Top 10 What's the Deal With the Smoothie Craze

You might be asking what's this smoothie craze all about? They're everywhere! 

According to Wikipedia smoothies have been around since the 1930's coming along with the invention of the kitchen blender making it possible to reduce whole fruits and vegetables in to liquid. By the late 1960s, smoothies made from ice, milk, fruit and fruit juices were widely sold across the US mostly by health food stores which was fueled by the health food movement you know the "hippies". In the 1970's Smoothie King was founded setting the stage for numerous smoothie bars across the United States adding ingredients such as vitamins and protein powder into the smoothies. As smoothies became more popular and prominent when large companies decided to make bottled smoothies and sell them in supermarkets. 

As you can see smoothies aren't so much of a craze as it's a part of our eating culture. Even though the word "smoothie" brings up images of healthiness that's not always the case.  It's definately buyer beware. If you are not make your smoothie yourself in your kitchen you really don't know what is being put in this yummy drink. What determines the healthiness is the ingredients, sugars, amount and kind of chemical additives and manufacturing process. Remember Smoothie King? According to Eat This Not That  the worst smoothie is the Hulk Strawberry topping off at 964 calories, half the recommended calories for a whole day. As with all foods it pays to be an informed consumer in this case the search for healthy smoothies.   

To me smoothies are the ultimate fast food. They're easy to make, takes seconds to make, virtually no mess, and the perfect on the go food. Smoothies fantastic benefits will help you tremendously on your journey to better health. You can have fun matching and mixing various smoothie ingredients. Smoothies help you take control of your health through delicious and simple healthy alternative; choosing from various recipes will help you choose the one that would be more pleasant to drink consistently. Kids love them too. 

Most importantly smoothies help meet the USDA daily allowance of  fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, plant protein & healthy fats. This is important because when we eat fresh produce it improves our body's ability prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and all chronic diseases. 

If you are wondering just how good smoothies are for you. 
Here is the short list:  

1. decrease your appetite, feel fuller longer
2. aides in weight maintenance 
3. makes weight loss easier 
4. improves your digestion
5. increases nutrient absorbing
6. boosts your immune function 
7. gives your body a rest, blender does the liquefying 
8. fiber loaded
9. improve hydration 
10. energizing

People are always asking what smoothie powder I use. I use and recommend the Juice Plus+ Complete Protein shake mix because Juice Plus+ is 100% natural plant-based and fiber-rich “clean and green” whole foods shake that is free of animal products, dairy, gluten, wheat, yeast and artificial sweeteners. If you would like to know more Dr. Jan Roberto, family practice physician does a great job on this video explaining. click here to watch 

Your partner in health, 









Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA
Wellness Consultant
Certified Health Coach 
Top 50 Health Promotion Professsional 
C2 Your Health LLC

Dieting? Eat as Much as You Want

People are always asking me what the best foods are to eat if you are looking to lose weight? At first it seems like an odd question, you would think by now everybody surely knows what's healthy and what’s not. Then I got to thinking even though there’s a lot of information about dieting, a lot of it is misleading, confusing and sometimes stretch the truth until it really is false. No wonder people are confused and not sure what to do. If I didn’t spend hours keeping up with the latest research, I’d be confused too.

Positive Calorie Negative Calorie 

So, let’s take a quick look at foods you can eat that fill you up with healthy, good tasting, and are healthy calorie positive foods.  What are 'calorie positive' foods you may be asking? These are foods that have a positive impact on your health. With positive calorie foods, you really can have "all you can eat" without worrying about the effects on your waistline or creating chronic disease inside of you! So, let's look at those wonderful positive calorie foods and what they can do for our weight loss and health.

You might be asking, what are 'calorie negative' foods? Calorie negative foods mean that you use more calories in eating and digesting the food than it contains, keeping in mind that we burn calories all the time by simply living, even when we sleep. In practice the term is used for a lot of low calorie foods. 

When pick foods to eat on a diet be sure to consider calorie positive and calorie negative foods.

