Realign Tea Infusion
Over the past year I wound up getting mild food poisoning twice & salmonella, also food poisoning but I'm listing it separately because it's the one that really threw me for a huge loop. Prior to this batch of bad luck, I'd only ever had food poisoning once in my 47 years. Have to say, it's turned me off from wanting to eat takeout & there were only a handful of places I could safely do to begin with.
The two cases of food poisoning were a few months before & after the salmonella. In general they only seemed to mess me up for a few days, while the salmonella has had my gut out of sorts for over 6 months. In reality, it's probably the combo & cumulative affect that's reeking so much havoc. The salmonella has caused me to alter my menu though. After tending to my gut health judiciously for a few months, I started testing it out by slowly trying to reintroduce some things I dearly missed like coffee & eggs both of which were constant staples in my menu pre-salmonella. At first all seemed okay. And then I'd start having what seemed like random, out of the blue flare ups. I dismissed those as stress events because loads of stress also affect my gut. Then there started to be a pattern and bye bye went the coffee & eggs. Sigh... Determined not to let my gut keep taking center stage I spent time blending teas over the months to soothe & nourish it. The blend I came up with has more herbs in it than I've ever put in a blend & it's simply amazing. It soothes, nourishes, aids with symptoms, grounds me & actually tastes pretty good despite the bitterness of some of the herbs. Other bonuses - it alleviates bloat & monthly cramps & lessens severity of hot flashes. There are a myriad of herbs that could be substituted out for similar results. This is just what felt right for me & so far has been wonderful. I can handle drinking a cup of coffee a couple times a week now and will retrial eggs in a week or two.

The blend: - 2 parts dried hibiscus calyxes
- 1 part dried dandelion root
- 1 part dried plantain leaves
- 1 part dried raspberry leaves
- 1 part dried stinging nettles
- 1 part dried red clover flowers
- honey to taste