Do you often treat muscle soreness with pain medicine or creams? Why not try to make your own tea with healing properties? It's made with food, so it will nourish your body without any side effects, and it only takes about 5 minutes to make.
I love to make a healing tea with lemon, ginger, and tumeric.
Lemon is a alkalinzing fruit. Most Americans have a high acid content to their diets (from eating dairy, meat, sweets, and caffeine). Lemon can help balance pH levels in the body which has been linked to better digestion, mood, and less pain. More information on alkaline diets can be found here.
Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties, and can also help to aid digestion. It's also an antioxidant. It's ability to help with nausea is well documented as well.
Finally, the active ingredient in tumeric** (what gives curry it's yellow color) is curcumin. It has strong anti-inflammatory effects and antioxidant properties.
So, to make the tea:
1. Heat some water (I usually just make a single cup for myself)
2. Squeeze half the juice of one lemon into the water (don't worry about the seeds, you'll strain it later)
3. Grate about 2 teaspoons fresh ginger into the water
4. Grate about 2 teaspoons fresh tumeric into the water (peel and grate the tumeric as you would the ginger)
5. Wait about 5-7 minutes, then strain out the ginger, tumeric, and lemon seeds
6. Enjoy a glass! If you want to add some sweetness, I recommend honey.
** Tumeric can be found in most health food stores in the produce section, usually by the ginger