One of the best known calorie negative foods is celery. It is very low in calories and takes a lot of time and energy to eat, if you eat it whole and chew on all those stringy fibers. If you ate celery in this way all day you would be sure of not gaining weight, but it wouldn't be good for you. You would not be getting the nutrients that you needed, and you might even starve. So, a diet of just celery is not your best choice. However, you may not know other foods such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are calorie negative and calorie positive because these three foods fill you up quick, lower in calories and will prevent cancer in your body. 

I know eating vegetables raw is more of a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s only a challenge because you say it is. Just tell yourself you are so over that and ready to make healthier food choice. Sure, you'll have to make yourself at first, then over time you will grow to love eating them. Trust me, everybody does. You just must stick with it.

It’s best to grow your own vegetables year-round, eat your vegetables raw and vine ripened. This way you know they are safe, where they come from and at the peek of freshness which will give you the most nutrient dense foods.  

Here’s a good place to start. Look at this list of calorie negative and positive vegetables:  

- asparagus (break it into bite sized pieces and add to salad)

- beets (grated)

- broccoli (throw it in the food processor with a couple of tomatoes as dressing)

- carrot (grated or whole)

- cauliflower (like broccoli)

- cabbage (used raw in coleslaw, but don't add the mayo!)

- celery stalks

- celery root (grated)

- cucumber

- lettuce, darkest in color

- red onions (sliced thin)

- spinach

- tomato

- zucchini (grate or use a spiralizer to create long pasta-like strings)

Eat them raw when possible this delivers the most nutrition and highest fiber making them among the most calorie postive and calorie negative foods. This is easy with fruits like apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries all have around 3 to 4 grams of fiber, Raspberries win the fiber race at 8 grams per cup. Exotic fruits are also good sources of fiber: A mango has 5 grams, a persimmon has 6, and 1 cup of guava has about 9.

Looking for an effortless way to get all those (recommended 13 servings) of fruits and vegetables in? Try eating every day a green smoothie for breakfast, nice fresh green salad for lunch with your meal and bowl of vegetable soup (raw) with your dinner or as a snack! 

A big salad, soup and smoothie can all be made from 5-7 of those ingredients would give you a super low-calorie snack that would keep you munching and feeling full for a long time.

Still seem too hard all at once? Try this ... 

Choose with caution. First, it is important to vary your diet and not eat too much of any one particular food on a daily basis. It’s recommended you eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nut and seeds every day. If you limit the variety of foods, you are likely to not be getting the complement of healthy nutrients available in a variety of foods.

Remember dieting and healthy is not synonymous. Most diet programs don’t make claims that include better health, just lower weight and most of the time these are stretched too. You best option is go for health, if you’re eating healthy most of the time you will love weight are a result of your excellent choices plus you’ll feel great too!

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA

Certified Wellness Consultant 

Certified Health Coach 

WELCOA Faculty 

Pick up a FREE cookbook here

Are You Making These 4 Diet Mistakes?

If you’re like most of us, you’ve tried one weight loss program after another without ever being successful for long. This could be because you’re making these 4 weight loss diet mistakes. You can be given the best diet plan in the world, but it won't work if your attitude is wrong.  

The following 4 major weight loss diet mistakes are responsible for hundreds or thousands of people going off their weight loss plan and failing to achieve the weight loss that they deserve. Take the time to consider if these mistakes have been sabotaging your success.

1. Expecting Perfection

Nobody is perfect. We’ve all heard that statement countless times, but many of us still find it hard to apply it to ourselves and our diets. We take an all-or-nothing approach, thinking we must stick to our diet plan 100% of the time, perfectly, or there's no point following it at all.

This puts huge pressure on us and makes us feel terrible if we slip up. It also means that after a slip-up we are likely to think, "I've messed up yet another diet, I just can't do this," or "This diet doesn't work," and abandon it. In short, perfection-related diet mistakes mean that we will use the smallest slip-up as an excuse for a massive binge.

