The Secret to Karate-Kick the Cold and Flu Right at the Start

Fall is here, meaning cold and flu season is just around the corner. Wouldn’t you like to kick the cold and flu right at the beginning and start to feel well again much sooner? Are you tired of taking over-the-counter cold and flu medications that ONLY treat your symptoms? Would you rather treat the cause and the symptoms with fewer chemicals? Then, read on to learn how to make a natural food-based tonic that does both. 

Our Kicked-up Wellness tonic recipe packs a powerful kick to enhance your health and fight respiratory illnesses. It contains a mix of herbs, fruits, and spices that complement each other. These ingredients are easy to find at your local grocery store or farmer’s market. Tonic recipes like this have been used around the world for 100’s of years. Those recipes get passed down from one generation to the next—because they work.

Our natural health tonic is fun to make, enhances health and wellness, has worked for my family for more than 15 years, and is shelf-stable for at least a year.

Why You Want It — Health Benefits

The tonic is rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, polyphenols, and phytonutrients. Their combined effects can provide the following health and wellness benefits:

Antiviral • Antibiotic • Antibacterial • Antioxidant • Anti-fungal • Anti-parasitic • Anti-microbial • Anti-septic • Antihypertensive • Anti-Inflammatory • Anesthetic • Decongestant • Expectorant

Our tonic is a vinegar infusion or tincture. That means it can enter your body’s systems in a matter of seconds compared to the time it takes to digest and metabolize a handful of herbal capsules, vitamins, or the produce and spices included in the recipe. By including more of the recipe’s ingredients into your regular diet and taking a daily dose of Kicked-up Wellness Tonic, you can: 

• BOOST immune system function, energy and endurance levels, and the antioxidant and enzyme actions within your body
• ALLEVIATE body aches and pains
• DECREASE blood pressure levels, elevated cholesterol levels, oxidative stress, heavy metal levels, the risk of dementia and heart disease
• SHORTENED the LENGTH of TIME it takes to overcome many viral and bacterial infections

During times of illness, taking the tonic 4 times a day has been very effective for my family and friends.

True Stories

My daughter felt fine when she boarded the plane to fly to North Carolina to visit us for a week. Unfortunately, she woke up the next day experiencing intense flu symptoms. She was very disappointed at becoming sick while on vacation. 

I suggested that she drink shots of our Kicked-up Wellness tonic throughout the day to assist her body in fighting the virus. She agreed and took a shot of tonic four times that day. She drank plenty of water, had a couple of bowls of soup, and slept a lot. The next morning, she felt great. All signs of the flu were gone. Vacation ahead, ahoy!

During the height of the pandemic, several family members got COVID. They took shots of the tonic four times a day. The result? They only experienced mild cold symptoms for four days. That’s less time than it takes the common cold to run its course, which is 7 to 10 days! 

These are the results we have experienced over the last 15 years. But every BODY is different, and individual results may vary.

Safety Bit: 

Homemade tonics like this one (and variations of it) are safely used around the globe to combat colds and flu. But we still suggest this Best Practice before making and using the Kicked-up Wellness Tonic…

To avert an adverse reaction, check with a healthcare practitioner beforehand. Preferably one who is well-versed in natural therapies. This is especially important if you routinely take prescription medications or may also take over-the-counter medications. 

Beneficial Health Properties

To learn more about the beneficial health properties of the ingredients in this tonic recipe, check out these three sources or do an online search for each item in the recipe.

1. The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why by Johnny Bowden
2. The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies by Nicole Apelian, Ph.D
3. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has an encouraging scientific paper titled, Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Antiviral Properties of Herbal Materials. In this paper, there is a link to Table 1 that lists many of the ingredients in my Kicked-up Wellness Tonic Recipe. You can read the paper here:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7767362/  

• “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.” Those are the words of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, and they still apply today. Well…provided we are consuming quality organic and naturally produced food and ingredients without residual chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, or genetic modifications.
• We highly recommend using only ORGANICALLY grown produce and herbs.
• Organic, Unpasteurized, and Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar that contains the “Mother” is made from fermented apples. It contains calcium, iron, sodium, potassium, and enzymes and has antibacterial and anti-fungal qualities.

