Golden milk paste, a medicinal sweet-treat alternative
Dessert is not for the winter.
If there’s anytime to say an unequivocal no to sweet stuff, this is the time—from right now into spring, into stone fruit season even. Now is the time to take it easy with the sticky buns, candy hearts, mid-afternoon cookies, and panna cotta at the fancy restaurant. Even fancy fruity smoothie, it’s just not the right time for you.
While it can feel so good to snuggle into your warm spot with a sweet thing this time of year, if you want to avoid the pitfalls of colds and flus, sinus infections and yeast overgrowth, and the energetic seesaw of overconsumption of sugar, you should avoid it this time of year. And maybe we should talk about reforming your whole notion of sweetness in your life and in your way of eating.
It’s clear that Americans need to examine their sweet intake in general, but I’m not suggesting that you should quit cold turkey from now until forever. Sweetness is a therapeutic flavor, according to ayurveda, and that’s one of the many things I love about this folk medicine. It’s not austere—ayurveda recommends that we use our resources to lavish love upon ourselves and our cherished people to bring balance using the creative flourishes of ancient wisdom and tradition. While most of us want to reward our achievements with a beer or a piece of pie, ayurveda doesn’t hate on that. This system of medicine wants us to reward ourselves, sure, but with better choices that make us feel better in our bodies.
While that sounds like a crock at times when we’re robust and rearing to devour the world, but when we’re sidelined by a cold or flu for weeks, that kind of advice makes a lot of sense. Hey, maybe my gut doesn’t have to be adversely affected every time I get a high-five in my work or passion—maybe I need to reward myself with better choices here and there too!
Is there a such thing as a healthy sweet? In the winter, not so much, especially when we are talking about the baker’s rack. But still, the sweet flavor needs to be a part of our diets. We digest best when all six flavors are a component of each meal—sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. And sweetness can show up in unexpected ways—grains are sweet natured in ayurveda, as well as fats. A healthy sweet flavor could present as a pinch of sugar to round out a spice mixture used to marinate a protein.
Moderation should always be the guiding light in terms of your relationship with sweets, but in the winter and spring, there should be more restriction. Sweets should be rare.
The winter and into spring are the worst times to consume sweets because sweets are too dampening for us when we already have slushy or rainy overload mixed with the lack of sun and warmth. Wet wintry and spring weather is like a delicious cheesecake—cold, moist, and likely to give you mucous unless your inner fire is cranked appropriately. Well, keeping that fire cranked—in order to burn up digestive mucous and the viruses that like to make a home in that snot—is a really tough job in the winter and spring, and eating sweets just adds to that difficulty. Take a good look at your lifestyle and you might be able to pinpoint a weekend cupcake binge as the root of your last cold or flu.
Some of us look to sugar to boost life’s sweetness, or to perhaps cover up life’s bitternesses, or to bribe us to take those last exhausting steps during our mid-afternoon energy crash. Those of us who use sugar like that have a front-row seat to the ways sugar undermines immunity and subverts healthy energetic momentum.
Obviously, none of us are going to forlornly mourn our sweet times and be perfect students until June or so, when sweet consumption is less cold-and-flu-provoking. We will still celebrate birthdays, weddings, holidays, and have the occasional treat. But let me give you some advice on how to experience sweetness in the cold months without imbalancing yourself.
Timing. The best time to eat sweets is when the sun is at its highest, 10 am until 2 pm. Then, our digestion is strongest and most able to digest the heaviness of sweet stuff. Eat sweets rarely in the coldest months, as I said, but if you must, eat them at this time of day, even before a meal instead of after. Your digestive fire is sharpest then and most able to properly incinerate the sweet. If the sweet is a rare treat, enjoy ceremoniously, no rushing.
Digestive helpers. If you do have that rare sweet, have it with a cup of ginger tea or cumin/coriander/fennel tea to assist the digestion of the heavy delicious treat.
Medicinal honey. Research your favorite immune herbs and make an immune honey. This is quite easy, mixing powdered herbs with raw honey. Raw honey is full of immune-enhancing properties and will still give you that sweet flavor you crave without the pitfalls of refined sugars. Possible herbs include: powdered astragalus, ashwagandha, shatavari, reishi—don’t forget to add one or two powdered digestive herbs like cinnamon or cardamom to the honey, about ¼ of the total powdered herbs by weight.
