Spotlight Sunday: Sickness Protocol

As this cool weather ramps up and colds abound, I wanted to share my protocol for as soon as I feel the sniffles or that chill coming on.

If followed to the T, this regimen will shorten your time being sick if not slash it in half. I promise.

It’s not “easy”--especially if you have a sugar or caffeine addiction--but it’s not THAT hard. Here we go:

STAY AWAY FROM SUGAR.

Even fruit. No oranges or strawberries, even for their famed vitamin C, get rid of those morning frozen fruit smoothies. Nuh uh. You need warming foods, and any sugar will drain your energy and redirect your body’s resources from where they need to be—fighting your cold. This includes but is not limited to: white sugar, honey, maple syrup, white flour (which can act like sugar in your body) splenda, stevia--really any food that comes out of a package. (If you're getting nervous, remember this isn't forever!)

BONE BROTH IS YOUR MAIN FOOD GROUP.

Make some. Make your mom make some. Pick up or postmates from Brodo. Order from Bonafide Provisions or any of the other grass-fed bone broth producers that are making magic. The collagen and minerals in this bone broth will keep you going through those days you have to get up and go to work even while running a low fever and a constant nasal drip and you just want to stay in bed and avoid everyone forever. BLECHHHH. While I’m sick, I have bone broth for breakfast and for dinner. Never enough. It's the jewish penicillin, afterall!

LIMIT RAW FOODS

Even salad. Cooked greens and water-filled foods like mushrooms are the easiest for our bodies to digest. Plus they’re warm! We want lots of fluids and warm foods in our body to nourish it when we’re going through a period of inflammation, like a cold or the flu. Raw foods take more energy for us to digest since they haven't been broken down by heat. Makes sense, right?

TUMERIC + GINGER = YES

I grate these fresh into and onto everything. Into my bone broth, onto my roast veggies, on some avocado. Make sure to include a small amount of black pepper when using turmeric to increase your body's absorption of it by 1,000 times. yeah.

MY 10-MINUTE SICK PERSON'S ON-THE-GO BREAKFAST:

• Simmer 2 cups of bone broth in a pot. Grate in as much fresh ginger and turmeric root as you can handle (dont forget that pinch of black pepper!) 
• Add greens (baby kale or spinach), mushrooms, scallions, avocado, or whatever you have and simmer for 30 seconds more.
• Drop in an egg (pastured!) and simmer for 1 minute more.
• Pour into a bowl or your thermos (yep I take this to go and it's perfect), and head out with a ziplock, spoon, and paper towel.
• Eat on commute or at your desk. Have a MUCH better day. Repeat when home. 

*PS while staying away from dairy during colds (which is a smart thing to do) check out my recipe for cashew milk and cashew cream to hold you over. You may just give up pasteurized cow's milk altogether!