Spring Tonics for Cleansing Body, Mind and Soul
By Georgene Lockwood -page 2 -
Some other spring tonic herbs include: yellow dock, sarsaparilla, licorice root, chicory root, and ginger root all can be brewed as a simple tea. Use honey or stevia to sweeten and drink one to three cups of your tonic tea per day for a week or two.
Another good spring tonic tea is equal parts alfalfa leaf, red clover, peppermint, sage, cleavers, nettle leaf (all dried) and dried crushed rose hips. This is a good choice if you can't get a lot of fresh herbs where you live. Just make sure the dried herbs you use are as fresh as possible at the source.
If you�re in the country, soon you�ll be seeing the rhubarb sprout. Never eat the stalks, they�re poisonous, but cook the rhubarb in water and add some honey or stevia. If you don�t have access to fresh growing rhubarb, watch for it in your local organic market. Cherries will soon be coming into season and I doubt I have to remind you to partake of those. Eaten
regularly,
there's some evidence they can help reduce the pain of arthritis.
As early herbs start to come up in the garden, just cut some, chop them up and put on salads, on top of soups, grains, vegetables or fish. These include: parsley, chives, mints, lemon balm and tarragon. Here in northern Arizona I've been clipping mint and lemon balm for a month!
You�ll have a natural desire to eat lighter if you listen to your body. To help with the discharge of mucus from allergies or spring colds, lay off meat, dairy and breads as much as possible and begin to eat more fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Try a daily drink of fresh carrot juice with spring herbs added like dandelion, parsley, chive (others might be fresh
garlic, salad burnet, cilantro, young lovage leaf, red clover blossoms, marjoram or oregano or thyme) and see if you don�t find a lot of your congestion evaporate.
Another Spring Tonic in a drink comes from Debbie Whittaker in the
March/April 2000 issue of Herbs for Health: