Super shopping !!!

It looks like this blog is quickly turning into a health food blog. It´s something I´m really enthusiastic about, have been for quite a while, so maybe it should be the theme of this website. But... I like my freedom of writing about whatever feels interesting at differend times. 

I just want to share my first ever purchase from iHerb with you! This webshop is pretty amazing and the prices won´t make you gasp. iHerb has a lot of groceries, natural beauty products, superfoods, organic food, diet supplements... you name it! No, no one paid for me to say this...  

 

 

Greetings from Ameeerica

It took two weeks full of anticipation for this lovely parcel to arrive. ImmunePunch and the shampoo were just free samples. Haven´t tried them yet. Would´ve been nice to receive that ImmunePunch a few weeks earlier though...

There´s raw cacao powder full of good stuff as it says on the bag. It´s completely differend from ordinary cacao powder because this one is literally raw and it hasn´t been processed or heated in high temperatures which is exactly why it´s full of superb nutrients.

There´s green tea with mandarin, orange, ginseng and jasmine. There´s raw honey with bee propolis and pollen the taste of which just blows me away! It´s malty, it´s rich and you can tell by the taste that it´s something very very special.

The chocolate by Chocolove is long gone but I savoured every single piece of it... It was 55% dark chocolate with almonds and sea salt. While browsing on iHerb I instantly fell in love with this consept of the chocolate bar being a "love letter". Every wrapping even has a love poem inside! The whole product is just excellent through and through. This particular flavour was fantastic and the salt gives it a perfect twist. Other flavour are equally appealing: Dark Orange, Chili Cherry, Peppermint etc. This is what chocolate is supposed to taste like! Milk chocolate is not chocolate, I say...;)

Check it yourself, these items are not as expensive as they may sound. Easy way to get some proper food or e.g. vitamin supplements for the dark season.

I now walk into the wild

Dear readers! I got better after exactly seven days of flue! The minute I felt like all the phlegm had left my wind pipe, I got up from my sickbed and went out to the forest. There´s so much good stuff out there and I´m getting more and more interested in it. During the past week I´ve been getting down on my knees and collecting some seriously healthy wild food.

Blackberry (karhunvatukka)

These vitamin bombs don´t grow on my home latitudes so I´m really thrilled to find them here in southern Norway. It took me a while to figure that only the very ripe ones are sweet. It´s not enough that the berry is black: it must also be soft(ish) and come off easily. On my first berry trip I was so greedy that I pulled out some berries with force. Obviously, they were too bitter. Blackberry grows near to the ground so it´s not always easy to spot it. But once you do, there´s a whole lot of them! The branches are thorny, though, which makes things a bit inconvenient.

Still more to come.

Nettle (nokkonen)

Everyone knows this annoyingly stinging plant that grows just about everywhere. The best season for collecting nettle is spring when the leaves are still small. Later in summer you can collest the upper leaves. Nettle is incredibly nutritious with e.g. five times more vitamin C than the orange! It´s pretty much like spinach but nutritional values are far better. Use it for soups, pancakes, stir fries etc.

At this time of the year I didn´t find that much nice looking leaves but I managed to make some food. I quickly boiled the nettle, squeezed it dry, chopped it and mixed it with butter and garlic. Dead easy and lovely tasting nettle spread was done.

Rose hip, blackberries and homemade nettle spread.

Rose hip (ruusunmarja)

This berry I know nothing about. It´s fairly unknown as alimentary product. What I know is that when I in primary school tasted a fresh one it made me throw up. So I didn´t give a thought to this berry untill now.

However, this is another superb vitamin supply that is easily found. The plant is of course rose so the berry can come in many differend forms. It´s also high on vitamin C and can therefore prevent cold, apart from other superfood qualities. I wanted to dry them and use as tea. A downside is that it´s hell of a lot of work to split every single berry and deseed them! Maybe that´s why nobody uses rose hip.

Collect orange ones rather than the very ripe, scarlet red ones. When the berry is overly ripe it´s really mushy and difficult to handle. I´ll tell you later how the tea tastes once I finish with drying.

...

If price is what modern people are most interested in, I don´t see why more people don´t go out and collect food from the nature. It´s free and as healthy as it gets. But I suppose it´s just easier to buy whatever the local supermarket offers. And of course, nobody advertises nettle and how cool and sexy it is to eat it...

Nature is fundamentally pure and free of chemicals, preservatives etc. By using wild plants from your surroundings you´re not contributing any questionable business or transport from overseas. You can know exactly where you´re food comes from and what´s more, what it really is. I want to know because I only settle for the best food. No need to explain why.

Happy autumn!   

Alternative remedies

It´s here again – the influenza season! I was determined of not getting a flue but here I am, feeling weak and blowing my nose every ten seconds. I´m doing my utmost to get rid of this plague without any pain killers.

