Highly beneficial Goose Berry (or AMLA)

Hope you would’ve read my previous post about the benefits and uses of dry ginger. Now I have taken the health usage of the very good wonder natural fruit AMLA. All Indian medicines give importance for this little beautiful fruit and use it as an herb because it contains valuable medicinal properties. Amla is often used ingredient in Ayurvedha or Siddha medicines. These small sized wonder is also called Indian GooseBerry.

Amla is nature’s richest source of natural vitamin C. No doubt that most of us

Indian Gooseberries (Amla or Nellikkai)

are using this fruit often in the form of raw, dry or juice (or atleast Pickles, mainly in south India). But to give you some information of its medicinal properties and health benefits I have taken this as subject in this post so that you may try to use this more and in your daily life to prevent many diseases.

Amla contains so much of vitamin C, vitamin B complex and also contains polyphenols and minerals like iron, zinc, etc. This fruit is rich in fibre, hence helps to maintain cholesterol levels. It helps to reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and increases HDL (good cholesterol) thereby preventing heart problems

For diabetes also it helps. How? Because it contains polyphenols, which helps to keep sugar levels under control. It is widely used in Indian medicines to treat type II diabetes

Because of its anti-oxidant properties it even helps to prevent cancer.

Amlaincreases the Haemoglobin in blood and purifies blood.

It reduces the risk of gall stone formation.

In ayurvedha medicines, Amla is used in the famous Chavanaprash. This is a very ancient medicine, mentioned in old books and is a very famous one also (about 400 Crore or 80 mil USD market). Check out this wikipedia page on Chyawanprash.

Chinese vendor
selling Gooseberry

Gooseberry is also very much used in China. It is often used to cure throat inflammation. Here is a picture of a Chinese vendor selling Gooseberry.

Amla helps to cure sore throat. To get vitamin C to our body, consume one raw Amla daily.

It will also solve the constipation problem because it is rich in fiber. Daily or often the consumption of Amla will keep the balances of acids in stomach and improve digestion.

For mouth ulcer take some water add little Amla juice and gargle.  Amla is considered one of the best rejuvenating herbs in Ayurveda. It helps to improve immune system.

This herb is also used widely in many hair tonics since it enriches hair growth and hair pigmentation. It strengthens roots of the hair. Amla hair oil is very popular in India.

Note: For some persons, eating Amla first time might cause sore throat. Try it out first with small portion and then make use of it.

Hope you will make use of this wonder fruit more after seeing the above.  

I have mentioned here only few medicinal benefits of this wonder fruit. Have you used this or heard of any other benefits or uses of this Amla or gooseberry? Please share your information or experiences.

Benefits of Ginger - Anti Oxidant, Helps in Digestion and anti-cancer properties

By using natural products along with our diet or in cooking we are automatically getting the medicinal benefits of those products. Hence Naturopathy principle is “Food is Medicine” and this helps us in many ways in keeping away many diseases. That is why number of nature herbs/plants is included in our diet.

The image below gives you a good idea of how your food plate should be divided for healthy lifestyle.  

In my previous posts I have shared my opinion and views about the benefits of lemon and usages of lemon. Check those out if you have not. There are some very simple good usages and recipes.

Now we will see the benefits of Ginger. This is a root vegetable of ginger plant. Ginger has been used in Asian, Arabic and other countries as an herbal medicine since ancient times.

One of the most benefits from Ginger is its helping the digestive systems. You probably know this since you would have experienced Ginger Ale or Ginger juice helping you with relief during upset stomach. Ginger can help to digest fatty foods and reducing gas thereby preventing constipation problem.

If you have common respiratory problem ginger is the remedy because it is a natural expectorant. 

Research shows that ginger can provide relief to migraine due to its ability to stop prostaglandins from causing pain and inflammation in blood vessels. Ginger is widely used as a natural herb for treating cold and flu.

A study reveals that ginger can be used to treat diabetic-nephropathy, i.e. kidney related issues caused by diabetic complications

If you take ginger in the form tea it will help as natural heart burn remedy.

Picture of Ginger Plant

It has got blood thinning properties which helps to prevent heart attacks.

Ginger has high in potassium. manganese and also contains  vitamins A, C, E, B complex phosphorus, sodium, iron, zinc, calcium and so on. Ginger inhibits 5-L0 enzymes the only food for prostate cancer cells. Prostate cancer cells die in one or two hours without these enzymes. The components of ginger stop spreading of any type of cancer cells.  Many studies/researches are being conducted on the effects of Ginger in curing or destroying various types of Cancers.  

Naturally ginger helps to boost immune system. It can be used in tea, coffee, and also in cooking of various dishes to promote energy in our body and increase the metabolic rate. Ginger with lemon tea will have more medicinal effects.

Ginger with honey has more health benefits. Here is one simple recipe. Take some pieces of peeled ginger and add sufficient amount of honey keep it stored in a bottle for three or four days, then use one or two pieces whenever you get the complaints of nausea or vomiting symptoms. It is also for travelling sickness.

I have given only few benefits and usages of this herb, if you know anything more about this valuable herb please feel free to mention in this post.