The Ultimate Cold Cure Drink, AKA spicymakegood

Breakfast: Heaps of The Ultimate Cold Cure Drink and apple oatmeal

Lunch: Brown rice avocado burritos

Dinner: Ukrainian feast! Marinated vegetables, stuffed peppers

I was hoping to end this winter with the enjoyable smugness of someone who had avoided the dreaded Lurgy (a cold / the flu, for those who aren't from Yorkshire) by becoming vegan. I was hoping it so much that this hope had manifested itself in a pre-smugness in which I thought my dairy-free body was impervious to germs - so you can imagine my disappointment this morning when I woke up dripping from the nose and with a throat made of sandpaper.

I should, of course, have realised that no diet can save you from a cold if you couple seasonal germs with a large Ukrainian family dinner with enforced champagne and vodka drinking, a hot tub party in November and a birthday night out, none of which ended at any reasonable hour. No; illness is illness, and I had got it.

Thankfully, I also have this: a drink, called spicymakegood in the worst times of illness, recommended to me by my fantastic holistic nutritionist friend Lisa. I've adapted it a bit from her original ideas, as I wanted to have something I could happily drink all day every day, and I swear it works. If you feel the sniffles coming on, or if you're throat starts to get a bit scratchy, or even if the whole office is sick apart from you, switch your usual tea or coffee for a few mugs of this and it'll help you stay illness-free - or at the very least, make you better much quicker!

You'll need:
Softcore version:

4 cups hot water
3 slices fresh lemon
2 ginger slices
1/2 tsp cinnamon
honey to taste

Hardcore version:

4 cups hot water
3 lemon lemon slices
4 slices fresh ginger
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
honey to taste

Method:

Put all ingredients together in a teapot

I make a pot of this, hence the large amounts, but you can make as much or as little as you like. Unless you're of a particularly robust constitution, start out with the softcore version and work your way up to the hardcore one.

If you need a reminder of why honey is so great, check out David's post on the subject, and turmeric is great in this due to its anti-inflammatory properties and its ability to pep you up a little bit. Cayenne pepper is fantastic at clearing out your sinuses, and ginger has long been used as a remedy all over the world.

I'm off to bathe in this stuff and feel sorry for myself for a while.

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