Cocoa for health

Bitter cocoa benefits blood. In TCM, we associate bitterness with the liver. The liver stores blood. When we go to bed between 11-1AM, the blood returns to the liver to get "freshened", in preparation for another new day. A lot of Chinese herbs that benefit and/or "quicken" blood are bitter in nature. One herb, Gou Teng (Uncaria rhynchophylla), has a bit of epicatechins. This herb has the ability to stop tremors, lower blood pressure, and surprise surprise it can treat migraine--a friend of mine eats dark chocolate to deal with her migraine headache.

how the heck do you "decontaminate"?

In the news, it was reported that workers had to be "decontaminated" after being exposed to a high level of radiation. Did anyone look into what decontamination entails?

Guess what, it's basically throwing away your clothes and take a shower. No chemicals needed unless you want to use the opportunity to wash your hair and skin.

Here is how we decontaminate in the 23rd century (Star Trek Enterprise series):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRRE9zA1C5Q

Antioxidants Quick and Easy

Let's begin with a poem by Wordsworth:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

We are busy hustling and bustling about grasping and rejecting, seizing and sizing, praising and scorning, producing and destroying, rise and fall, you get the idea. Not surprising, few of us has time to sit in the company of bamboos and wind chimes to enjoy exquisite green tea from the lofty mountains of Taiwan. Or savor the red, black, and cranberries from the farmer's market. Who has time to peel a pomelo?

With our frenetic pace of life, whereto shall we find our antioxidants? Alas, we seek them in supplements. Until we slow down and take more deep breaths, it may be this way for some time to come.

Is there something in between that we can do? Maybe go for coffee and dark chocolates, as I've heard they contain a trove of antioxidants!