My naturopath, Dr. Jen Stanley, and I recorded a podcast for Lifting the Veil with information she has learned about COVID19.
While she starts out discussing the foods that dock or “attach” to a cell before COVID-19 can attach (think onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, green onions and foods high in quercetin), the healthy tips, herbs and supplements she shared are timeless for good health and immunity.
Lifting the Veil Podcast has a hummingbird on the cover and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Foods That Dock At A Cell First & Ones That Dampen Inflammation
Dr. Jen discusses that foods high in quercetin and foods such as garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, chives and green onions all help to dock or “attach” to a cell before COVID-19 can attach.
She also mentions kale, green tea, and cruciferous veggies like cabbage, brussel sprouts (mini cabbages:), and broccoli help dampen the inflammation of COVID-19.
Pssst - If you are looking for a good green tea, this brand is amazing because they triple test for heavy metals, toxins and mold.
Right before Dr. Jen and I recorded this episode, (and I didn’t know exactly what she was going to say), I had this yummy lunch from one of my favorite recipe books, The Beauty Detox Foods by Kimberly Snyder.
Not only is it colorful to eat, but the purple cabbage is super health and helps dampen that inflammation (and it’s tossed in just coconut aminos (a soy & gluten free soy sauce), apple cider vinegar, tahini and nutritional yeast), but the recipe also called for capers, which is the highest food in quercetin!
Capers can be added to salads, sandwiches, sauces, pastas and more as they add a lovely briny burst of flavor!
Psst - I use this nutritional yeast since it’s a non-fortified nutritional yeast as the ones at the grocery store are fortified, which means they contain synthetics (yeah, I like to avoid synthetics — eating them, spraying or rubbing them on my body! No thank you!)
Stinging Nettles
Dr. Jen mentioned stinging nettles tea as one of the items to help make the mitochondrion of a cell (the powerhouse of the cell), alkaline instead of acidic.
Why does this matter? Because once a virus get inside, its main goal is to replicate and it can’t do that if the cells are alkaline.
As a naturopath, she would use several herbs (she lists them in the podcast), but one of the items is available online or at your grocery store - Stinging Nettles tea!
In the podcast, I ask Dr. Jen if stinging nettles tea is just to slow down the replication of the virus, but she mentions that stinging nettles tea is a good health item (with or without this virus around), because it is very rich in trace minerals and is also very high in iron.
I first heard about the amazing power of stinging nettles from Organic Olivia – the woman who got me started on my journey with natural medicine and getting to the root cause.
She shared a beautiful video on her Instagram with tips on how to make an easy nettle leaf tea infusion and why they are such an awesome plant – given to us by nature!
Hydrochloric Acid
In the podcast, Dr. Jen discusses that we get sick when we have a “compromised immune system”, which yes, depends on the foods we eat.
Are they rich in antioxidants and phytonutrients to give our cells and body the nutrients it needs?
Are they abundant in fiber to keep our colon healthy as it works to eliminate waste?
Pssst – Dr. Jen mention that this virus live in the gut for 31 days before any symptoms develop, so it’s vital to have a good gut mobility, ie it moves effectively to usher waste and toxins out of the body.
As Dr. Jen and I discussed in our very first Lifting the Veil podcast together, The Link Between Cleaning Out the Gut, Better Sleep, Parkinson, Alzheimer’s, and Increased Immunity, the gut needs 3 things to be healthy.
Fiber, water and exercise.
Unfortunately, there are only 5 foods on this planet that have zero fiber. These same 5 foods are the only ones with cholesterol (the body makes its own cholesterol!), and these same have zero antioxidants. Those five foods are meat, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy.
But a compromised immune system can start before the gut when we aren’t producing enough hydrochloric acid, or HCL.
Unfortunately, we don’t produce enough HCL if we are eating while watching TV or scrolling through our phones.
Multi-tasking (eating while driving), or eating under stress (upset, worried), also decrease our production of HCL.
Our stomach acid is a beautiful gift that helps kill bacteria on our food or from the air. It also help us absorb nutrients like calcium (this is important to know for women as they get older and Dr. Jen talks more about this in the podcast).
