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Natural Health and Wellness

spices and seasonings

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Holistic Benefits of Clove

cloves

 

Clove is a great spice to use during the fall season, but you can find it year-round. It is amazing when added to a cider, baking pumpkin pie, and of course making any variation of chili or soups. Not only is it a versatile spice, but it also happens to have a lot of health benefits. Take a look at the different ways you can use clove for health purposes.

They Are Loaded With Nutrients

Before talking about the individual health benefits of cloves, let’s look at the types of nutrients they contain. You may occasionally add cloves or clove oil to your dishes, especially in the fall when you want to add spices to soups and baked goods. However, you may not realize just how many nutrients cloves contain. A single serving of cloves has up to 6 grams of protein and 33 grams of fiber. It also contains potassium, sodium, zinc, calcium, iron, and many vitamins including D, K, B12, B6, A, and E.

You Get a Natural Immune System Boost

It is always good to boost your immune system whenever possible, especially when you can do so naturally. Cloves provide this benefits thanks to all the antioxidants and various nutrients found in the spice. When you start adding more cloves to your dishes during the fall and year-round, you have the ability to boost your immune system naturally. This is done by improving your white blood cell count to decrease your body’s sensitivity to different bacteria.

Cloves Help Protect Your Liver

Your liver is a vital organ you might not think too much about, but it needs protection just like the rest of your body. With cloves, you are getting a lot of antioxidants, which can help protect your liver and other vital organs from free radicals. This is going to help to naturally clean out your liver and keep it from being damaged from anything you consume. While you should still look for other ways to protect your liver, this definitely doesn’t hurt.

You Can Improve Your Digestion

Your digestive system is a lot more sensitive than you might imagine. This is why just eating too much of something or the wrong thing can cause stomach cramps, nausea, and vomiting. To balance out your digestive system, you need to stimulate your digestive enzymes, which is what cloves can do for you. This is going to help with nausea, reducing gas, and improving your stomach’s digestion overall.

 

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What is Allspice?

Allspice

When you begin gathering spices and seasonings to use in your fall dishes, you might come across something called allspice. While at first it seems like a combination of spices together, that is not what this is. Allspice is actually a type of berry that is often used in fall flavors like cider. Here is what you should know about allspice.

Ways to Use Allspice

First of all, you should know how to use allspice so you can get all the different health benefits. The flavor of allspice is similar to other fall spices you are accustomed to using, such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. In fact, when you can’t get your hands on actual allspice, people often recommend using equal parts of these three spices, mixing them together, and making your very own allspice alternative. Therefore, anything you use these spices for, you can use allspice for. It is great when making a spiced apple cider, baked goods like cookies and cupcakes for the fall, and some savory dishes as well.

Health Benefits of Allspice

Now that you know some different ways you can use allspice during the fall and year-round, here are some health benefits of this spice to know about:

It reduces inflammation – First of all, allspice, like many other spices, has natural properties that allow it to reduce inflammation in the body. If you have arthritis or gout, you probably experience more pain and discomfort when your joints have inflammation. You can start reducing it naturally by using allspice more often.

You can improve your immunity – To boost your immunes system, start incorporating more herbs, fruits, veggies, and spices into your diet. Allspice is a great way to start improving your immune system, as it is a natural antifungal and antibacterial spice.

You get more antioxidants – Everyone wants more antioxidants, and spices like allspice can start adding more into your system. Some antioxidants that allspice has include tannins, eugenol, and quercetin. These are compounds that make it a good antioxidant spice for preventing illness and infections.

It helps with circulation – Allspice is also great for improving circulation in your system, thanks to minerals like iron and copper. With good circulation, you are promoting good red blood cell growth, which gives you more energy and helps with your health overall.

Even if allspice is unfamiliar to you, there are many reasons to use it. Start incorporating it into your dishes.

 

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The Many Healing Benefits of Ginger

ginger

Ginger is one of the most amazing herbs you can get your hands on. It is perfect for fall flavors, has a nice bite to it allowing you to use it for multiple dishes, and of course has a lot of health benefits. Here are some different ways ginger can provide natural healing to your body.

It Helps With Digestion

If you are like most people, you have tried drinking ginger ale when you got a tummy ache or were dealing with nausea. This is a very common remedy used for years, and it is from the ginger in the ginger ale that helps with your stomach problems. Ginger is amazing for reducing irritation of your stomach, helping with bile production, and relieving nausea. It is often given to people with digestive issues, women with morning sickness, and even cancer patients dealing with nausea. If you have digestive issues, you can definitely benefit from using ginger on a regular basis.

You Can Reduce Bacteria

People who are prone to bacterial infections can benefit from ginger by reducing the bacteria in the body. There have been multiple studies done that show that ginger can actually kill some bacteria, including streptococcus and staphylococcus, when used in conjunction with the right antibiotics. Ginger is going to boost the healing process and the ability to fight those bacterial infections, instead of just being used on its own.

Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke

Two common diseases that can put your life at risk are heart disease and stroke. To prevent them, you need to focus on living a healthier lifestyle, including exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, getting routine bloodwork, and avoiding bad habits like drinking and smoking. There are also some natural remedies that can be helpful, including ginger. If you can start adding more ginger to your daily routine, you have a great chance at protecting yourself from these and other harmful diseases.

Help With Malabsorption

Another thing that ginger can do for your body is help you to absorb more of the minerals you consume. This means when you have healthy fruits and veggies, and other foods with important vitamins and minerals, you are able to absorb as many of those nutrients as possible. This helps to prevent malnutrition and ensures you get all the vitamins you need even without having to take an additional supplement.

 

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Ways to Use Nutmeg in the Fall

Nutmeg

When you think of the flavors of fall, nutmeg is bound to come up. It goes perfectly with other fall spices like allspice, cinnamon, and ginger, and there are loads of ways to use it. It also happens to be good for you, with a long list of health benefits. Here are some different ways to use nutmeg during the fall season.

Make Baked Dishes

Nutmeg is commonly used in sweet and savory dishes, often with your baked goods. This spice is used alongside other spices when making baked goods in the fall, such as cupcakes, cookies, cakes, and pies. The fall is the perfect season for making all your spiced baked goods, from pumpkin spice cupcakes to apple pie and snickerdoodle cookies. Nutmeg is wonderful next to other spices like cinnamon, cloves, and even cardamom. Allspice is often used alongside nutmeg in these baked dishes as well.

Add Spice to Savory Dishes

While these spices are often used for baked goods, which tend to be on the sweeter side, you can definitely use nutmeg for your savory dishes as well. Try tasting nutmeg on its own, which has more of a nutty flavor than the other fall spices, which gives you a good idea of what dishes it would go perfect with. Try adding a little nutmeg to your soup, stew or chili to warm you up on a chilly night, or try adding it to dishes like lasagna or spaghetti. Some Mexican cuisine can also use a little nutmeg as you experiment with the various flavors you use in the kitchen. Nutmeg also happens to go great with many different vegetable dishes.

Make Sweet and Spiced Morning Drinks

You can try making some fall drinks for the morning or cold evenings by adding spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. These spices are wonderful when added to your coffee or tea, chai latte, and even your spiced hot chocolate. If you want something cold, you can also use nutmeg and other spices to make a spiced apple cider.

Health Benefits of Nutmeg

Nutmeg isn’t just delicious and easy to add to your foods and drinks, but it is good for you. Nutmeg has many health benefits from helping to reduce pain in your body to improving your digestive system. It also helps with detoxifying your body and improving your oral health. As you can see, there are many reasons to use nutmeg during the fall!