This problem is worst for dieters who like to follow very restricted plans where no treats are allowed. Inevitably, life gets in the way and instead of planning how to cope with the challenge of a party or a wedding, they try to eat nothing all day and then cave in, abandoning the diet completely resulting one more miserable weight loss failure.

A healthier attitude would be to think of your diet not as a temporary weight loss diet but as an eating plan without a deadline. Instead think of implementing changes in your diet to improve your health and you can live with the rest of your life. With this attitude you will feel better about small setbacks with poor eating choices and free you up to find better solutions to the frequent eating celebrations you enjoy.  Instead of thinking about all your diet mistakes, slips and gains as just another failure think of it as a learning experience then develop strategies to help you towards a lifetime of health.  Perfection is more about being your personal best, not comparing yourself to someone or something else.

2. The Band-Aid Attitude to Dieting

Many dieters see their weight loss plan as a temporary fix that they will use for a brief time and then abandon as soon as they have reached their target weight. This is known as the Band-Aid approach to dieting, and it's the second of our major diet mistakes.

This Band-Aid approach is looking for a quick fix at all costs, throwing caution to the wind but who cares, you’ll look great in that new outfit you just picked up. This approach encourages you to see your weight loss diet as a temporary measure. We’ve all been tempted by those “sexy” diets. Remember the Ice Cream Diet, The 3 Day Diet, The Grapefruit Diet, Xstreme Weight Loss Diet, The Rice Diet just to name a few, These diets always are very restrictive, lasting only a brief time, are guaranteed quick weight loss then pretty much quickly followed by quick weight gain 99% of the time.

Even if you only have a few pounds to lose, it’s much better to pick an eating plan that gives you flexibility. You need something that you can follow for weeks, months or even years. In fact, you need something that will allow you to live your life in the healthiest way possible.

Instead of using a band-aid, you need a healthy diet eating plan that will become like a new skin: a permanent way of eating that will enable you to maintain your goal weight after you achieve it.

3. Setting the Wrong Goals

That leads us to the third of our big diet mistakes: setting the wrong or mostly unreasonable goals. To create success in achieving your weight loss goals make sure your goals are clear, set out in steps with a timeline and achievable. This means that as well as having an idea of your ideal weight or clothes size, also set action steps with smaller goals along the way, most importantly reward yourself for each one achieved by doing something nice for yourself.  

One common mistake is to make too big goals. Lofty goals are admirable however it takes a long time to achieve them and can be disappointing. Small goals are easier and faster to achieve creating many quick successes. Success always builds on success followed by many rewards. Be flexible about your final goal: as you approach it, you may want to change it. That's OK.

4. Thinking all Diets are Equal

According to recent studies an estimated 45 million Americans go on a diet each year, and Americans spend $33 billion each year on weight loss products. Yet, nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. What’s that all about?

It’s important to keep in mind, losing weight is no mystery. To lose weight all you need to do is stop eating. The longer amount of time you spend not eating the quicker you will lose the weight. You can just stop eating or you can take pills, potions, restrict your calories with wacky food choices and combinations however they all result in some form of starvation resulting in an eventual weight gain.

The avoid this roller coaster ride of weight gain – weight loss which is bad for your body and how you feel about yourself pick a weight loss plan that results in better health. The best diet is the one that includes a wide variety of whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds as close to nature as possible.  Aim for three fourths of your plate with each meal be filled with fruits and vegetables just like the USDA recommends. Admittedly It’s not easy getting in all those fruits and vegetables in but there is help. 

The diet that reduces the likelihood of making 4 weight loss diet mistakes is the SHRED10™ researched and developed by The Juice Plus Company. The SHRED10™ is a product, a program and comes with a health coach. People report after following the plan for only 10 days, they wake up easier, sleep better, have more energy, lose weight and begin to feel the signs of better health. The participants in this program experience the connection between food and how you feel encouraging you to stay with the program. The weight loss is wonderful, but the research proving your body gets healthier every day you follow the program is powerful. The SHRED10™ is a program you can really live with!

