Try these two simple recipes for natural immune system support to reduce your risk of colds, flu, and other nasty bugs! Kid friendly and easy, your can take these all season long, when you have been exposed, when you feel something coming on. If you do get sick, take extra to get well faster!
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Here we go! Fall is just around the corner. We all know what that means– cooler temperatures, warmer foods, holidays, and… cold and flu season. One of these things does not belong with the others!
Especially if you have kids, a certain dread can set in at this time of year. Sure it is an enjoyable time of year. Those illnesses that rear their multiple, ugly heads… not so much. Try one or both of these recipes to help lighten the sickness load this winter!
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There is no certain way to never get another cold or flu. In fact, it might not be great for our health to never come down with anything, given the functions that occasional illnesses serve for our overall health. Unpleasant as they are, the occasional fever, for example, can perform a service for us in cleaning out all sorts of unwanted microbes and toxins, leaving us better off in the long run.
That said, I don’t want a fever or a cough or a tummy bug any more than anyone else! When it happens, I remind myself of the benefits and try to help my body get over it ASAP!
I also try my best to stay well. There are a lot of things we can do to help ourselves avoid sickness. Our family tries to do these regularly, and we don’t get sick all that often anymore. Of course, nobody has a perfect lifestyle. Even if we did pull off perfect habits, we would get sick occasionally. In a fallen world, things go wrong.
Here are a few simple things we do to keep well:
- Consume meat stock. Nourishing and healing to the gut, meat stock (not bone broth) is an all around health support. Click here for more about meat stock!
- Eat fermented foods. The gut governs most of our immune system. Cultured dairy, sauerkraut and other fermented veggies and fruits, beverages like kombucha and water kefir, and fermented salsa and ketchup supply beneficial microbes.
- Limit sugar. This is hard. The holidays start their relentless grind of sugar-laden and otherwise detrimental, yet appealing, treats. Part of cold and flu season may be sweets during holiday season!
- Eat well. Minimizing harmful ingredients like vegetable/seed oils and anything processed and enjoying plenty of nourishing foods supports all aspects of our health.
- Maintain adequate humidity. When we lived in northern Illinois, we saw benefits from installing a humidifier. Dry nasal passages make fighting bugs harder!
- Sleep. Our immune system works hard during sleep. It can be a challenge for many reasons, but it is still sensible to try to get as much sleep as possible.
- Keep moving. Any exercise is likely to be better than none. If going outdoors isn’t going to work, find ways to keep active indoors!
- Manage stress. This one is also tough to perfect, but stress hampers our immune function, among other things. Exercise, nourishing food, social connections, prayer and faith, sleep, etc., can help.
- Get sunshine. The sun enhances our health in too many ways to list! Immune health, sleep, mood, brain function, hormones, and more. Try to get outside, without sunscreen or sunglasses, every day, even for just a few minutes.
- Take supplements. The modern food supply is such that even a perfect diet won’t meet all our needs. Which supplements to take is individual, so working with a knowledgeable practitioner who tests you periodically will help.
Plus, try these two recipes!
Both of these recipes are very simple to prepare, and you can prepare a lot at once if you want. Neither one will necessarily taste like candy to kids, but they also won’t taste completely awful to them. While tried and true remedies like fire cider can be quite effective, they can be a tough (impossible!) sell to kids. And to adults!
Both of these will taste medicinal and you may have to be firm with some children. However, you will not be torturing them, either. They aren’t any worse than, say, cough syrup or antibiotics. They will also not hurt the kids as pharmaceutical medications can.
Honey Garlic
Garlic infused honey is so easy that is doesn’t seem to count as a recipe! All you do is fill a jar with whole, peeled garlic cloves, then fill the jar with raw honey, preferably local. Put the lid on, and let it sit for several weeks, and ideally for a few months. It can sit out for years!
The garlic will rise to the top at first. This is normal; I turn the jars over once a day so the cloves are coated with honey. They will not spoil that way, as the honey prevents spoilage. After awhile, the garlic cloves will settle back down in the jar and gradually turn darker and darker brown.
Because the process takes time, it is a good idea to start before you might need it. Like this week! If I am late to start my honey garlic, I do two jars. That way, I can use one sooner while the other has longer to do its thing.
How do I use the honey garlic?
Two ways! Once the garlic is nice and dark, or when you have decided to use it, you have two options.
First, give a small spoonful of the honey. A teaspoon or two for a young child over the age of two or a tablespoon for teens and adults. Most advise not giving honey to children under the age of one year due to a risk of botulism.
