Almost anything edible, pesticide-free and organic from your yard or kitchen can become tea.  Why limit yourself to a teabag and someone else's imagination and potential pesticides?  Create your own healthy drinks.  

Just boil some of your favorite bits into combinations or steep to find the right flavors for you.  The choices above include St. John's Wort, dandelion, dried orange peel, fresh citrus, juiced citrus, hibiscus flowers, green onion, clove and cinnamon but the options are endless.  An interesting addition is star anise for a licorice flavor, guava skins, ginger, bay leaves, rosemary or dried peels of your organic fruits also add flavor.

You can use bits that are fresh or those you have dried and stored.  Herbs, fruits and spices all have great health benefits.

Stevia is a plant by the same name.  Its sweetness is about 200 times that of sugar and so, only takes a tiny bit to sweeten.  There are no reported connections to cancer or diabetes, yet manufacturers found a way to package problems for your body under the promise of offering you the safety of stevia.  

You must read every label now to find out what exactly in the product packaged to look like stevia.  Without a doubt, if you are using an individual serving package the sweetener has been extended with something.  Pure stevia in that quantity would overpower any single use.

There are many products being used as extenders to create a teaspoon serving and to lower production costs.  Most of these are things you would rather keep out of your body.  Many are corn products that are produced from GMO crops which bring another set of issues to the unsuspecting user.  Some of these products include:

• Lactose is a very common extender with the added side effects of inflammation and chemicals from cows fed GMO crops and treated with antibiotics.
• Dextrose is a simple sugar that is usually a GMO corn product.  Look for it in ordinary table salt too.
• Fructose is insulin resistant and is known to cause obesity and hypertension.
• Erythritol can occur naturally in foods, but is a manufactured sugar alcohol causing gas, bloat, diarrhea and is also a GMO corn product.
• Maltodextrin promotes the growth of candida in the gut with symptoms that mimic IBS, flu, chronic pain and fibromyalgia.

Probiotics and
Protein
​in a Power Packed Pie

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