Miracle bottle

No, not THAT kind of miracle bottle. I'm talking about GSE, or Grapefruit Seed Extract. About a year and a half ago I went to Vermont to study with Christine Hoar at Bristol Yoga. While she has a wealth of yoga knowledge she is also an Ayurvedic practitioner and advises me on health issues. When I last saw her, I had only been living in Egypt for about 4 months so I hadn't really gotten a handle on how to treat "Mummy Tummy", as we delicately call it. Those that have traveled south of the border may refer to it as "Montezuma's Revenge"? You get the idea. Christine has traveled to India several times and she suggested GSE. I couldn't believe that no one was using it in Egypt! It's not that the water here is dirty, on the contrary, it's so heavily chlorinated and chemically treated to take OUT all the bad stuff, that it's bad for you in other ways, but it doesn't make you sick. So why do we get sick? Well, the fruits and vegetables are fertilized a little differently than they are in the States. They often times use human fertilizer instead of animal. I know, gross. Although, I have to say I'm kind of starting to get over it. I mean, poop is poop, right? Well, except that I guess this kind can make you a lot sicker. This is where the GSE comes in. This is what we use to wash all of our produce. It's highly concentrated and we just add several drops to a big bowlful of water and let things soak for about 20 minutes or so. It works really well and I think I can confidently say that we haven't gotten sick since we've used this method. So there's the fertilizer issue and then there's the 3rd world country issue. There isn't a board of health going around to inspect all the restaurants to make sure they're clean or that their workers are practicing proper hygiene while preparing and serving the food. I know you are all buying your tickets to Egypt right now, aren't you?! There's just no way to avoid the possibility that you might get sick. Eating at a "good" restaurant doesn't make you immune. There is a tragic story about the juice bar at the Four Seasons that infected dozens of innocent brunch goers. So we can either never go out to eat, or just accept that this is where we live and this sometimes happens. I had that attitude until the other day when I got so sick I was sure I'd never get better. I was worried about taking antibiotics, being a breastfeeding mama. What could I have eaten?! This is the game that you play, you think about everything you've eaten and everything you've come in contact with in the past 2 weeks. THEN I started thinking about all the kids MY kid has come in contact with and where THOSE kids have had their little fingers. Forget it. It's a germ spiral that never ends. So I made myself a little tummy tonic that did the trick.

Tummy Tonic
glass of sparkling water
1 tablespoon grated ginger
5 drops GSE

I had 2 glasses over a 4 or 5 hour time period and felt all better. No drugs! Yay! The armfuls of gladiolas that Ira brought me didn't hurt either...