My Kitchen, Backyard, and Neighbors' Yard are my Pharmacies
Posted on Wednesday, 4 November 2015
My
Kitchen, Backyard, and Neighbors’ Yard are My Pharmacies
By Apolinario Villalobos
Today, it is back to basics for ailment
remedies, a practice that the modern medical community is beginning to tolerate
and respect. Preventive medicine is now being promoted instead of the reactive
medications that are given to patients upon the inception of diseases. By
“basics” and “prevention”, I mean herbal medications, clean and free from
synthetic elements that are used to preserve extracted medicinal substances from
plants.
One story I love to share among friends who
are willing to listen is about the lowly “saluyot”, an indigenous vegetable in
the Philippines that healed the open wounds of my former landlady, due to
diabetes. She was not healed by many notoriously-priced and prescribed drugs
that practically depleted her bank account. She was at the verge of despair as
the latest doctor that she consulted prescribed amputation, when her former
laundrywoman paid her a visit and upon seeing her sorry situation, immediately
suggested “saluyot”. For several months, she forced herself to eat the said
vegetable with her meals, three times a day, until the wound finally dried up
and healed.
Anybody can have a pharmacy of sort in
their home, particularly, in the kitchen. Shelves can be stacked with vitamins
that can be eaten, and “drugs” that can flavor foods. The following are some of
the few and their use that I am sharing, as I have proved them to be effective
in my case:
TURMERIC – this spice can be purchased in
powder form from groceries; known among Filipinos as “luyang dilaw”; a teaspoon
can be diluted in mug of coffee in the morning and another at noon; the powder
can enhance the taste of fish cooked in vinegar or vegetables cooked in coconut
milk; it practically eliminated the cyst in my colon after five months.
STAR ANISE – I boil several of these with
guyabano, mango leaves, and tanglad (lemon grass), and the concocted tea I use
for my coffee with turmeric; it eliminated my sinusitis.
OLIVE OIL – a spoonful of this oil is mixed
with practically everything that I cook even boiled rice, as it is good for the
heart; it made my bowel movement comfortable.
VIRGIN COCONUT OIL – I take one spoonful of
this oil with raw honey everyday; it reduced the level of my bad cholesterol; I
add one spoon to a glass of water that I gurgle and drink the gurgled water to
remove bad breath, especially in the morning.
GARLIC – I steam one whole clove or several
on top of the simmering boiled rice; pungent smell is eliminated; I eat them
with my meals; it normalized my blood pressure.
ONION – a very important ingredient for
dishes as well as curing colds, especially, if eaten raw in salad or cooked as
soup.
APPLE CIDER VINEGAR OR PURE COCO VINEGAR –
aside from its use as preservative of cooked foods and raw vegetables prepared
as “achara”, it can also be concocted as a home-made refreshing drink, by
adding two spoons to a glass of water sweetened with honey; the vinegar
neutralizes acidity of the stomach. As information, during the Biblical time,
vinegar which perhaps could have been derived from grapes, mixed with water,
was considered as a refreshing drink; mixed with myrrh, it was used as a pain
killer, reason why Jesus while suffering on the cross was made to drink such
mixture…it was not part of his punishment, but to somehow to relieve some pain.
GINGER – the root can give a spicy flavor
to fish dishes, and can add a piquant taste to salads and dips; as a
medication, it can eliminate flatulence.
CHILI – it can make foods “hot” but can
also strengthen the immune system; I eat not less than six pieces every meal.
BANANA – nobody can dispute the fact that
it is a good source of potassium, and can relieve one of “loose bowel movement”
or LBM.
GUAVA LEAVES – the tea made from boiling
them removes bad breath aside from strengthening the gums; it has been accepted
as an effective antiseptic and anti-bacterial. I prepare the tea in another
kettle and drink at least 3 mugs every day, aside from the tea prepared from
the boiled leaves of guyabano, mango and lemon grass.
GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES – I need not
elaborate their importance; they are the manifestations of the vitamins that
can be eaten; their fiber makes my bowel movement easy and comfortable.
If I want guyabano leaves, I just take a
few steps to my backyard and pick a few from a drooping branch of my tree, and
for the mango and guava leaves, I just ask from my neighbors for them. But the
coffee, I buy from the grocery…
I invest on local fruits in season, as for
the imported ones such as apples and pears I buy the blemished and old that
come cheap and cook them in brown sugar and cinnamon powder into “apple
sauce”. I also buy green leafy
vegetables in bulk to be half-cooked and apportioned in small containers, and
keep in the freezer for scheduled use. Tomatoes that are cheap when in season,
I douse with boiling water for easy peeling and stored in ref to be used when I
cook pasta. The peeled tomatoes also go well with poor man’s salad that consist
of onions, radish, raw pechay, shredded green papaya, chili and sprinkled with
fish sauce (bagoong) or toasted dried anchovies (dilis) and vinegar. Those are
my multi-vitamins served in plate and coffee mug…not in capsule or tablet, the
non-soluble residues of which can get stuck and accumulated in the kidney and
liver.
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