I woke with a touch of gripe early this morning. I used to translate gripe (pronounced grip – ay) as flu, which is the official Google Translate definition, but it is actually more used to define any cold-like symptoms. So I woke feeling a little under the weather with a runny nose that didn’t improve much even after a small wake up sequence and meditation. I’ve been reading news stories about the strong breed of flu being passed around the US this year, and I’m grateful that this is the closest I’ve come to it.
I arrived to the hotel a little early so that I could bother the cocinero (chef) for a few limones to squeeze into hot water with local honey. I already feel better. He gave me another recipe for the evening if the symptoms persist – warm up some milk with lime peels, add honey to taste, and drink before bed. Healthcare may be free in Nicaragua, but I still don’t like doctors, so I’ll take the local remedies any day. Seems like lime juice in hot water is the cure for just about anything that ails you.
Ayurvedically speaking, warm water with juice of lime or lemon is the ideal way to wake up in the morning. Natural News provides this list of 10 reasons why drinking lemon or lime juice with warm water is so healthy:
The Ten Reasons Why
- The warm lemon water helps purify and stimulate the liver. Lemon/lime water liquefies bile while inhibiting excess bile flow.
- Warm lemon/lime water aids digestion. It’s atomic composition is similar to saliva and the hydrochloric acid of digestive juices.
- The liver produces more enzymes from lemon/lime water than any other food, according to A.F. Beddoe, author of Biological Ionization as Applied to Human Nutrition.
- The lemon/lime water helps bowels eliminate naturally and easily.
- Lemons and limes are high in potassium. Potassium is an important mineral that works with sodium for smooth electrical transmission in the brain and nervous system. Depression, anxiety, fogginess, and forgetfulness can often be traced to low potassium blood levels. That same nervous system needs potassium to assure steady signals to the heart. So your heart health is improved from the lemon water’s potassium.
- Calcium and magnesium are plentiful in good ratio to each other in lemon/lime water. Magnesium is important for heart health and calcium prevents rickets.
- Lemon/lime water can help lower blood pressure.
- Lemon/lime water has an alkalizing effect in the body as it is buffered. Even if you drink it just before any meal, it will help your body maintain a higher pH than if you didn’t drink it. The higher or more alkaline your pH, the more your inner terrain is resistant to minor and major disease.
- Helps dilute uric acid, which if it accumulates it creates arthritic pain or gout.
- Helps reduce phlegm in the body
Luckily, limes are abundant year round in Central America. They are available at the mercado 12 for 10 cordobas, or less than 50 cents. I love it when taking care of ourselves is so easy! Like coming to the mat each morning, like sitting silently with the breath, it doesn’t take much to bring our inner worlds into balance with the world around us.
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