Coronavirus is taking a toll on our immunity. As a result, hundreds of people are getting affected by COVID19 every day in the country. The worldwide researches targeting COVID19 Vaccines are yet to come in fruition. In the meantime what we can do is strengthen our immune system so that it can create antibodies to kill coronavirus; but how? Let’s focus on our daily life. Many of us start the morning with sipping from a cup of hot tea. Some people enjoy having refreshing tea in the evening after work. What if we create a habit of taking immune-boosting tea every day? It will not only freshen up the mind but also tone up the immune system of the body to knock out any viral infection. Read this article to know about some immune booster herbal teas.

Immunity Booster Herbal Tea Ingredients

Green Tea       

If you are looking for the healthiest tea to start the morning with, drink green tea. It is a great source of caffeine which can provide an energy boost. What keeps green tea ahead of coffee is its amino L-theanine property, which delivers the body sustained energy for several hours preventing caffeine rush. Furthermore, Green Tea is rich in a variety of vitamin and mineral properties, like potassium (K), iron (Fe), calcium (Ca), protein, vitamin C, and vitamin A, which are necessary to better up the overall health.

Besides these, dried green tea leaves contain some other active substances like catechins, polysaccharides, fatty acids, essential oils, flavanols, chlorophyll, and many more plant substances. By virtue of these substances, green tea is blessed with diverse anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-enzymatic activities. Thus green tea can strengthen our immune system by preventing oxidative stress and autoimmune diseases.

How to Prepare Green Tea

Boil 2 cups of water for around 10 minutes. Put 1 tea bag or 1 tsp of green tea into the boiled water and let it steep for 3-5 minutes. Then remove the tea bag or strain the tea. For added flavor, you can add 1 tsp of lemon juice and 1 tsp of honey to the green tea.

Chamomile Tea

If you are suffering from sleep deprivation, drink Chamomile tea every night before going to bed. Chamomile tea can calm nerves and release stress. What is it's magic? Chamomile tea contains an antioxidant called apigenin, which binds up to certain receptors of the human brain promoting sleep and reducing insomnia. After having sufficient sleep, the human body can make cytokines, a kind of protein that creates an effective immune response through fighting against infection and inflammation. Additionally, Chamomile tea can ease stomach pain, promote digestive health, control blood sugar levels, and clear up skin problems.

Chamomile tea has more to offer! You may know that White blood cells (WBC) play a vital role in the human body's immune system. When a foreign virus, bacteria, or fungi invades into the blood, WBCs search, recognize and destroy those invasive particles before they can cause disease. Chamomile tea can boost up your body’s production of WBCs that can destroy viruses, bacteria, and fungi. You can add Chamomile tea to your diet, to prepare your immune system in the impending war against COVID19.

How to Prepare Chamomile Tea

Put 1 tea bag or 1 tsp of Chamomile tea into hot boiled water. Then let the tea leaves steep for about 4 minutes. Then remove the tea bag or apply a filter. Adding 1 tsp of lemon juice with 1 tsp of honey can make your Chamomile tea more refreshing.

Turmeric (Haldi) Tea

Besides applying as a cooking ingredient in curries and other dishes, Turmeric can be consumed in the form of tea to strengthen your immunity in a natural way. Turmeric is rich in Curcumin, a bioactive compound, which serves as an anti-inflammatory agent. Curcumin may help the immune system of your body to knock out diverse viruses, especially flu.

As a powerful antioxidant Turmeric contains a high amount of anti-inflammatory properties that can soothe your nerves and heal the body-cells from within. Turmeric has many other benefits like lowering blood sugar levels, which can prevent type 2 diabetes. Some researches show that turmeric can reduce LDL "bad" cholesterol offering heart-protective possibilities. Turmeric is praised worldwide as a natural immune booster for its detoxifying ability that flushes out toxins from the blood cells.

How to Prepare Turmeric Tea

Mix 2 tsp of natural turmeric to 2 cups of water. In this mixture, you can also put some more spices like 1 tsp of ginger, a pinch of black pepper, 1 tsp of cinnamon, a pinch of clove, and a pinch of nutmeg. Now boil the mixture for 10 minutes. After straining the drink, you can also add 1 tsp of honey to enhance the taste.

Lemon Tea

Whenever you experience cold ailments like sore throat, constant headache, body pain, jammed nose, or watery eyes, one of the best home remedies you can opt for is having a steaming cup of Lemon tea. It can provide instant relief to your health system. In addition to this, Lemon tea can offer innumerable benefits like reducing pain and inflammation, lowering blood pressure, functioning of blood vessels, increasing urination to minimize fluid retention, improving digestion, etc. What is more? Lemon is used in the treatment for the common colds, flues, H1N1 (swine) flu, sinus inflammation, tinnitus, stomach upset, nausea, kidney stones, etc.

