Food: The Natural Healer

NEW YORK CITY (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Your kitchen pantry probably has all the ingredients to naturally treat everything from heartburn to headaches, without relying on the costly over-the-counter products most of us use.

To calm the cough, you may not need a trip to the doctors. Just head to your own kitchen to experience the healing power of food.

"The more natural solutions that we find, the better off we'll be," Marian Buck-Murray, a health and wellness coach at Good Food Solutions in New York, N.Y., told Ivanhoe.

Buck-Murray teaches a class on harnessing the healing benefits of spices and herbs you may have right in your own home.

"Garlic: it is wonderful as an anti-fungal, and antibiotic," Buck-Murray explained. "Aloe Vera juice is a really good laxative, and very good for digestion. Ginger is wonderful for people with arthritis, if they put warm ginger water on their joints. Horseradish is fabulous for cleaning your sinus when you have sinus congestion."

Buck-Murray makes a special healing tea from ginger, star anise, cloves and cinnamon to soothe coughs and colds, and a special seed mixture to aid digestion, and prevent heartburn. And here's a home remedy surprise for teenagers: using aloe vera.

"Take a squeeze of the gel, just put it in your hand, and put a little tumeric in it," Buck-Murray explained. "It's really great if you have a pimple."

Marian says aloe vera also aids in heartburn, indigestion, constipation and other intestinal problems.

"It's very detoxifying and it's also anti-inflammatory," Buck-Murray said.

Students were hungry for the information.

"I would prefer to handle any issues that come up be it cold, fever, headaches, nausea, whatever with more natural remedies," Rich Gomez said.

"I'm very interested in holistic things so that I can begin to treat myself and stop using a lot of chemicals," Teepa Bhaskaram explained.

"Anytime that I can heal naturally, through natural food and through eating, it's something I want my family to know about," Gwen Sutton Omari said.

So take a look inside your pantry. You may already have the ingredients for your own "kitchen pharmacy."

Researchers believe 30 to 40 percent of all cancers could be avoided if people ate more fruits, vegetables and other plant-based foods. For more natural food healing tips, visit Buck-Murray's website at http://www.goodfoodsolutions.com.

For more about healing with foods, click here.