3-Ingredient Ayurvedic Sore Throat & Cough Healing Tonic
Ayurvedic Sore Throat & Cough Healing Tonic
Treat and Balance Vata-Kapha
Growing up in Puerto Rico, very close to my island-native grandparents, my upbringings were filled with Ayurvedic natural methods and remedies for our health-care at home. I vaguely remember relying on western medication for the yearly allergies, asthma triggers, and the common cold+flu symptoms such as inflammation, congestion, sore throat and excess mucus I experienced growing up.
While this knowledge was not perceived in my culture as Ayurveda itself, it was equally perceived as a sacred, spiritual relationship with the Divine: Mother Nature and her full medicinal glory. Ayurveda afterall is the study of matter and the elemental composition of nature, so that we can best understand, tend to and nourish our nature through all aspects of the Self: Mind, Body, and Soul.
One of my ultimate favorite, and extremely delicious ways of treating the above stated symptoms within other imbalances was by making my own and properly storing this Ayurvedic Ginger+Lime+Honey Healing Tonic!
Let’s talk about the ingredients and their qualities!
All 3 ingredients in this simple yet powerfully healing tonic are great foods to support healthy immunity, release of toxins - ama - and create a warming or cleansing effect in our IG track.
Ginger
The beautiful rhizome ginger has an abundance of healing properties and is thought of in Ayurveda as “universal medicine.” Referred to as ardrakam or shuntha in Sanskrit, ginger is pungent (spicy), while at the same time sweet and warming. It’s the perfect antidote for chill and damp.
Ginger is used so widely in ayurveda that it is an entire medicine chest in itself. There is an ayurvedic sutra (verse) that says that everyone should eat fresh ginger just before lunch and dinner to enhance digestion. Not only does ginger stoke the digestive fire, but it also whets the appetite, improves assimilation and transportation of nutrients to targeted body tissues, and clears the microcirculatory channels of the body. The few situations in which ginger is contraindicated are in cases of hyperacidity; during any form of hemorrhage (including menstruation); vertigo; and chronic skin disease.
Other than in these situations, ginger is an excellent spice that can be used daily.
Limes
Limes are strongly sour, thus encouraging secretions in the digestive tract and salivary glands. These secretions improve taste, digestion, and regular elimination (functioning as a mild laxative).
Lime's sour taste increases the flow of bile which aids fat digestion, reduces liver and gall bladder congestion and detoxifies the blood. Since bile contains many toxic by products from normal liver function, draining bile from the liver has a cooling and purifying effect on the blood.
Limes are acidic in taste yet alkaline in effect. Limes nourish deficient blood plasma and helps rebuild fluids. It's high vitamin C content nourishes the blood. Like lemons, they reduce acidity in the stomach. They also reduces uric acid and output of urinary calcium which helps to prevent kidney stones.
Raw Honey
Raw honey reigns supreme as a medicinal sweet in Ayurveda. Traditionally, the quality of sweetness is associated with loving kindness, compassion, and contentment. Foods that carry the sweet taste are said to build ojas—our vital immunity, ability to ward off disease, and capacity to feel genuine satisfaction.
Honey also acts as a catalytic carrier, or anupana, of other healing substances, drawing them deep into the tissues. It lightens heavier foods and herbs and stimulates agni, the digestive fire. For most of us, it is an excellent sweetener to use between the fall and spring, unless you’re in the midst of a heat wave or pitta aggravation.
It is important to know that honey is a volatile sweet in the presence of heat, which causes it to ferment and create toxins. When baked into foods and eaten, these subtle toxins create ama in the digestive tract. To use honey as a medicine, don’t heat it up and avoid using heated (non-raw) honey as a sweetener. In this way we look to heal, not harm.
Ingredients:
8oz of Raw Unfiltered Honey - The more compassionate & consciously harvested the better!
Ginger Root (2-3’’)
Juice of two (2) Limes
Instructions:
Thoroughly wash your limes and chop in halves.
Squeeze your limes, and pour the juice into a dry, clean glass jar with sealable lid.
Peel, and finely chop or grate your ginger root.
Mix your ginger along with the lime juice and stir together.
Fill your jar with your raw unfiltered honey.
Seal close, and store in a dark, cool storage space away from the heat and humidity of the stove.