Flue can be avoided naturally, as many health gurus claim. The best thing is obviously to lead a healthy life and preferably do something like ice simming to keep yout immune system strong. Sleep you window open! Nutritious food is very important for general well-being. Somehow I failed in all this and I blame it on chocolate.

Now I´m going for natural remedies. Try one of these:

• Rest and stop exercising! Your body needs all the energy to fight the infection. Don´t stress!
• Good excuse to sleep a lot.
• Keep yourself warm, especially the feet (woollen socks are the best).
• Keep hydrated and drink plenty of hot tea made of fresh ginger, honey and lemon.
  Ginger is another of nature´s antiviral herbs. It contains nearly a dozen antiviral compounds. Ginger is pain relieving, antiseptic and antioxidant. It is valuable for preventing and treating colds, sore throats and inflammation of mucus membranes. Ginger reduces pain and fever and has a mild sedative effect that will encourage rest. 
• As much as you now want comfort food, avoid sugar! Sugar ”paralizes your system”.
• Raw garlic is a miracle maker, it is said. Enjoy straight or on bread mixed with butter. Gr8! 
  Garlic has anti-bacterial properties that help the immune system to fight infection, it is an excellent boost to the immune system. The reason for this is garlic contains several helpful compounds, including allicin, one of the plant kingdom's most potent antibiotics. Garlic combines well with echinacea and together make a strong fighting force against infections.  
• Eat wholesome food that breaks down easily such as soup. Chicken soup is often praised but I would leave out the chicken...
• Overdoze on vitamin C! Oranges and organic vitamin supplements. Don´t forget that lemon in your tea.
• Treat sore throat moderately with shots of alcohol.
• Seasalt dissolved in hot water relieves sore throat. Gag! :D
• Breath in steam to unblock your nose and get rid of that phlegm.
  
  
  
  
   Citations: http://www.organicnutrition.co.uk/articles/colds.htm

Today I pretty much fucked up my healing process because I biked around like mad while searching for an alternative culture festival outside town. I also spent some time sitting in a cold factory building with alternative people with many piercings listening to alternative music. Not everything alternative is good, though, but I strongly believe that nature has remedy to everything. I wish nature´s way was mainstream and everything else alternative!

Nevertheless, my aim is to get better before next week and my five long days off of worldly tasks. I leave you with these words that are not mine: Go to veggie market instead of pharmacy!

Peace xx

In search of Scandinavia

Can I have the big one?

Three weeks have passed in this beautiful town in the southernmost tip of Norway. I´m having a full immersion into Norwegian culture as my experience will not limit only to my own observations but I will also learn a lot on the course I´m attending. It´s about Norwegian culture, society and education. By far we have made three field trips, learned about Norwegian values, education, history and literature.

I was right to anticipate being the only Finn among the new exchange students. My only words of Finnish during all this time (apart from some samples when asked) were spoken in a club where I briefly encountered a Finn from Yli-Tornio. Funny that I had to come all the way to Norway to meet the first person in my life who speaks meänkieli – the language spoken on the Swedish boarder. I think it´s time I travelled in my home country more.

For my fellow students there are plenty of things that make them gasp but for a Finn exploring another Scandinavian country is detailed and challenging work. It´s for the very reason that differences are not big.

In my everyday life I´ve been studying the importance of matpakke (lunchkpack), courtesy in the traffic, market place, differences between grocery stores, Sunday strolls and many more interesting subjects. Everything is as I knew and as I expected: Norway is like Finland but a tiny bit better and nicer.

Or maybe it´s not that simple. It´s possible that right now I´m blind to the positive sides of my home country because I´m on the “honeymoon phase”. However, I have been very busy observing the Norwegian society. I already discovered some facts that would make Finns raise their eyebrows. Norwegians are really, I mean really, into decorating their homes nicely. There are numerous interior shops even in the small town of Kristiansand. I also feel that Norwegians appreciate their nature more and truly want to be connected to it. Finns love their tellies and gadgets and prefer having a comfy life on this side of the window glazing. We are the hi-tech nation of Nokia! We don´t want to pick berries – let the Thai come here and do that.

Norwegians are extremely concerned of people´s well-being and equality. Even on the expense of results in study or work. That´s why pupils in primary school are not evaluated with grades. I find that Finns are more focused on success, as we have such a low national self-esteem, and we want the rest of the world think that Finland is actually quite alright even though it´s on the freaking Arctic Circle!

The quest goes on. Tonight I will disguise myself with a bottle of wine and do some field work concerning the alcohol consumption in Norway. I heard that Norwegians drink excessive amounts but I doubt that.

Ha det bra!