Kicked-up Wellness Tonic Recipe

• The tonic is made in three stages over time
• Stage 1: Cutting & Preparation about 1–1 ½ hours
• Stage 2: Infusion, 4 to 6 weeks
• Stage 3: Decanting about 20 minutes

Stage 1: Ingredients, Equipment, & Preparation

Prep Tip: Slice and cut the produce into smaller pieces than a standard playing dice. That will give you a better fit in a 1-cup measure and a more accurate amount.

Fresh Root Herbs & Peppers

• 1 cup White Onion, sliced and cut up (medium to large size) 
• 1 cup Ginger root, sliced and cut up
• 1 cup Horseradish root, peeled, sliced and cut up 
• 1 cup Garlic cloves, sliced 
• ½ cup dried whole Cayenne Peppers, crumbled or cut up OR ½ cup of fresh Jalapeno, Serrano, Habanero, or Cayenne peppers, sliced

Fresh Citrus

• 1 Lemon, juiced (remove the seeds from the juice and pulp), and cut up the peel.
• ½ Grapefruit, juiced (remove the seeds from the juice and pulp), and cut up the peel.

Citrus Tip: Gently roll your citrus fruit around on a hard surface to soften it and make it easier to juice. But don’t push too hard, or very ripe or thin-skinned fruit will burst open.

Spices, Fresh Herbs, & Vinegar

• 1 Tsp whole Cloves
• 3 Cinnamon sticks, broken
• 1 Tbl Turmeric, ground
• 8 whole Star Anise pods or the equivalent of broken pieces
• 1 Tsp Black Peppercorns, whole
• 1 Tsp Cumin, ground
• 2 sprigs (6” long) fresh Rosemary
• 4 springs (3–4” long) fresh Thyme
• 2 quarts Organic, Unpasteurized, and Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar that includes the “mother” (one brand is Braggs) 

Equipment Needed

• Food processor  
• Cutting board and sharp chef’s knife 
• 1 cup dry measure
• 1 Tablespoon (Tbl) measure
• 1 Teaspoon (Tsp) measure
• Citrus juicer
• 1, half-gallon size glass canning jar with a 2-part metal lid 
• Plastic wrap or parchment paper 
• Waterproof tape or label and permanent marker
• Disposable food prep gloves to protect your hands from the volatile oils in the peppers

IMPORTANT: The volatile oils in hot peppers can irritate and cause a burning sensation to mucus membranes and sensitive skin.  If you don’t use gloves…Do NOT touch or rub your eyes, nose, lips, or other sensitive areas of your body during and after working with the peppers! WASH and scrub your hands and nails several times using a brush or scrubby pad, dish detergent, and warm water. 

Additional Equipment Needed for Stage 3: Decanting within 4–6 weeks

• Very fine Sieve OR Super Fine Mesh Brewing bags OR Muslin Jelly bags
• Self-adhesive labels and permanent marker
• 4 swing-top bottles to decant the finished tonic OR recycled beer bottles with airtight wine stoppers OR two, 1-quart jars with airtight lids.

We use these 16-ounce bottles from Amazon

Part 1: Cutting & Preparation Stage

• Sterilize the canning jar/and lid components using boiling water. Turn upside down on a towel to drain.
• Wash all produce with water
• Place the first 5, cut-up ingredients (onion, ginger, horseradish, garlic, and peppers) into a food processor and pulse to purée/mince.
• Place ½  the purée in the jar. Next, add the fresh Rosemary and Thyme, the dry spices, and the citrus juice, pulp, and peel. 
• Add the remainder of the purée to the jar. 
• Pour Apple Cider Vinegar into the jar until the liquid level reaches the bottom of the jar neck.
• Place a single layer of parchment paper or a double layer of plastic wrap over the jar’s opening, set both lid pieces on top, and slowly screw the retainer ring to tighten. The parchment paper or double plastic wrap will help stop corrosion by inhibiting the vinegar from reacting with the metal parts of the lid.
• Label the jar with the date you filled it and the words Kicked-up Tonic Infusion using a permanent marker.

