juice on Ear Infection and on Weight Loss:

I had reason to use a  honey and cinnamon diet  recently, with some added ginger powder and lemon juice,  to treat an ear infection on the right side – the cell phone ear.  Incidentally, using the cell phone over the past week whilst I had the infection increased the pain and the swelling dramatically. To my mind, cell phone usage is probably about 70% of the cause of this recent trouble. The other 30% would be liver and bowel toxins which need clearing, combined with the effects of using a toxic incense recently:  smoke causes congestion in the sinuses, and this can cause ear infection.

The object of using the honey and cinnamon diet was specifically to treat the ear, and not to lose weight.  Anyhow, I rested as much as I could, with spiritual healing; a hot-to-warm hot water bottle on the ear; tea tree combined with olive oil put  in and massaged around the ear; and between four to six cups of ginger and cinnamon tea with lemon juice and honey each day for about three days.  After the three day period, only one or two cups a day was taken for a few days longer.

Dose which I used:  I used a small teaspoon of powder per cup of tea, from a jar which had one part cinnamon powder to two parts ginger powder in it. Four to six cups of cinnamon-ginger-honey-lemon juice tea were taken for the first three days, then I cut the tea down to one or two cups per day.  However, I think this dosage was a bit too intense, as I shall explain.

I did lose quite a bit of weight over the past week, partly because the ear infection made me feel sick and took away my appetite.  However, I am pretty sure  the cinnamon powder itself, combined with ginger,  also quelled my appetite, and caused me to lose weight: this was an unexpected, but rather pleasing side effect on its own, but for the side effect of nausea.

Cinnamon bark contains a compound called coumarin, which is toxic to the liver in large amounts. I felt that it was the coumarin in the cinnamon powder which made me feel slightly nauseous:   I have since judged the dose I took – four to six cups  a day, of cinnamon and ginger tea,  to be on the high side, because of the side effects which I experienced.

Sensible Usage:  Four to six cups of cinnamon ginger tea daily is  rather excessive, as this equates to about two teaspoons of cinnamon for the day, far more than you would ever eat in a cookie, or a curry, or anything else. I think no more than one to two cups of this tea daily would have been a better dose for my body type.

Be careful not to overdose on cinnamon: There are many different recipes being passed about for using honey and cinnamon in various combinations and dosages, and for a wide range of health issues:  a big list of remedies for using cinnamon with honey was given to me only two weeks ago.  I think this source may have been the internet.  However, the doses on this two page hand-out ranged from using just one teaspoon of cinnamon, which is still high, in my estimation, to using two tablespoons of cinnamon.

Two tablespoonsful of cinnamon  is just ridiculously excessive and could be very damaging to your liver and your health if you are using the type of cinnamon known as cassia cinnamon.

Cassia cinnamon contains large amounts of coumarin.  Ceylon cinnamon does not have such high amounts of coumarin in it, and so ceylon cinnamon is the type of cinnamon which should be used if you are going to use the honey and cinnamon diet, or cinnamon teas.

In my experience, the honey and cinnamon with ginger and lemon did help my ear infection, and did cause me to lose weight. However, I believe that whilst this combination effected a cure, it also made me feel sick.   I would caution anyone intending to try this combination to ask a medical person, or an alternative practitioner first, especially if you are taking any medications, or even vitamin and mineral supplements.

And taking more than one teaspoonful at a time of a 3 to 1 mix of ginger and cinnamon will probably have the effect of harming your liver.  You will definitely lose weight, because your liver will be put under strain, and so you will eat less,  but using large doses of cinnamon in order to reduce weight is NOT a healthy way to lose weight.  Your liver is vital to good health, and anything which might cause damage or strain to the liver must be avoided.

Cinnamon, therefore, because of its coumarin content which can affect the liver adversely,  must be used in moderation.

Note for Denture Wearers: Cinnamon and dentures do not go well together. Anyone who has a plastic denture must be careful not to use cinnamon tea too often.  If you do use the honey and cinnamon diet, under the guidance of a health practitioner, then you should really remove the dentures before drinking the tea.  This is because cinnamon has the power to extract chemicals from plastic, which will cause an ongoing leaching of chemicals into your body.

Food Sources of Vitamin C

Natural Food Sources of Vitamin C:

All fruits and vegetables contain Vitamin C.

