Everyone,

Certain foods can help your body fight the effects of exposure to radiation. Here is a depressingly timely recipe, one of two that my herbalist daughter posted on Facebook today. The article this recipe comes from focuses on iodine and antioxidant-rich foods and herbs that will strengthen your immune system and help you resist and maybe even reverse the harmful effects of radiation.

This is of particular concern to those of us on the West Coast. The blogger who invented this recipe on the spot lives in Arizona, and if she's worried about ill winds blowing from Japan, you can imagine how we feel in California and Oregon and Washington.

--Linda

<snip>

Anti-Radiation Miso Soup with Kombu

ingredients
(1) clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2″ ginger, finely chopped
handful black peppercorns, smashed
several dashes of seaweed gomasio
(1) strip kombu seaweed, cut into small bits
(1) potato, diced
(1) head broccoli, cut into small florets
(1) bunch of kale, cut into small strips
1/4 cup red lentils
1/4 cup basmati rice
2-3 liters filtered water, depending on how thick you want it to be (the rice will soak up some of the water)
(1) piece wild Alaskan King Salmon
(1) tablespoon white miso
olive oil as needed
(1) bunch scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish

directions

1. Sauté garlic and ginger in olive oil in a big stock pot.

2. Add diced potato and brown on all sides.

3. Add water, broccoli, kale, lentils, gomasio, pepper, kombu, and rice.

4. Bring to a boil then simmer for ~30 minutes, covered, until lentils and rice are cooked through. Add salmon ~10 minutes before done. Check to make sure salmon is cooked through.

5. Pour into bowl, adding scallions and miso to taste. Note: Do not add miso to soup while liquid is on heat or boiling or you will kill the good bacteria in it.

As common sense dictates, if you have a thyroid condition or have trouble tolerating iodine, please consult your physician before adding iodine-rich foods to your diet.

Souce: Planet Thrive

From another great witchy blog, Midnight Apothecary, comes a much simpler recipe for miso soup. It uses many of the same ingredients as the first one. I haven't tried any of these recipes, but it's obvious just from a quick once-over of these blog posts that seaweed especially is considered a prime radiation-fighting ingredient--I assume because of the high iodine content.

Fortunately for the Japanese, miso and seaweed are traditional ingredients in Japanese cooking and therefore readily available. With bad luck you need good luck, as my mother always said.

--Linda

Monday, March 14, 2011
Recipes for the Great Turning

It's not the full moon, but I wanted to write to tell you all some things. As the day begins to dawn here in the still snowy woods, I wake up with both a heavy heart and the feeling of the sap rising. I don't know quite how to comprehend the magnitude of the earthquake in Japan and the nuclear fallout (on top of the sad, but sadly unsurprising turn of events in Wisconsin. )

It's so easy to shut down with all that's afoot, but we gotta keep going. I'm writing this morning with some recipes, as I hear the radiation is traveling across the Pacific and we've got plant allies who can help support us in these times.

<snip>

YOUR FRIENDS in TIMES OF NEED:

1. SEAWEED- eat nori, put wakame, kombu, and hijiki in your soups and stews. The iodine in kelp helps draw out the radiation and protect your thyroid from radioactive uptake.

2. MISO- Miso is amazing medicine- containing live cultures, minerals, amino acids, and protein. I'd recommend making a big pot this week, having a bowl everyday and feeding it to all your friends. Recipe follows...

3. MUSHROOMS- strengthen your immune system with some ****ake mushrooms in your soup!

4. Lots of vegetables, especially DAIKON radishes and BURDOCK root- stick them in your soup too or make a shredded salad. Daikon has been used for drawing radiation, post nuclear fall out- it's cooling and detoxifying.

5. BATHS in epsom salt and baking soda

6. DRINK lots of WATER

7. IMMUNE support- do the things you know boost your immune system: sleep well, eat garlic and Vitamin C rich foods, laugh, rest, and limit your sugar intake.

8. LOVE: send prayers, love, healing thoughts for those who need it most. Instead of freaking out or shutting down, let your anger, fear, and grief flow- it's what makes us human and feel connected to what's going on in the world right now. Crying is a potent way to detox, friends.

9. HERBS: if you want to get herbal, some great allies are nettle tea, cilantro (eat a lot or take the tincture- it helps draw heavy metals out ), and milk thistle (helps your liver process toxins). Also Yarrow Environmental Essence from FES is a beautiful formula to support the body in environmental disasters.

Magical Medicinal Miso* Soup

Saute one onion, sliced thin til translucent. Add water, seaweed of choice (I like Kombu and Wakame), ****ake mushrooms (dried or fresh), burdock root, carrots, and any other hearty roots you like. Simmer for 25 minutes.

I like to add shredded or sliced ginger near the end, so it's strong, and some garlic. You can also add greens, like kale or spinach.

Because you don't want to boil your miso, I usually put a large dollop of miso paste in my bowl and then pour the broth on top to dissolve it.

Drink bowls and offer bowls to all your loved ones and neighbors, kiddos and pets, family and friends.

*I live about 20 minutes from the best miso factory ever, South River Miso, which is made in barrels with lots of love and magic.

Source: Midnight Apothecary

I see the naughty word filter bleeped out the first half of the name of a very common Japanese mushroom. This seems to be one of these days when you can't win for losing!

quote:

Originally posted by Raksha:
I see the naughty word filter bleeped out the first half of the name of a very common Japanese mushroom. This seems to be one of these days when you can't win for losing!

In the future, Linda, you can consider substituting a "looks similar" character for one of the characters in the "naughty word, as so:

• shltake mushrooms... using a lower-case 'L' for the 'i'
  
• sh1take mushrooms... using the numeric '1' for the 'i'
  
• 5hitake mushrooms... using the numeric '5' for the 's'

and you won't be red-lined for trying to avoid the auto-censor.

*CJ

 
For those who aren't interested in cooking w/ seaweed or kelp, potassium iodide tablets are readily available (well NOW they are... that might change in the near term) and relatively inexpensive.

Check out this Google 'Shopping' search results for lotsa online resources.

But before anyone rushes out to stock up on either kelp or potassium iodide, please read the recommendations provided in this Wiki article. If/when the Japanese nuclear units pose a risk to any of us, I'm quite sure there's a) gonna be a run on potassium iodide (if it hasn't already happened), b) LOTSA folks will be selling trash as "protection" and c) the volume of the prospective dangers is gonna be LOUD... don't fall for it/them.

*CJ

Or, hyphenate the mush-room, cause those are such fun gi's.

quote:

Originally posted by *CJ:
 
For those who aren't interested in cooking w/ seaweed or kelp, potassium iodide tablets are readily available (well NOW they are... that might change in the near term) and relatively inexpensive.

Check out this Google 'Shopping' search results for lotsa online resources.

But before anyone rushes out to stock up on either kelp or potassium iodide, please read the recommendations provided in this Wiki article. If/when the Japanese nuclear units pose a risk to any of us, I'm quite sure there's a) gonna be a run on potassium iodide (if it hasn't already happened), b) LOTSA folks will be selling trash as "protection" and c) the volume of the prospective dangers is gonna be LOUD... don't fall for it/them.

*CJ

Thanks for the links, CJ. We need kelp and potassium iodide here on the West Coast, and we need it NOW!

I'm about to post this article on the News BB, and after that I'm going to call around to the local drugstores to see if anyone has any potassium iodide tablets left. If not, I'll order some from one of the online sources you posted.

--Linda