Part 2: Infusion Stage

1. Place the jar in a dark place for 4 to 6 weeks to infuse the vinegar with the plant nutrients 
2. EVERY DAY–Twice a day, vigorously shake the infusion jar for 15 seconds

Part 3: Decanting Stage

•  ½  gallon clear pitcher OR another ½  gallon glass jar
• 4, 16-ounce Swing-top bottles OR glass jars
• Clear glass 1-cup measure
• Funnel that fits into your bottles or jars
• Very fine Sieve OR Super Fine Mesh Brewing bags OR Muslin Jelly bags
• Self-adhesive labels and Permanent Marker
• ½  cup Raw Local Honey, which is the best to use, but any honey will work
• 3/4 cup Organic Apple Cider Vinegar (unfiltered and unpasteurized) with the “mother”
• ¼ cup Purified Water

• At the end of the infusion stage, strain the liquid from the purée through a fine mesh strainer and into another jar or a clear ½  gallon pitcher. Use a very fine mesh sieve OR place it in a super fine brewing or jelly bag. We use a brewing bag to strain it, and then we squeeze the bag to release any residual liquid. 
• Add ¼–½ cup Raw Local Honey or to taste. The honey adds a bit’o sweetness to help “the medicine go down”. 😁 It also has beneficial healing properties. Ideally, you should experience a slight sweetness but feel the heat and get a kick from the vinegar.
• Cover the strained tonic with a paper towel and let any fine particulate settle to the bottom.
• Evenly divide the tonic into four 16-ounce glass swing-top bottles. I stop pouring just before I reach the settled particulate at the bottom of my pitcher, but feel free to do as you prefer.
• If your bottles are not FULL, make a diluted mixture of vinegar and water by mixing ¾ cup of apple cider vinegar WITH ¼ cup of purified water.
• Top off the tonic volume in your bottles by adding just enough of the diluted vinegar to each bottle so the fluid level is about 1½” from the top rim. Then cap and shake to mix.
• Remember to label your finished tonic bottles. We use adhesive labels, but you could use a sturdy card-stock tag applied with ribbon, heavy twine, or rawhide. I have a creative friend who made reusable wooden tags and labels using a wood-burning tool. 

Directions for Using Your Kicked-Up Wellness Tonic

• ADULTS and CHILDREN 12 and up: Take 1 shot, 4 times per day until you feel well again
• CHILDREN 2 to 12 years: 1–2 Teaspoons, 4 times per day, added to a glass and diluted with enough water or juice and additional local honey to help them get it down in several swallows.

With Gratitude

My deep appreciation goes to the following people. My Kicked-up Wellness Tonic recipe above is founded on the herbal healing work of Dr. Richard Shultz and his “Master Tonic” recipe.

Over the years, I have made some herbal and fruit additions of my own to enhance the combined benefits of the tonic. Recently, I was delighted to learn that master herbalist Rosemary Gladstar suggested many of those items in her version of the tonic, which she calls “Fire Cider.” For more recipes, check out Rosemary Gladstar’s new book, Fire Cider! 101 Zesty Recipes for Health Boosting Remedies on Amazon. It’s on sale now for $10.59

Storing Your Kicked-up Wellness Tonic

Store the Kicked-up Wellness Tonic in tightly covered glass bottles or glass canning jars. Keep them out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources. When stored this way, nothing will grow in the tonic, and the shelf life is at least one year. 

The Bottomline

Natural foods, herbs, and spices can help our bodies fight illness and assist with the symptoms it causes. They boost the immune system. The Kicked-up Wellness Tonic can be your secret weapon this cold and flu season. Let’s get back to living a healthier and happier life with the help of a power-packed natural tonic. 

This year, give a roundhouse kick to the cold and flu!

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