Healthy Eating: Sugar and Spice

The holidays are here, and this is the perfect time of the year to the many delicious spices we associate with this time of year. Spices heal! Check out this list of some of the known health benefits of nutmeg, photographed from the book Healing Spices: How to Use 50 Everyday and Exotic Spices to Boost Health and Beat Disease by Dr. Bharat Aggarwal. Spices are a wonderful way to enjoy the many flavors of food without the harms of many unhealthy additives.

Here are a couple of tips for enjoying spicy beverages:

1. Make your own at home. Brew tea with dried spices such as ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. Serve with a splash of organic heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk. If you prefer it sweet, use stevia if you are on a low-carb diet, or local honey if not.
2. Try First Watch’s Iced Chai Cider. This isn’t for those on a low-carb diet, but it’s full of healthy spices and sweetened with fresh apple and pear juice.
3. If you’ve got to make a Starbucks run, keep it healthy by doing a brewed chai with a splash of heavy cream or almond milk. Add cinnamon powder and/or nutmeg powder more even more flavor. The regular chai drinks made with a mix are loaded with sugar, but brewed chai from a tea bag gives you all the great spices without the unhealthy carbs.