With all the health care reform hoopla, I thought it might be nice to learn what you can do to stay healthy. Sometimes, it’s as simple as eating well. Below are some foods that are good for you and good for what ails you:

Almond.

Almond soup is an excellent substitute for beef-tea for convalescents. It is made by simply blanching and pounding a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds with half a pint of milk, or vegetable stock. Another pint of milk or stock is then to be added and the whole warmed. After this add another pint and a half of stock if the soup is to be a vegetable one, or rice water if milk has been used.

An emulsion of almonds is useful in chest affections. It is made by well macerating the nuts in a nut butter machine, and mixing with orange or lemon juice.

Almonds should always be blanched, that is, skinned by pouring boiling water on the nuts and allowing them to soak for one minute, after which the skins are easily removed. The latter possess irritating properties.

Bitter almonds should not be used as a food. They contain a poison identical with prussic acid.

Apple.

It is hardly possible to take up any newspaper or magazine now a days without happening on advertisements of patent medicines whose chief recommendation is that they “contain phosphorus.” They are generally very expensive, but the reader is assured that they are worth ten times the price asked on account of their wonderful properties as nerve and brain foods. The proprietors of these concoctions seemingly flourish like green bay trees and spend many thousands of pounds per annum in advertising. From which it may be deduced that sufferers from nervous exhaustion and brain fag number millions. And surely only a sufferer from brain fag would suffer himself to be led blindly into wasting his money, and still further injuring his health, by buying and swallowing drugs about whose properties and effects he knows absolutely nothing. How much simpler, cheaper, and more enjoyable to eat apples!

The apple contains a larger percentage of phosphorus than any other fruit or vegetable. For this reason it is an invaluable nerve and brain food. Sufferers from nerve and brain exhaustion should eat at least two apples at the beginning of each meal. At the same time they should avoid tea and coffee, and supply their place with barley water or bran tea flavoured with lemon juice, or even apple tea.

Apples are also invaluable to sufferers from the stone or calculus. It has been observed that in cider countries where the natural unsweetened cider is the common beverage, cases of stone are practically unknown. Food-reformers do not deduce from this that the drinking of cider is to be recommended, but that even better results may be obtained from eating the fresh, ripe fruit.

Apples periodically appear upon the tables of carnivorous feeders in the form of apple sauce. This accompanies bilious dishes like roast pork and roast goose. The cook who set this fashion was evidently acquainted with the action of the fruit upon the liver. All sufferers from sluggish livers should eat apples.

Apples will afford much relief to sufferers from gout. The malic acid contained in them neutralises the chalky matter which causes the gouty patient’s sufferings.

Apples, when eaten ripe and without the addition of sugar, diminish acidity in the stomach. Certain vegetable salts are converted into alkaline carbonates, and thus correct the acidity.

An old remedy for weak or inflamed eyes is an apple poultice. I am told that in Lancashire they use rotten apples for this purpose, but personally I should prefer them sound.

A good remedy for a sore or relaxed throat is to take a raw ripe apple and scrape it to a fine pulp with a silver teaspoon. Eat this pulp by the spoonful, very slowly, holding it against the back of the throat as long as possible before swallowing.

A diet consisting chiefly of apples has been found an excellent cure for inebriety. Health and strength may be fully maintained upon fine wholemeal unleavened bread, pure dairy or nut butter, and apples.

Apple water or apple tea is an excellent drink for fever patients.

Apples possess tonic properties and provoke appetite for food. Hence the old-fashioned custom of eating an apple before dinner.

Apple Tea.

The following are two good recipes for apple tea:—(1) Take 2 sound apples, wash, but do not peel, and cut into thin slices. Add some strips of lemon rind. Pour on 1 pint of boiling water (distilled). Strain when cold. (2) Bake 2 apples. Pour over them 1 pint boiling water. Strain when cold.

Asparagus.

Asparagus is said to strengthen and develop the artistic faculties. It also calms palpitation of the heart. It is very helpful to rheumatic patients on account of its salts of potash. It should be steamed, not boiled, otherwise part of the valuable salts are lost.

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It seems there is wave after wave of discouraging financial news lately. And as bad as it seems, the holidays are bound to make things worse. We all know that the winter holidays are a major cause of stress for most people during prosperous times, but when a nation of spoiled consumers aren’t able to spend themselves silly, their self-inflicted pity party is bound to leave them in a stupor.  If you find yourself in dire financial straits, wondering how you will afford the latest gizmo or gadget for little Johnny or Jane, take heart. You don’t have to consume to give great gifts.

At our house, Christmas is a religious holiday. We have never been extravagant in the gift department. Growing up, my children always got fewer gifts than the other kids. However, we never went into debt to buy them anything. If they wanted a big-ticket item, we waited until the late-January clearance sales.

Every year, I pick a theme for my gift-giving. I pray and meditate on what new things I’ve learned in the past year. This year, I’ve learned the value of creating memories. While others are pouting and whining about what they don’t have because of the “global economic crisis,” I was blessed with the gift of remembering the good times. So, everyone on my Christmas list will receive a memory book from me.

When my kids were little, I took copious amounts of pictures, ordering doubles when I went to have them developed. I have a huge plastic tub full of pictures. Each of my children will recieve a photo-album filled with old pictures from their childhood. My in-laws and parents will recieve one also. My youngest daughter started a scrap book in the seventh grade, and abondoned it the tenth. I’m going to finish it for her and give it to her on Christmas Eve. I’ve been picking up photo albums whenever I find them on clearance. When I add up the cost of giving seven albums complete with photos, it is under $40.00. Add in a few pounds of fudge, dried fruit, and other homemade goodies, and we will have a wonderful Christmas for next to nothing. Joy to the world.

With all the hullabaloo over health care reform and the economy, you might not have heard about H.R. 2868, the Chemical and Drinking Water Security Act of 2009.  Passed in the House on November 6th, the bill now goes to the Senate. Opponents of the act, let by Republican Frank Lucas, ranking member of the  House Agriculture Committee, are once again using the same old tired excuse to avoid being responsible members of the sustainable agriculture community. Congressman Lucas issued this statement on the passage of H.R.

“This vote was another hit to agriculture and to the American consumer. Under this legislation, it’s going to be significantly more expensive for agricultural input producers to provide farmers with the necessary tools for agriculture production. Without inputs like fertilizers and pesticides, it will be difficult for farmers to produce the same amount of product at the same high quality we have come to expect. Ultimately, this means our food costs will dramatically increase, or we will become reliant on foreign food imports.”

Study after study has shown that farmers can raise as much, if not more, crops without the use of harmful chemicals. The Congressman, while believing he is protecting farmers, is only protecting agri-business, specifically the chemical herbicide and pesticide companies, like Monsanto, that own the exclusive rights to these chemical “inputs.” (Input sounds much better than deadly chemical fertilizer, doesn’t it?)

Now that the bill is in the Senate, it will be reworked in committee. I’ll keep you posted on the progress. Let your Senator know how you feel about chemical fertilizers being pumped into the water supply in the name of cheap, abundant food. Learn more about H.R. 2868 here.