You can give the honey straight or mix it into something. The garlic honey will be thinner than straight honey, so you could probably use a syringe instead of a spoon if you want. You can imagine what it will taste like– garlic-flavored honey! The garlic flavor isn’t terribly strong, but it will make the honey less appealing. It is wonderful for soothing a cough in addition to supporting the immune system.
Second, eat the garlic! You could use it in cooking, or you could just eat it straight. The longer it has been in the honey , the milder it will be. It doesn’t sting or make your eyes water like fresh garlic does! As weird as it sounds, it resembles garlic candy, if such a thing were to exist. Nobody else in my family munches it down, but I almost like it!
Can I use a package of peeled garlic cloves from the store?
Yes, that is what I do!
It would be ideal to grow my own garlic, regeneratively, and peel them all freshly. If you do that, congratulations!
If you buy the already-peeled garlic cloves, make sure they look very fresh, with no moldy or squishy spots. Check the label to be sure there are no preservatives or anything else that might interfere with the process.
I would not recommend using the pre-minced bottles of garlic from the store– not only do they typically contain some other ingredients, but I don’t know that the process would work properly. Chopping the garlic yourself should work fine, as far as I know.
Why does honey garlic work as a natural immune support?
Both raw honey are garlic have a number of medicinal uses, and both are known to boost immune health, perhaps for more reasons than we yet know. Both have anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal effects. You don’t need to know what you are coming down with to assume they can benefit you!
Garlic can reduce congestion, and honey is wonderful for soothing a cough. It may work about as well as cough syrup, but of course it is much safer, especially for children!
Elderberry Syrup
The internet and natural health books abound with elderberry syrup and gummy recipes. You can make it with fresh or dried elderberries, and with no added ingredients or lots of them. Really, you should make this the way you want.
We bought commercial elderberry syrup for many years. Our kids seemed to get sick a bit less while taking it through the long midwestern winters, but it never occurred to me to make it. While buying it can be an excellent option, making it is easy and much cheaper.
You control the ingredients if you make it, too. Avoid anything you don’t want to give your kids, like sugar. Why do they use sugar, which hinders the immune system? Opt for honey if you want sweetener. The sweetener will make it much more palatable, and raw honey (stirred in after the syrup has cooled to preserve the enzymes and such) will taste delicious.
I also like to add other immune supportive ingredients like ginger, cloves and cinnamon. Definitely tweak the recipe to your tastes. Those are optional, and you could add all sorts of other things to improve the efficacy.
How do I make elderberry syrup?
I use organic dried elderberries. Measure about 1 cup of them into a saucepan with a quart of filtered water. If you have fresh elderberries, you can use them! You need more of them than dried, and you shouldn’t eat them raw!
Add 1 tablespoon fresh ginger (or 1 tsp dried), 1/2 teaspoon each cloves and cinnamon, and a dash of salt. Simmer for 45 minutes or so. When you have about 2 cups of liquid, turn off the heat.
Once the mixture is no longer hot, but is still warm, stir in half a cup of raw honey. Use more or less as you prefer. Stir to dissolve, then strain out the solids and pour the syrup into a jar or bottle and refrigerate. It will keep for a couple of months in the refrigerator. If you want to make enough for the whole winter, you would need to freeze some for the later months.
How do I use elderberry syrup?
I gave a teaspoon or two per day to our children preventively when they were young. It tastes OK, and my kids didn’t fight it. You could put it in something like a smoothie if needed.
Now they don’t get sick much, and we don’t use it on a daily basis. If we know someone has been exposed to something, we might take it as a precaution. We also might take some if we feel like something is coming on, or even just a bit rundown. Then go to bed and sleep! Usually we wake up feeling fine.
If someone gets sick, you can give it more often. Since elderberry syrup isn’t a medicine, there isn’t a specific dose you must stick to. I will give it 2-3 times a day to a sick person, for a total of 1-2 tablespoons.
Why does elderberry syrup act as a natural immune system support?
Elderberries have been used for centuries to support health. Some of the reasons include:
- vitamin C content
- flavonoids, including quercetin and rutin
- anti-inflammatory effects
- polyphenols that help manage stress as well as inflammation
- little-studied, but observed, benefits for chronic lung conditions like asthma and COPD
Read more about this traditional, natural immune support here.
There you go! Two easy, natural immune system support syrups to add to your arsenal during cold and flu season!