Lastly, it’s important to know that at about 40, our HCL drops. At about 60, it drops off dramatically.
Here is the brand Dr. Jen likes and she explains how many to take in the podcast as it will vary from person to person. (You will need to do a tolerance check to see how many HCL pills to take until your body is revved up again to produce enough on its own :)
Pssst - One more thing (and we talk about all of these things in the podcast:), but not enough stomach acid can lead to GERD or acid reflux.
How so?
Because the burning is coming from the “bad bacteria” that has taken over since we don’t have enough of our own stomach acid to kill it off. This means, the burning is actually a cry for more acid – not to surpress it.
There are a few steps Dr. Jen would recommend aside from taking HCL pills, but this does not have to be a life long aliment when you understand the root cause and how the body works. :)
Multivitamin and Dandy Blend
Dr. Jen also mentioned a multi-vitamin as a good supplement to take. Here is the one she likes.
I’m sharing Dandy Blend as this something I also learned many years ago from Dr. Jen as a herbal replacement that tastes just like coffee!
Why is this relevant?
While you can easily Google a chart with acidic and alkaline foods, coffee is no surprise, on the acidic side.
Dandy Blend is a wonderful herbal alternative that has zero bitterness and zero acidity.
Plus, you get to avoid that afternoon crash and you’re not starting out your day — and beautiful body, with a rush of acidity. Might be a nice swap to try!
Essential Oils That Kill Air Born Viruses
At the very end of the podcast, Dr. Jen mentions that pine, lemon, juniper berry and cedarwood can be placed in an essential oil diffuser, which help kill air born viruses.
This is the essential oil diffuser I have, but you can also place these oils on a washcloth and put it in the corner of your shower and let it diffuse while you take a shower. No special equipment needed! :)
Yes, the liver is in charge of filtering out all viruses and bacteria. This, and many other reasons, are why I first sought out a naturopath to start cleansing the detox pathways - colon, kidney, liver/parasites and then heavy metals, with things from the earth.
I didn’t want to use drugs or synthetics!
While I’ve kept up with cleansing ever since 2016 (I do a liver/parasite cleanse every spring and fall and I still take the colon powder from Dr. Jen that helps binds to toxins and repair the wall of the gut), it is something you can start doing now as well with our online course (available to men & women), The New You. Will launch this week! Yay!
PLEASE NOTE, many people tell me, “I want to do a liver cleanse!”
Great. But the colon must always be cleansed first (and we have to heal the lining of the gut —- can’t send out toxins, dead parasites and viruses through a gut that has holes in it! Eek!).
Many people also say to me, “I’m ready to do a heavy metal cleanse!”
Awesome. But heavy metals are always last because they are so toxic, so before you pull them out of the tissues, joints and organs, you need to make sure the other detox pathways (colon, kidney, liver & lymph), are clear (and not overburdened, ie never cleansed or healed).
Colon is always first.
This is why the online course, The New You, walks you through cleaning out and repairing the lining of the gut. It also includes a liver/parasite cleanse.
The New You is a chance to work with Dr. Jen and I as we help you reduce the toxins coming into your body (with my cleanest of the clean recommendations for everything like the triple tested green tea and synthetic, non-fortified nutritional yeast shown above to cookware to light bulbs, to shaving cream for men, to shampoo, to a shower head filter that removes nasty chlorine, to a moisturizer, organic towels, an all-purpose cleaner, avoiding EMFs (and protection against 5G)), and a chance to reduce or clean out the toxic load on the inside of the body.
You are cleansing to make sure those vital detox organs/pathways are operating at their best! (Dr. Jen does recommend the liver cleanse as a once a year thing to do.)
You will get a personalized iridology analysis from Dr. Jen (you can take the photos with the camera on your phone, which allow her to see what is going on in the body), diet recommendations, a customized colon powder (to bind to toxins, keep things moving and repair the gut wall), and the liver/parasite cleanse.
You can eat and do whatever you want! This is not a fast or a juice cleanse!
The course is open and registration will close June 1st as you don’t want to cleanse in the heat of the summer, but any questions, please let me know! Dr. Jen and I are here to help!