Always remember the best diet helps to protect you against future weight gain, makes you healthier and prevents future disease all at the same time.  If you avoid these diet mistakes and have the right attitude toward dieting, you will be able to achieve a weight that you’re happy with and be healthier because of it - and that is much more important than numbers.

Published 2018 Fresh Lifestyle Magazine 
#Nutz4Nutrition   #c2YourHealth

Your partner in health,

Cindy Cohen RN, BS. BA.

Certified Health Coach 

Wellness Consultant
C2 Your Health LLC 

WELCOA Faculty 

Top 50 Health Promotion Professional 

Families Go Further With Food

March is National Nutrition Month and this year’s theme, “Go Further with Food,” encourages healthy eating habits and reducing food waste. Learn how to help your family eat better and “Go Further with Food.”

We know eating well can be tough–especially when you are a busy parent. Kids’ early eating experiences can affect how they eat as they get older. That’s why it’s so important to introduce them to healthy foods, including fruits and vegetables, from the very beginning. It all starts with knowing how much you need and then incorporating healthy foods into your family’s diet. It is also important that you have access to nutritious foods in places where you and your family live, learn, work, and play.

Why Fruits and Veggies?

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables helps children get the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. Help your children go further with food by involving them in planning meals and preparing food at an early age.Plan your meals to eat better and avoid waste.Eating fresh fruit for a mid-morning snack is a lot easier when you pack it in advance.

Is My Family Getting Enough?

Most Americans do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. In 2015, only 12% of adults ate enough fruit and 9% ate enough vegetables. In 2013, 9% of adolescents ate enough fruit and 2% ate enough vegetables. The USDA’s ChooseMyPlate can help you find out if you have enough fruits and vegetables in your diet and choose the healthy foods and drinks for that work for your family.

Start early! Read the rest of the article published on the CDC website click here

According to the American Heart Association when you eat a wide variety of fruits and veggies, you get the wide variety of nutrients your body needs to be healthy and strong. The American Heart Association recommends filling at least half your plate with fruits and veggies working towards eating the recommended 5 cups of vegetables and 4 cups of fruits every day. 

The Juice Plus+ Company knows it's hard to eat this quantity and quality of fruits and veggies to your busy lifestyle. To help you the Children’s Health Study was created by Juice Plus+ to help fuel the next generation with the daily recommended fruits and vegetables children need while also establishing good health habits in their life, giving parents a successful way to guide their families into a lasting, healthier lifestyle. Click here to watch the video

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA 

Certified Health Coach 

Wellness Consultant 

C2 Your Health LLC 
#Nutz4Nutrition

Winter Weight Gain is Not Just Winter

I bet you think winter weight gain is something that happens to many people who live in climates with cold winters.  Not true.  It’s not just the winter weather that brings the weight gain. If you track your weight you may notice that it's harder to lose in the fall, winter then in the spring and summer seasons of the year.  It’s all those carb loaded, fat infused and sugary comfort foods that ring in all the holidays. Let’s face it starting with Halloween most people’s diets begin to roll down hill, gaining momentum through Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day crashing right into all those delicious Easter eggs!

Packing on that winter fat is not a myth. According to a study by Cornell University published in the New England Journal of Medicine in September 2016 — Weight Gain over the Holidays in Three Countries on average most people begin gaining weight around November, peaking in January continuing to gain weight through April.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1 in 3 Americans are obese, so it’s safe to say this weight gain does not only happen over holiday periods or only in cold climates. The general thinking is most people, even those of normal weight, gain a few pounds when the weather begins to turn cold. However, that is not totally true. In a study in the New England Journal of Medicine in March 2000 examined how much of the average annual weight gain happens over the holidays vs. other times of the year. In general, the findings demonstrate the annual increase in weight jumped to 3.4% in men and 5.2% in women. What this means to you is for every 100 lbs. you weight, you weight you will gain 3.4 lbs. – 5.2 lbs. per year.