Protein? If you crave sweets intensely, you may be protein deficient. Eat protein at every meal. If you are vegetarian or just looking to get more protein, try taking 2 kelp capsules at every meal to boost your protein consumption. If you take thyroid meds, please check with your doctor about consuming seaweed.
When sweet thing’s your everything. Some self-medicate with sweets because the dampening and grounding effects of these foods feel soothing to burned out, scattered, spun out people. This is emotional eating and improper medication. In these cases, people need to get to the root of why their lifestyle is uncomfortable and start slow on the steps to nourish and protect themselves from stressors. Where is life’s sweetness? It should be in the form of relationships, passions, spiritual practices—all the stuff that suffers in the cruel machinations of our imbalanced culture. Sweetness should not only be on the plate, but built into healthy life. This can be an area of personal activism for some; in my experience, it was the only way for me to cut ties with my sweet addiction as an overweight youngster.
As I said, I don’t want to suggest that everyone get cut off, get a box of raisins and a pat on the head until come late May when maybe it’s ok to get down with a fistful of frosting again. Taking the intensity of sweet cravings down a few notches is a good idea in general, avoid the bingeing cycle. Sweet, warm milky teas have been a great way for me to indulge sweet cravings while getting some herbal medicine support. Golden milk is my favorite beverage in this category at this time.
Golden milk is like sunshine in a mason jar—it has a milky, solar radiance that just looks delicious and right on bitter, cold, grey days. Its chief ingredient is turmeric, a great herb for the stressed or sugar-addled. If you have known pain and wanted to get away from Advil, you may already know turmeric. A dazzling yellow spice with a bitter flavor and anti-inflammatory qualities, turmeric has actually shown as much efficacy as Advil in clinical trials. Turmeric protects the liver and helps the flow of bile, protects the cells from radiation, protects nervous system cells from environmental toxicity, and is a preventative for countless cancers. Stress causes brain damage, for real, and turmeric helps to reverse this damage.
Golden milk is not only a beverage, but a medicinal, spiced paste—you can eat it right out of the jar and it tastes like pumpkin pie! This recipe is from Lily Mazzarella of Farmacopia in Santa Rosa, CA. Lily is an amazing teacher at the Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium most years and her herbal knowledge is inspiring. She also sells a coffee additive/alternative called Reishi Roast—an awesome way to moderate your coffee habit, or leave it behind.
Lily’s Divine Golden Turmeric Paste
Ingredients
½ cup organic turmeric powder
1 cup filtered water, plus ½ cup
¼ cup raw honey (optional)
½ cup organic virgin coconut oil
½-1 tsp organic black pepper
1-2 tsps combined spices: nutmeg, garam masala, cinnamon, cardamom, etc, to taste
A pinch of pink Himalayan salt
All measures are approximate. You can adjust amounts of powder, water, and oil for desired consistency.
How to make it:
Whisk water and turmeric together, and bring to a simmer. Continuing whisking as you adjust water amount for desired thickness.
Add black pepper, other spices and salt. Continue whisking for 4-5 minutes.
Add coconut oil and whisk until fully combined.
Turn off heat.
While cooling, add the raw honey and blend thoroughly.
While still runny, pour into clean jars and refrigerate.
Turmeric is powerfully anti-microbial (as are most of the ingredients). This should last many weeks in the fridge, especially if you dip in with clean spoon each time.
How to Use it:
+ Eat by the teaspoonful—it will stimulate digestion, bile flow, and the bowels
+ Add to smoothies, yogurt, curries, or pumpkin pies
+ Heat with whatever milk you desire for a morning or before bed treat
See the original at farmacopia.net/lilys-divine-turmeric-paste/
Eva Saelens is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, with over 1500 hours of training in Ayurveda, massage therapy, and Ayurvedic treatments. She graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2013. Subsequently, Eva spent a year interning and studying Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, whole foods nutrition, aromatherapy, and pancha karma at the dhyana Center in Sebastopol, Calif., and in India.