During the recent Coronavirus pandemic, doctors are applying vitamin C doses to treat COVID19, as there is no approved vaccine yet. The health specialists are suggesting people consume vitamin C every day to prevent COVID19 and other common kinds of viral infections. As lemons are good sources of Vitamin C, you can drink lemon tea instead of taking supplements.

How to Prepare Lemon Tea

First, boil 2 cups of water for about 10 minutes. Then simmer the heat and add 1 tsp of tea leaves. Let the tea leaves steep for a couple of minutes. After straining the tea, add 2 tsp of lemon juice. For extra flavor, you can add 1 tsp of honey to your lemon tea.

Ginger Tea

In traditional medicine, ginger root or powder has been widely applied to cure a variety of health issues like asthma, colds, coughs, nausea, morning sickness, arthritis, gastrointestinal disorders, travel illness, depression, etc. Ginger can not only halt the growth bacteria like E.coli, shigella, etc but also prevent virus infections. Ginger is loaded with Gingerols, an active compound that can save your mouth from oral bacteria. Ginger may help your immune system to fight against chronic diseases including lung disease, high blood pressure, heart problems, etc.

Ginger can help the immune system of your body in breaking down the stored toxins inside different organs. Ginger is naturally enriched with antioxidant properties that prevent damage to the DNA structure of your body cells. To toughen your immune system against COVID19, you can add ginger tea into your diet plan.

How to Prepare Ginger tea

Add 1tsp of ginger powder or fresh ginger to 2 cups of water. When the water comes to boiling add 1 tsp of black tea. Steep the mixture for a minute, then strain it. To make the drink healthier you can add 1 tsp of lemon juice and/or 1 tsp of honey.

Bottom Line:

There is no single ingredient that can serve as a magic pill to protect us from COVID19. To fortify the immunity system of the body, it is essential to reorganize your regular diet chart with immunity booster foods and drinks. So far we have discussed 5 types of herbal teas that can be prepared with common ingredients. Besides, refreshing the mind, these beverages can make your immune system stronger to fight off viral infections. However, the beverage-recipes might vary depending upon your precise taste and health conditions. Stay healthy!

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Read: Where to Buy Grocery Online in Dhaka during Quarantine?

Also, Read Online Pharmacy: Where to Buy Medicine in Dhaka during Coronavirus Home Quarantine

The restaurant of French chef Paul Bocuse, who died two years ago, has lost one of its Michelin stars after holding three since 1965, a world record.

The Michelin guide announced Friday that the restaurant in Collonges-au-Mont-d'or, near the French city of Lyon, has been downgraded to two stars.

Dubbed by critics as the "pope of French cuisine," Bocuse died at age 91 in January 2018 in Collonges-au-Mont-d'or, the place where he was born.

He was a tireless pioneer, the first chef to blend the art of cooking with savvy business tactics — branding his cuisine and his image to create an empire of restaurants around the globe whose offerings range from haute cuisine to fast food.

The restaurant's kitchen is now run by a trio of French chefs.

The Bocuse group also owns a restaurant in Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, that opened in 1982, and several brasseries, cafes and other establishments in the city of Lyon and in Japan.

The SweetSin Coffees is quite a favorite amongst youngsters in Dhanmondi. Recently, they opened a new branch at Gulshan Avenue (same building as Fryyay) to attract people from the tri-state area. They also have a new breakfast menu that included platters like Waffled up breakfast, Pancake surprise, Grilled cheese morning, and Quesadilla mix platter.

The Waffled up breakfast comes with simple waffles with maple syrup, chicken strips, beef bacon, mushrooms, and poached egg. The waffle they serve is slightly soggy however, the mushroom, bacon, and chicken strips were quite tasty and filling. The Pancake surprise came with pancakes with maple syrup, a cheesy omelette, chicken sausage, and mushrooms. I really liked this breakfast meal. The cheesy omelette has a stringy pull if you have it while it’s hot. The sausages taste like the frozen ones you fry at home. I had two other friends who tried the rest 2 platters. The Grilled cheese morning really stole the show. It is undoubtedly the best breakfast meal they serve. The salty and gooey cheese sandwiches were grilled to perfection.