It’s possible to avoid winter weight gain. To do this, let’s look at some of the factors that go into winter weight gain. The first is a biological tendency that’s carried in our genes and is there to help us survive in cold climates. Our bodies are simply programmed to store more fat as winter approaches. And we're not the only ones. Most animals do this too.

It's easy to see why when you think about it. More fat means more protection from the cold and more stored nutrients that the body can access if food is hard to find in the winter months. Our bodies don't know that we can walk into a store and buy polar level winter clothing and any food we need, no matter what the weather is like outside.

The second factor if food availability. In in primitive societies, there was always plenty of food in the fall, the time when nuts, fruits and grains are ripe. It makes sense that we would feel hungrier at this time and crave 'warming' high carbohydrate foods that can easily be converted to fat and stored ready for the late winter and spring when plant-based foods are hard to find.

The third factor to consider is mood. It is well known that having less natural light can cause depression and low energy (SAD or seasonally affected depression). Most people who are overweight tend to eat more when they feel low. We also turn to food (especially refined carbohydrate foods like chips, chocolate, cake or white bread) for a fast energy boost when we feel tired. These foods cause blood sugar swings that lead to more lows and cravings.

Understanding knowing all of this makes it much easier to avoid winter weight gain. It helps to know why you might feel like you are fighting an uphill battle understanding you have a natural tendency to eat more and to eat the wrong foods this time of year. You may be thinking it’s hard for everybody and you can’t be expected to hold out against a biological need. If you do. Sorry you’d be wrong. In this case your biology does not need to determine your destiny.  You can be careful what foods you do choose.

As a society our time has long passed since we were considered a primitive society. So are the times of food scarcity and healthy foods being not readily accessible. Most of us live with a quick driving distance from a well-stocked supermarket, food market or farmers market loaded with fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.  

There’s no longer a need to pack on those winter pounds so choosing high carbohydrate foods that you may be craving is not only not a clever idea, it’s causing you to gain weight, develop heart disease and cancer by some experts are all considered to be preventable by choosing whole foods and a healthier lifestyle.

Experts agree losing excess weight or avoiding additional weight gain takes a combination of exercise, improved food choices and behavioral changes. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases says losing just 5% to 7% of current body weight can prevent or improve chronic health conditions related to obesity. If losing weight seems daunting, start by adjusting so no more weight is gained.

A good place to start is with healthy food choices. The USDA ChooseMyPlate.gov recommends ...

✔️avoiding sugar and ‘bad” fats all together, 

✔️choosing whole gains and 

✔️dairy products sparingly plus 

✔️adding in the ‘good’ fats such as nuts, seeds and plant oils. 

The USDA goes on to recommend eating 

✔️7 – 13 servings of fruits and vegetables every day to improve and maintain good health.  This means to meet this recommendation you will need to eat fruits and vegetables 5 – 6 times per day just to be able to eat this large amount of produce to get and stay healthy.

Many find this to be hard to eat all those fruits, vegetables and plant oils in, so they seek some way to add them in a supplement form. The question is what supplement is the best? It’s always best to eat whole food closest to the way nature made it. Whole food is the recommended diet for disease prevention, so it just makes sense whole food concentrated nutrition supplement is the way to go. 

After many years of research, we recommend the most researched product in the world produced by The Juice Plus+ Company.  Juice Plus+ whole food nutrition has been on the market for 25 years and the company who distributes Juice Plus+ for almost 50 years. Juice Plus+ nutrition bridges the gap between what we do eat and what we should eat. Recently The Juice Plus+ Company also introduced the JuicePlus+ Tower Garden a cutting-edge way to grow your own fruits and vegetables in your home, on your patio or porch using hydroponic technology.

If you can keep your food choices as fresh as possible, in the recommended quantity, minimizing fats, sugars and fast foods you can be sure you don't have to settle on your ever-expanding waistline. You can enjoy being the picture of health while easily avoiding that pesky annual winter weight gain.

