Life and Spirituality

Recently when my daughters visited they informed that they consume neither tea nor coffee anymore. However when I suggested a floral tea they agreed. They loved the cuppa. I explained to them how to create their own. This method is shared with all now in view of its usefulness. Dear reader you could create your own wonderful floral tea for free or very little expense in this manner Discovering suitable flowers: The first step is to make a list of flowers that are available in reasonable abundance in your area. These may be available in the wild in due season or in your own garden. Some dry flowers may be available at reasonable prices in your local market and you may add these to your list. Flowers from some trees are also great. Trees produce these in great abundance in season. Now note, not all flowers in your list will be suitable for tea. Some may even be toxic as for example larkspur and oleander. Discovering what flowers are suitable for a tea is the nex...

O ne can learn much about foods for good health by observing the diet of the healthiest and longest lived humans on earth. However a broad knowledge of food is necessary in order to draw correct inferences. Recently a 117 year old lady has come to the attention of media. Emma Morano celebrated her 117 th birthday this Tuesday; she was born in the 1800s.   She is fully alert in mind, cheerful and disease free despite her age. Therefore the attention of the world was drawn to her regular daily diet. It turned out to be two raw eggs a day and cookies. Much of the media and world has perhaps erroneously concluded that the magic lies in raw eggs. However, this may lead to harm because in many parts of the world there is danger from salmonella bacteria in raw eggs. This dear old lady has been fortunate enough to live in an area where this infection does not prevail. On reading further the secret lies in the lady not consuming meat and getting her protein requirements...

http://absfreepic.com/free-photos/download/beautiful-sun-beam-on-grassland-4608x3072_66131.html G rass is the most plentiful source of food on our Planet for humans and animals. Of various grasses, some are excellent food sources for humans. Both wheat and rice are varieties of grass. The seeds can be dried and stored for long. Wheat is one of the cheapest sources of food for humans because of its abundance. A few humans are allergic to gluten in wheat and in that case rice or corn is an alternative. http://www.stock-free.org/field-harvest-wheat-haystack.html Humans have a tendency to develop food fads for a few decades at a time such as cholesterol free, caffeine free, gluten free etc. Natural food eaters avoid all such fad foods that are unnatural and have undergone much processing . Those components are essential to the food they are a part of but since individual chemistry of each person is unique and reacts differently to same food, some may be allergic ...

  I n the northern Hemisphere, summer has started in some places and in others it is knocking on the door. During such times the human body thirsts for cold drinks and there are very many popular ones in the market. The trouble is that the popular ones are not good for health and moves are afoot to ban them in parts of the world. The source of ill health from cold drinks is the use of chemicals in their preparation including sugar which too is a chemical. However with a little innovation cold drinks can be a source of good health, a health tonic rather than harmful. All that is required is to use extracts of natural healthy herbs in place of chemicals. Then they can be carbonated and marketed similarly. Here are some suggestions for an enterprising manufacturer out there as to what can be used Sweetener: Stevia leaves Acidity: Natural sources of citric and ascorbic acid such as dried lemons and/or the myroblan amala Stimulant: green or black tea For more s...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballet-Ballerina-1853.jpg M odern life style, especially in cities has become such that one can get by with little physical exercise. It was never so in the past. About half a century ago, some walking, in the very least, was part of daily human routine. That is how the human body has evolved over thousands of years.   A life without physical exercise is unnatural to the human body. It may have sad consequences on human well being and the fact that some do not realize it is because they have got used to their new sadder compromised state of being and do not notice. Just a simple exercise of half an hour a day for five or six days a week and some more that involves bending or stretching can improve matters a lot. About an hour a day for five or six days is better with some days involving more - two or three hours - gardening or a hike in the countryside is great. Consider activities like fixing, cleaning, gardening, planting trees....

H umans meet their primary food requirements of carbohydrates and proteins from a narrow selection of foods. For example the primary source of carbohydrates for a majority of humans on earth is wheat or rice. Even when it comes to vegetables and fruits, most choose from a narrow selection according to their varying tastes and availability. While all this can meet primary food requirements, for optimum health and well being, a human also requires a whole lot of other micro-nutrients and organic compounds. A shortage of just one micro-nutrient can create serious health problems. To ensure that a person may not miss out on essential components required by the body or mind, it is a good idea to have a large variety in food. However, as mentioned since variety is usually not large in main food items of daily consumption, it may easily be added through a variety of herbs, flowers and other plant parts. Many herbs have a medicinal value and even without knowing its precise medicina...

The Feast of Achelous by Peter Paul Rubens A ll life has been created from the same pool of genes, different life forms having different sets with many common ones across different life forms that inhabit our planet. Humans share some genes with sheep and numerous other animals. It is not surprising therefore that they tend to exhibit some of the same behavior. Thus when someone started to drink the tea that most humans do, most others followed ditto. It is an excellent brew but that does not mean that there are not other leaves, flowers, fruits, barks and roots that cannot make an excellent cup when dried and used similarly. This blog has described several other leaves and flowers that can lead to an excellent cup. Presently a Five Element Tea is described here that includes equal amounts by volume of dried   root, bark, flower, leaf and fruit of different plants, all known for their health giving properties for most and such a tea consisting of these five co...

Goosefoot in Yoghurt with hot buttered unleavened bread and a herbal chutney   Scroll down for recipes of items in the picture T he following four types of food if included as part of one’s regular meals would lead to simplicity yet good health for most humans as regards diet is concerned in the view of this author and these do not include meat although one may add eggs Food from seeds of grasses called food grains and the best of these are wheat and rice. A few are allergic to the gluten in wheat and they may choose from a range of other grass seeds Leafy green vegetable Milk or milk products such as yoghurt, processed and unprocessed cheese, butter A raw easily palatable food such as fruits and salad vegetables In this selection, milk products are the protein source. In case that is not available, protein must be be made up from other things such as lentil beans, fish or eggs. Between these four groups of food a human may find all the carbohydrates, proteins...

N o good kitchen is complete without a good selection of cooking oils or fats. But, there are so many to choose from and the information out there on which are the best is confusing. Hope this note would help the reader in making a better selection THREE FACTORS THAT DETERMINE CHOICE OF COOKING OIL OR FAT The three factors that decide which oil or fat to use in which recipe depends on: Health Cost Taste While good health cannot be sacrificed neither can good taste of food we consume. Cost of oil used also  matters for most except the very rich. TRADITION VS SCIENCE IN SELECTION A human uses traditional practices prevalent in one’s area in selecting the best cooking oils. Aside from this, humans are also influenced by various recommendations from scientific bodies or health organizations that are put out from time to time. My own personal decision in this regard is to value traditional knowledge more than scientific knowledge or advisories...