It came with well sautéed garlic mushrooms, vegetable stuffed chicken, and the delicious cheese omelette. Honestly, this meal was the perfect balance of all their good items. The vegetable stuffed chicken could use a spicy sauce though as overall, the meal was quite light. So if you are into light, mild flavors for breakfast, you’ll enjoy the meal. Lastly, there was the Quesadilla mix platter. While it sounds quite unconventional to have a Mexican item for breakfast, quesadilla is nothing but stuffed bread. So there’s nothing to be afraid of. The spices used here were quite mild as well. The paratha like bread seemed to have become soggy because of the stuffing. The scrambled eggs lacked any seasoning so we had to add salt and pepper according to our preference.

In all, we all approve of the Grilled Cheese Morning platter. The Grilled Cheese melted our minds with how perfectly it was done. Overall, The SweetSin Coffees is a great choice to catch up with your friends for brunch on a budget.

 

Fuchkawali; a name that raises eyebrows due to how strange it sounds when you mention it to someone. It is an actual place in Banani 11 which is serving fuchkas named Dhakaiyya, Mumbaiyan, Isaan, Peshwari, and lastly Bolognese. I will admit, when I first came across this name, I wasn’t keen at all to try it out given the price point (around 180-200 BDT) but then I saw the Bolognese fuchka and it piqued my interest. Additionally, since they had a mixed platter available, I decided that there’s no harm in trying as it’s fuchka after all.

To start off, the shop is absolutely tiny. You place and receive your order through a window and there’s about 4-5 seats available at the back. We placed our order for the mixed platter and it took quite some time to arrive. However, I have to say I was pleased with how clean the kitchen looked and that the staffs were all wearing gloves while preparing our order.

As for the food, most of the fuchkas tasted quite alike. The Mumbaiyan and Dhakaiyya tasted almost the same; slightly spicy with a topping and stuffed with potatoes and lentils. Honestly, I couldn’t taste the difference in them. The Isaan was supposed to have a mix of vegetables, peanuts, Thai spice, and served with an extremely hot sauce and in my opinion, it delivered nothing as promised. The Peshwari was sadly unavailable but it is supposed to have a mix of chicken and beef with a special sauce made of herbs. The Bolognese was my favorite though. As unconventional as it sounds, this meaty fuchka was topped with a cheesy sauce. It made me feel like I was having some sort of pasta only within a shell instead of with some noodles. The shells were way too oily and we had to wipe our hand on a tissue rigorously after finishing it. They were all dolloped with yoghurt or cheese (in case of Bolognese) which everyone may not be a fan of.

Fuchkawali tried to do something unique yet local. However, I think they could experiment a lot more and didn’t really live up to the hype.

Cilantro has been around for ages! In fact, some people of the earlier generation may also tell you that Cilantro or Coentro (now closed) used to be their hangout spots. Luckily for us, Cilantro still exists and the food is absolutely delicious!

Located at Satmasjid Road right next to Abacus, Cilantro may seem to be tucked away as you can’t actually find the restaurant unless you are aware of the place.
After walking through a narrow alley, you find a wooden gate through which you enter a cozy and aesthetic space. With both floor and seat seating arrangements and lights hung from the ceiling, it’s a restaurant fit both for hangouts and dates. My order there is usually the same; Beef Poutine, Beef Tacos, and Iced Tea. However, their meals are also very good.  

The Beef Tacos are scrumptious soft shelled beef tacos are made with roti like Tortillas and topped off with Pico de Gallo (salsa) and shredded mozzarella cheese and served with a house special sauce and pickled onions!Instead of using ground beef like typical tacos tend to do, they used strips of juicy steaks. The meat tasted slightly overcooked but the pickled onions and house special sauce made me completely disregard it by adding a tangy and spicy kick to every bite. The mozzarella didn't add any flavour to it however; the fresh salsas were the ultimate savor to the dish binding every component of the taco together. I tried their shrimp taco as well but didn't like how dry they were. They could've kept it simple with the flavoring but instead turned it into something very deshi.

While Dhaka has very few places serving proper Poutines, Cilantro does an excellent job with theirs. Properly cut wedges baked to perfection with that slight crisp goes great with the cheese sauce, minced beef, and fresh salsa. This dish is enough to be split by 2 (or 3 if ordered as an appetizer). A must order if anyone ever pays them a visit!

Finally for dessert we got Churros which are fried dough pastry usually had as a snack. They're usually coated with granular sugar and dipped in chocolate sauce for consumption. The Churros at Cilantro are served hot and the thick dark chocolate sauce works great with these dough sticks. However, over my last few visits, I have noticed that their Churros are very oily which doesn't leave you feeling light as it should. I always get this dessert along with their platter but if I had to order them on their own, would probably think twice before doing so.

As for drinks, you can try any of theirs as they are all very refreshing! I usually get the Apple Iced Tea but the Blackberry drink that I got was mindblowing: tangy with hint of spice!