Friday 31 July 2015

HEALTH BENEFITS OF UMEBOSHI PLUM PASTE

Besides their dramatic flavor, Japanese pickled plums have remarkable medicinal qualities. Their powerful acidity has a paradoxical alkalinizing effect on the body, neutralizing fatigue, stimulating the digestion, and promoting the elimination of toxins. This is the Far Eastern equivalent to both aspirin and apple; not only is it a potent hangover remedy for mornings after; more than that, an umeboshi a day is regarded as one of the best preventive medicines available.
Like many of Japan's ancient medicinal foods, the origin of the pickled plum is obscure. One theory traces it to China, where a dried smoked plum, or ubai, was discovered in a tomb built over two thousand years ago. The ubai is one of China's oldest medicines and is still used for a variety of medical purposes such as counteracting nausea, reducing fevers, and controlling coughs.
The oldest Japanese record of pickled plums being used as a medicine is in a medical text written about one thousand years ago. Umeboshi were used to prevent fatigue, purify water, rid the body of toxins, and cure specific diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, and food poisoning. Slowly, extensive folklore developed about umeboshi's ability to prevent and cure certain diseases.
During Japan's furious samurai period, which lasted through most of the Middle Ages, the pickled plum was the soldier's most important field ration. It was used to flavor foods such as rice and vegetables, and its high acidity made it an excellent water and food purifier, as well as an effective antidote for battle fatigue.
Almost 200 years ago, the Japanese began experimenting with ways to concentrate the healing powers of umeboshi. Finally, a dark liquid called bainiku ekisu (plum extract) was developed. To make the extract, sour green ume plums are slowly cooked down to obtain their most active ingredients in a highly concentrated form. The resulting dark, sticky, thick liquid is usually mixed with hot water and honey and is drunk as a tonic. Dried plum extract is also formed into pills, called meitan. In both plum extract and meitan, the plums' citric acid content is concentrated tenfold, which is equivalent to about twenty-five times the content found in lemon juice.
Many natural healers around the world feel that these concentrated forms of Japanese plums are among the world's most effective natural medicines. Moreover, they do not have the high salt content of pickled plums. 

Thursday 30 July 2015

MISO SOUP RECIPE
















 2 strips of dried kombu   (available at Lucky 97, Lucky Supermarket,  2 shiitake mushrooms   or dried Chinese mushrooms - 4 cups water


- SIMMER OR MEDIUM BOIL together for 30 minutes.  I prefer to simmer as it has a more delicious flavour. 
- ADD pinch of grey sea salt.  Not white sea salt…it is missing the minerals and trace elements that our blood and kidneys need.
- Or a tablespoon of your favourite tamari (wheat free soya sauce ie. SanJ brand-Save on foods and Superstore have different kinds)
- Add onions, thin sliced daikon and julienne cut carrots and during the last 3 minutes some rehydrated WAKAME.  (sea vegetable-super nutritious for the kidney/bladder family as they thrive on minerals)
-POUR broth over l heaping teaspoon of your favourite miso ie.  Barley or brown rice for the kidney/bladder family and mix paste into the broth. 
-Small amount of grated organic ginger and chopped green onions to garnish is a wonderful finish.

ENJOY BEFORE EVERY MEAL.

Miso paste has the 8 essential amino acids, enzymes and natural forming acidophilus.  It allows our bodies to absorb the food to follow easier.

Organic Short Grain Brown Rice-the World's Healthiest Foods


In some parts of the world, the word "to eat" literally means "to eat rice." All varieties of rice are available throughout the year, supplying as much as half of the daily calories for half of the world's population.
The process that produces brown rice removes only the outermost layer, the hull, of the rice kernel and is the least damaging to its nutritional value. The complete milling and polishing that converts brown rice into white rice destroys 67% of the vitamin B3, 80% of the vitamin B1, 90% of the vitamin B6, half of the manganese, half of the phosphorus, 60% of the iron, and all of the dietary fiber and essential fatty acids. Fully milled and polished white rice is required to be "enriched" with vitamins B1, B3 and iron.

READ MORE:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=128

Lotus root tea recipe

LOTUS ROOT TEA

This clears all mucus in the respiratory and nasal sinuses and excess mucus throughout the body.

2     pcs         dried or fresh lotus root
2     slices      fresh ginger root
4     cups       water

Simmer for 20 minutes med heat.  Drink 3 times per day.  Excellent exporant.

Can be used 3 additional times by adding fresh spring water and fresh ginger.

The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn, audiobook, youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EZI1cjpRMo