This article 1st appeared in Fresh Lifestyle Magazine 2018.

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS. BA.

Certified Health Coach

Wellness Consultant 

C2 Your Health LLC 

Top 50 Health Promotion Professional 
#Nutz4Nutrition

Interview with T. Colin Campbell, author of Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

Kathy Freston, Health and Wellness Activist and contributing author of the Huffington Post interviewed T. Colin Campbell, author of the bestseller Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition.  T. Colin Campbell recommendation for the ideal diet for longevity a 100% whole food plant-based diet with lots of vegetable, fruits, legumes, whole grains and nuts and suggests you make it a goal as soon as possible especially if you're experiencing a serious illness. T. Colin Powell suggests taking supplements is not a good idea because there is some research that supplements have no benefit for most people and maybe doing more harm than good. 

If you are looking to change your eating plan to a healthier one the Juice Plus+ program Shred10 follows the recommended diet in Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition.  Shred10 is a whole food plant-based eating program not a diet but to support good health for your whole life.  

Here is Kathy Freston's conversation with him about vitamins, whole foods, and health.

KF: The title of your book is Whole; what do you mean by that?

TCC: The China Study summarized the experimental research findings of my 40+ years of professional research on diet and health and made some dietary recommendations. Although it has been enormously successful, it did not fully answer the oft-asked question, “Why have people not heard this before?”

Whole attempts to answer this question by offering a new meaning of nutrition. Our present misunderstanding of nutrition has caused great confusion with the public. The consequences of this misunderstanding have been serious.

Having researched for so long the biochemistry of nutrition, I became conscious of an incredible ability of each of the 10-100 trillion cells in our body to integrate, as in symphony, an unimaginably complex series of events that optimizes health and minimizes disease. Nutrition, when provided by the right foods, services this system with a food program that both prevents future disease and treats a broad spectrum of diseases, an effect that is far more effective and safe than the best of all pills and procedures could ever hope to do. It is an amazing gift of nature that has long eluded our consciousness. 

KF: Are we winning the war on disease? We’re living longer, right?

TCC: It’s not clear. We are capable of winning the war on disease, but we are still making decisions to take more drugs instead of eating a better diet. There is no comparison regarding which we should be choosing. Food almost always wins, with little or no side effects!

KF: What’s wrong with taking medications?

TCC: There is a place for medications. When I am in pain or suffering from an infection, I would like to have access to something that might bring me relief. But when I am over the crisis, I want to learn and do everything I can to use diet and nutrition that will take me the rest of the way to health and keep me there.

KF: So you’re saying vitamins are a bad thing?

TCC: All the reviews of recent years that have summarized the many studies on the effects of vitamins on long-term health show that they do not work to solve any of the serious problems that beset us. They do not lower rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In fact, we are more likely to suffer serious side effects from these supplements rather than getting benefits.

 KF: Are you saying we don’t need vitamins, or would you go so far as to say we shouldn’t take them? 

TCC: Unless there is clear unequivocal clinical evidence of benefit, we don’t need them, and because serious side effects have been documented, it makes no sense to take them. At least this is my personal interpretation and my personal choice. I confess that taking an occasional vitamin B12 may be useful, but I also believe that we have not yet seen all the research that needs to be done. I also choose not to take vitamin D because I have unanswered questions about the way our vitamin D status is measured, and the excessive claims made by the marketing people. It should also be known that vitamin D is not a vitamin, but a hormone produced when we get adequate exposure to the sun. I do have an open mind about this practice and can change but only if I see unequivocal evidence for its need.  Read the rest of the article click here

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA

Wellness Consultant

Certified Health Coach
C2 Your Health LLC
#Nutz4Nutrition

Top 50 Health Promotion Professional

5 Flu Remedies to Help You Feel Better

OK. It's official we are in a nationwide Flu Epidemic. This I am sure has come at no surprise to you. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pretty much where ever you live in the U.S. there are seemingly tons of people around you sick with the flu. No? I'm sure your doctor has already told you taking antibiotics are not an option. Antibiotics are used to fight infections caused by bacteria, but the flu is cause by a virus. Taking antibiotics when you have a virus may do more harm than good. So you are going to have to tough it out. To help you feel better I have made a short list of some home remedies that may help you feel better, even get better faster and better yet protect you from getting the flu again in the future.  

