Thursday, April 24, 2008

Lemon Honey Ginger Green Tea for Cold Relief


Another good tea that I like whether or not I'm sick.



~Boil 1 quarter inch slice of fresh ginger in 1 drinking cup of filtered water for about 5 minutes (to preferred strength.)
~Pour over a good strong green tea and steep for 4 minutes.
~Add a teaspoon of lemon
~Flavor with honey until just pleasantly sweet.

The result is an excellently flavored tea that is soothing, helps clear sinuses and reduces throat irritation and dryness. Ginger has been found in studies to aid digestion, sore throat, arthritis, nausea and diarrhea and to help congestion. Studies on animals have found that ginger acts as a antibacterial, fever-reducer, pain reliever and sedative.

Optionally, if you have heavy sinus congestion, you could try adding just a pinch of cayenne pepper. Cayenne is also valued in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for stimulating digestion.

Notes: Not surprisingly, wikipedia provides a fairly trustworthy group-reviewed resource on ginger but the page on Cayenne includes medical claims but no citations.

Ginger


As always, resources on medical, dietary and health studies, which are frequently conducted by vested interests are notoriously biased and difficult to assess. The studies I found on Cayenne, which were mostly more recent, did not seem as trustworthy to me as those sited on Ginger, which had a longer legacy of medical study preceding the modern trend toward close "academia-for-sale" relationships between profiteers and "science."

That said, here is an article on the reported health benefits of cayenne: http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/cayenne.htm

I scoured Google Scholar for a more academic and experimentally verified perspective but found few that I found very trustworthy. Here is a link on "The Health Benefits fo
Cayenne:" http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QcmzL4KTCQ0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=diet+cayenne&ots=aey2VTpMuJ&sig=bMKMqv1O6szb7OTz9SNs8PjLeqw#PPA16,M1

3 comments:

Confusion Say said...

I think I will be making this today. Funny, I actually have all the ingredients already.

I have been getting congested lately. So a little cayenne will do me good. I'll let you know how it goes.

Hope your wrist is feeling better.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I use white tea with your special blend instead of green tea and I find that my sinus's and congestion starts to clear within a few sips. The blend I use is Twinings white tea and pomegranate (Not advertising, just was plesantly surprised at the results)

Gigi

Gaijin Wife said...

thank you for that recipe. I was googling ginger and came across a different site that suggested ginger green tea, which I googled also and here I am. I live in Japan and have a whole drawer full of green tea. Some New zealand manuka honey and all I need is some fresh ginger and a lemon or too.
Thanks again, I'm going to try this tonight before bed.
Hopefully it can sooth me off into nice sleep.

 
!-- Site Meter -->