Uses & Benefits of Honey

 There are countless uses for honey! 

Google it, or click on the ✔️ links below to start.  As always, do your own research and proceed with caution:

Fast facts on honey

• Honey is linked to wound-healing properties and antibacterial action.
• It has been used in medicine for over 5,000 years.
• Honey can replace sugar in meals, providing a healthier option. However, they can also add browning and excess moisture to a dish.
• Do not give honey to children under 12 months old. (Medical News Today)

✔️9 Unexpected Uses for Honey

✔Everything You Need to Know About Honey

Manuka honey is sometimes used to treat chronic leg ulcers and pressure sores.

Manuka honey is made in New Zealand from the nectar of Leptospermum scoparium. It's the basis of Medihoney, which the FDA approved in 2007 for use in treating wounds and skin ulcers. It works very well to stimulate healing, says wound care specialist Frank Bongiorno, MD, of Ann Arbor, Mich. ( Web MD )

✔️Medicinal Uses of Honey

✔️12 Ways Honey Can Up Your Beauty Game

✅Honey: an Overview, by Web MD

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LIST: Uses and Information for Many Herbs

pc: wikipedia

Useful!  I found a web site with an alphabetical list of over 250 H E R B S.  

When you click on the link for any of the herbs, it takes you to a dedicated page for that herb - and it is chock-full of information. 

Beware, they may have a section on the  "magickal" uses for a herb.  I am definitely not promoting that section at all. I am most interested in an herb's (proven) health benefits. 

List Of Herbs

Lavandula stoechas, the Spanish lavender or topped lavender (U.S.)
 or French lavender (U.K.)

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:

 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:

Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:

 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent;

 his glory is above the earth and heaven. (Psalm 148)

HERB Benefits

Lavender's Blue Folk Song

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So good: Pickles and Me

Dad would drop me off for a short stay with Grandma and Grandpa during Summer vacation.

My Grandma (lady in white, far left) loved me because she fed me, never yelled at me, and she gave me my very first pickle. 

What the heck was this little green vinegar-soaked vegetable that had the most delicious taste of crunchy, tangy sweetness? More, please! Grandma would smile and direct me to her secret stash of pickle jars in the pantry. All for me?! I was surely the most cherished girl in the world. Thank You, Lord, for such good memories! (This experience was so sweet that I brought it up in my speech during Grandma's eulogy). 

Here’s The Surprising Effect That Eating Just One Pickle A Day Has On Your Body - A W M

Pickles are popular items you’ll find on your plate when you’re eating a sandwich. These delicious and crunchy items are salty and delightful. So many people love pickles, not only because of the tangy taste they add to your meal, but because they’re an easy way to get some healthy food into your body. Depending on what part of the country you live in, you may put pickles on your hamburgers, hot dogs, or just as a spear on the side of your plate to accompany your sandwich order.

Pickles can also function as a standalone snack. We all know that – but did you know that having just one pickle a day can do something shocking to your body and your health? It’s a shocking fact that few people realize.

pc: American Web Media

One study found that pickles are an easy way to improve your health. It’s a surprise to most people. You probably always liked pickles, most of us did, but we hardly ever suspected they offer much a nutritional boost to our bodies and health. One study proved that isn’t exactly true.

Pickles are fermented food. That means microorganisms have interacted with the food to make it the way it is. Yogurt is another example of fermented food. So is apple cider vinegar. While you might find it weird to eat living microorganisms, it’s actually wonderous for your health.

When these living creatures, which are so small, you’d need a microscope to see them, enter your digestive system, they find another habitat that they can thrive in. Once there, they replenish existing bacteria that help you stay healthy. These bacterial allies, also known as probiotics, help keep your immune system strong and robust as well as your digestive system running strong and smooth.

Pickles are loaded with probiotics. You can achieve digestive wellness and get all the other benefits from them simply by having at least one pickle every day. That means that the popular side to your sandwich can do great things to your health – even help strengthen your immune system, so you’re less likely to get sick or catch an infection.

Actresses who portrayed "Pickles" on the Dick Van Dyke Show

Pickles are not the only foods that are loaded with probiotics. If you’re averse to these tangy, vinegar-loaded sides, there are other options that can help you get your daily dose of probiotics. If you’re not a fan of any of those foods, then you could take probiotic supplements.

If you worry that you may get exposed to germs or bad bacterial, enjoy a crunchy pickle could help you protect your body from harmless contaminants. Not only are pickles good for your health, can improve your immune system, but they’re also a delicious snack that satisfies almost every salt craving. What an awesome snack that is so underrated!

Are you surprised to learn that pickles have probiotics in them? Did you know that more foods than just yogurt have these billions of good bacteria?

Go have a pickle. It’s good for your health – and your gut – in more ways than one.

-- by American Web Media AWM

Surprising Effect That Eating Just One Pickle A Day Has On Your Body

Pickled Cucumber

Probiotic

fb: The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book

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Garlic: List of Uses and Benefits

Uses & Benefits of Garlic:

Ahhh… garlic, that Italian cure-all. You can hardly go wrong any way you try it. 

Here’s one special way I use it:

First, go to the garden (or the grocery store) and bring home a couple bulbs of garlic. A bulb is the golf-ball size pod of the plant, which can be separated into many cloves—shaped like the individual wedges taken from an orange. Break off two or three large cloves, and lay them on your counter. Set some water on the stove to warm, and then spread out a clean washcloth or double-thick paper towel. Smack the garlic cloves with the bottom of a heavy glass to lightly bruise or crush them. Now the papery skin will come off easily. Take the bruised cloves and dice them up, or smash them in a garlic press so that the juice billows out the familiar aroma that makes you hungry for Lasagna.

