WELL WOMEN OF COLOR | Rosalind Brooks

The Spice of Life

Here are 9 healing herbs and spices that you need to begin including in your daily diet. In addition to eating healthier foods and exercising, herbs and spices can help to boost our health when we aren’t always doing our part.

• Ginger: it is calming, helps with nausea and reduces joint inflammation
• Cumin: helps prevents cancer
• Thyme: eases cough
• Basil: an all-around great spice and herb, it combats cold
• Nutmeg: lowers blood pressure
• Rosemary: improves memory
• Cinnamon: fights type 2 diabetes.
• Cloves: helps with arthritic pain.
• Turmeric: curbs inflammation and helps fight cancer
• Garlic: all around anti-microbial that helps with healing
• Kale: an all-around great green and enables the body to be more alkaline.

It is important to understand that cancer cannot live and thrive in an alkaline body — and these spices, herbs and greens can balance the acidity caused by a diet high in meat, sugar and dairy. Simple ways to get them into your diet include adding ginger to a smoothie or making a hot tea; chopping basil and adding to a salad; sprinkling garlic, turmeric, cumin and cayenne on your salad; and adding fresh rosemary to your sautéed veggies.

There are numerous ways to get healing herbs and spices into your diet — which becomes even more important as we age.

If you have any questions about how you and your loved ones can stay healthy, send an email to roz@wellwomenofcolor.com. You can also visit the Vegas Roots Community Garden to purchase fresh, life-giving vegetables straight from the source. For more information, go to vegasroots.org.