1. Drink Water 

You many be one of the millions who are not really interested in eating or drinking when you are sick with the flu onboard but in this case drink anyways. Your body needs water to function normally, to purge itself of toxins and waste whether you are sick or not. In fact, if you are congested in your upper and lower airways, feverish, vomiting or have diarrhea you need water even more. It's is well known water will even help speed up recovery. How much water should you drink? The amount varies based on your body size, type and activity level that being said in general most health authorities commonly recommend eight 8 oz. glasses, which comes to 2 liters, or a half a gallon. This is called the 8 x 8 rule keeps it easy. 

2. Use Steam 

Upper respiratory airways are often congested. A doctor friend of mine recommended this years ago and I have used this remedy ever since.  Almost instantly my upper airways become more clear. 

I boil 1-2 cups of water in a sauce pan then remove it from the heat. The add 1 tablespoon of each rosemary and oregano, both have antibacterial qualities. Cover the pan for 5 minutes with a lid. Then lean over the pot, cover your head with a towel, take the lid off (careful the pot is hot) and breath in the steam. Stay there as long as you can to loosen congestion, about 10 minutes. Repeat throughout the day. 

3.  Try Herbal Tea 
Ancient healers have been using herbal teas as remedies for a millennial.  I always recommend drinking organic blends, but they all work. These are the teas I drink most often however there is a huge list of medicinal teas at your disposal. 

• Chamomile for it's relief of upset stomach and calming effect. Chamomile flower is used in may sleep aide type teas. 
• Peppermint seems to relive digestive disturbances, and calming a fever. 
• Ginger helps with nausea, vomiting and improves digestion. 

3. Jewish Chicken Soup

My Granny swore by this remedy.  Since I was a small child with my first sniffle out came the chicken soup. I have to admit I did feel better after a bowl or two. I wasn't totally sure if it was my soup or my Granny. Interestingly enough now-a-days medical science tells us what we already know chicken soup is a great cold and flu remedy; you can read all about it in the New York Times, The Science Behind Chicken Soup. Who knew? 

4. Sleep More  

There are lots of studies now on the healing power of sleep. While you sleep your body reboots every system of your body. If you don't get enough sleep your body will not have enough time to accomplish this task no matter how you feel when you wake up. According to David M. Rapoport, MD Director of Sleep Medicine Program at NYU Langone Medical Center we should be thinking of sleep as a 'tuneup' you need to run smoothly.  How much time does your body need to "tuneup'? He recommends 7 - 8 hours every night.  However, the National Sleep Foundation recommends more like 10 hours. Chances are you need to go back to bed right now!  

5.  Whole Food Nutritional Supplements all the Time 

While drinking lots of water, sleeping better and exercise are essential to cold and flu treatment and prevention along with a healthy and consistent diet rich in nutrients from fruits and vegetables. In fact the USDA now recommends 10 servings. I don't know about you but for me that is quite a load of produce! That's why hundreds of medical professionals reviewed the 38 medical research studies then began recommending Juice Plus+ to their clients and patients like Andrew Clark, MD recommends. Doctors all over the world now realized Juice Plus+ utilizes the nutrients from the 17 plus fruits, vegetables and grains to help boot the immune systems and reduce cold and flu symtoms by positively impacting the physicology of the body systems all year long.  

You might also consider having on hand Herbal Medicine Cabinet. If you are wondering what is a Herbal Medicine Cabinet and what do I put in it? Guess no longer Modern Alternative Health has some great ideas! 

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA 

Certified Health Coach 

Certified Wellness Coach 

C2 Your Health LLC 

Top 50 WELCOA Health Promotion Profession