Lay the 2-3 tablespoons of minced garlic in the center of your washcloth or paper towel, and fold in the edges of the cloth, creating what I call a “poultice” or “plaster.” Place this garlic pad in a bowl or plate and pour warm (not hot) water over it. Let it sit for 5 seconds or so, then drain and squeeze the excess water out with your hands. Apply the warm (not hot!) poultice to the chest, back, and soles of the feet (alternately) for about 60 seconds each for treatment of any virus, cold, flu, infection, etc…

Garlic poultices can also be used for earaches—placing crushed garlic or a garlic poultice against the infected ear. Also, a clove of garlic wedged in the ear like an old fashioned hearing aid works great for earaches (but be careful not to leave too long, or you will burn the skin!)

For flesh wound infections, hold against the wound lightly for about two minutes. Repeat several times a day.

To treat eye infections, hold poultice over the tightly closed eye for about two minutes. Careful! This burns really bad if it gets in the eye.

Warm garlic oil is also healing and comforting in an ear when there is an infection. The oil is made by adding a few drops of olive oil to a tiny bit of fresh crushed garlic, let sit for a few minutes, then strain out all the garlic and discard. The oil that goes in the ear must be free of any visible particles. You will have enough for one application of warm garlic oil for an earache. I always make mine fresh. Do not make it too strong, because it can burn the skin. Experiment on the inside of your arm to see how strong or how long you can leave the garlic on your skin without it burning. It can literally blister your skin (chemical heat.)

A very weak or mild, warm garlic water douche is helpful for female infections. Douche recipe – pour very warm water over crushed garlic in a sieve. Dilute with cold water until tepid. Check by tasting it, so that the garlic flavor is very light.

Warm water poured over crushed garlic in a strainer, with added vinegar and honey will make a “tea” or “gargle water” that will knock out the worst sore throat or mouth infection.

Tips to Live By:

Don’t wait until you are miserable before taking action! As soon as you feel that sore throat coming on, sip some hot garlic water, and you will NEVER get sick. If you are tough, and your love-life is secure, you can just eat a garlic clove raw. Treat your children as soon as they get cranky; don’t wait until they get an infection.

Garlic is very strong. If the patient’s nose starts running with clear mucus like a dripping faucet, then it’s time to ease off on the garlic treatment. It will open every pore and detox you so quickly and thoroughly, you may be miserable if you over-do it. So, be watchful.

Grow your own garlic! Once you learn how to use it, you will quickly become dependent on it. If you have your own little garlic plot in the backyard, you won’t have to make midnight runs to the grocery store when junior gets a cold.

Read the following book. It will give you many more practical tips and home-care knowledge that will keep you from going to the doctor.  The ABC Herbal by Steven H. Horne is written to help moms learn how to treat their children with herbs. It is short, simple and would be a help for all moms.

NOTE: This is how I use garlic, but I am not a licensed medical doctor, and do not intend this as advice on how you should use it. Consult your physician.

by Rebekah Joy Anast

Garlic, the Italian Cure-all

What Garlic Can Do For You

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What I Bought with my SFA Gift / Rewards Card

pc: SFA

Every year Saks Fifth Avenue Mastercard sends me a gift card to be used for SFA merchandise.  I was rewarded with $100 (read: lots of shopping with their cc on my part, sigh). 

So, I perused their website and ordered two items online: 

A.  Our old colanders are frequently-used items.  They certainly look the part.  Something better for our recently-renovated kitchen was this brand new MacKenzie-Childs large enamel ware colander in Courtly Check.  It coordinated with my other MC items.  

B.  Needed a new fitness tracker.
I ordered  the very the last one available and clearance-priced too.  Too bad this very cute MisFit tracker (MisFit Ray) was found to be defective when I tried to sync it. Customer service was of no help neither, sigh.  Returned to Sender!

Replacement:  had to be something that was useful but had no mechanical parts, LoL.

Ordered the Courtly Check Enamel Baking Pan ; size  9"W x 13"L x 2.25"D. Why not?  Might as well add to my design theme.  Here it is, fresh out of the box.  Can hardly wait to bake something good in it.  (I am still in need of a fitness tracker, though).

Psalm 35:9

MC Colander

Amazon: MisFit Ray

MisFit Fitness Tracker

13.06.2020

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International Coffee Day 2018

Aging has its benefits --- for people and for coffee, as studies continue to reveal.  In the world of coffee aficionados, the best flavor comes from beans that have been "monsooned", or stored in an open-air warehouse where the beans are exposed to the tropical elements for approximately 16 weeks.  The added moisture and wind result in a low-acid, full-body brew.  The process mimics shipping methods of the 1600s, when coffee from India travelled to Europe aboard sailing vessels.  The journey took up to six months, with the beans soaking up the moist air.  As shipping methods became faster, coffee got a sharper taste.

Maybe all that natural aging has increased its health benefits too.  Recent medical research indicates that drinking coffee lowers a person's chances of getting colon cancer, gallstones, cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson's disease, and type 2 diabetes.  Plus, coffee helps control asthma and alleviates headaches.

As it turns out, Americans drink so much coffee that coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in their diet.  Take that, fruits and vegetables.  

-- Have a Good Day

Coffee


Cat Poop Coffee


Iced Coffee Recipes






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Healthy Monday: Go Ahead and Drink that Coffee

Food for Thought:  Recent medical research indicates that drinking coffee lowers a person's chances of getting colon cancer, gallstones, cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson's disease, and type 2 diabetes.  Plus, coffee helps control asthma and alleviates headaches.   -- Have a Good Day, September 2012

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