Vitamin C helps  support the immune system and  is a powerful antioxidant.  It has been used for many years in alternative cancer treatments, but now  it has been proven as a fact to be a cancer preventative.  This finding was made public just two weeks ago, by research scientists in New Zealand.

So now we can be certain of the value of Vitamin C in maintaining a healthy immune system.  Vitamin C is vital to good health.

Vitamin C is destroyed in cooking, so some raw fruits and vegetables must be eaten daily in order to get enough Vitamin C.  Some Vitamin C remains in food which has not been cooked for too long.  Broccoli, cabbage, potatoes and carrots are examples of food which retain some Vitamin C after cooking on a moderate heat.

Vitamin C is not stored in the body either, so you need to have a daily intake of fresh fruits and vegetables to maintain your Vitamin C levels.  A daily supply of these foods will ensure that you get enough Vitamin C to keep your immune system ship shape to help you  stay healthy:  An adequate regular supply of Vitamin C will go a long way to helping protect you and your family from diseases like cancer.

Of course, you must make all efforts to get your fruit and vegetables from an organic source, otherwise the beneficial effect of the Vitamin C in these foods could very well be negated by the presence of agricultural poisons.

Natural Food Sources of Vitamin C:

Citrus fruits are very high.  Lemons are especially good, which is why lemon drinks with honey, garlic, and ginger, are excellent remedies for the  common cold. Honey, garlic, and fresh ginger all contain small amounts of Vitamin C, as well as other helpful compounds for treating the common cold.

Berries such as blackberry, raspberry, cranberry, boysenberry, strawberry, gooseberry, and grapes, are very high in vitamin C.

Kiwifruit are an extremely rich food source of Vitamin C.

Tamarillos and tomatoes are high natural food sources of Vitamin C, especially when they are eaten raw.  Even cooked, some vitamin C will remain in these foods.

Apples,  apricots, peaches, pears,  nectarines, and plums are all good natural food sources of Vitamin C.

Dried fruits still retain high levels of Vitamin C:  Dried plums, as in prunes, are high in Vitamin C;  dried figs, dried apricots, dried dates, sultanas and raisins, have good amounts of Vitamin C.

Chromium

CHROMIUM
Deficiencies of Chromium are thought to be wide spread, affecting roughly 50% of the population in Western societies.

Older women, and expectant mothers, need to ensure that their chromium levels are maintained.
Chromium is necessary for the processing of sugar and alcohol.
It feeds the nerves and helps to promote a calm state of mind.
Chromium helps to monitor your cholesterol levels and helps in the manufacture of essential natural cholesterol.
It helps prevent high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

Chromium is especially important because it helps regulate the supply of insulin in the body. Adequate chromium helps protect you against sugar-related conditions like hypoglycaemia and diabetes.
A normal healthy body will utilize the Chromium within foods to process their sugars: Fruits, honey, root vegetables, treacle, molasses and maple syrup all contain chromium, which is used by the body to process the  sugars they contain.

The reason why  refined, white sugar is so bad for the general health is perhaps not just because of the sugar content, but because processed sugar has been stripped of its chromium value. White sugar  has been left bare of the valuable nutrients which naturally help with the assimilation of sugar in the body:

Sugar cane is extremely high in Chromium. Treacle and molasses, which come from the less refined sugar cane product, are  also rich sources of Chromium.
Chromium is found naturally in the outer part of grains which contains the bran. Hence,  processed grains are deficient in Chromium. Brown rice is preferable to white rice for this reason, just as wholewheat flour is  the preferable choice
to white flour. Use oat bran instead of the more processed fine oatmeal to make your porridge.
Chromium is found in good quality cooking oils such as grape seed, olive oil, avocado oil and rice bran oil.

The recommended daily allowance of Chromium is 200 mcg.
One of the best sources is Brewer’s yeast, which contains 100 mcg per each tablespoonful.
Two eggs contain 60 mcg.
1 cup of fruit juice such as orange or apple contains about 115 mcg.
Kiwifruit is fairly high with 35 mcg per average sized fruit.
One potato contains roughly 20 mcg of Chromium.
Most other vegetables contain roughly 20 mcg per 100 grammes.
Meats contain about 55 mcg per 100 grammes.
One slice of wholemeal bread has about 17 mcg.
One tablespoon of molasses or treacle has about 25 mcg.