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Twelve Natural Health Tips for Smart Travel
Twelve Natural Health Tips for Smart Travel
Author: Mike Adams Source: Natural News
Traveling can be hard on your health. Increased stress, changing time zones and difficulty
finding healthy food can all negatively impact your health. And if you travel by air, you have
the added problems of exposure to airborne pathogens, fragrance chemicals, and other
pollutants brought into your air space by unhealthy people. On top of that, there's the
additional difficulty of bringing all your health supplements, superfoods and appliances with
you (a Vita-Mix is heavy!).
So how can you protect yourself from sickness and environmental stress when traveling while
still providing yourself with your most important health supplements and superfoods? Being
an experienced traveler myself, I'll share with you my best tips for maximizing your health
when traveling on planes, trains or automobiles.
Tip #1: Boost Your Immune System Before You Go
Don't dare walk into an airport, train station or other public place without protecting your
immune system first. How do you accomplish that? It's simple: For at least three days before
your trip, start drinking lots of vegetable juice and taking immune-boosting herbal
supplements. It's even better if you're drinking fresh juices every day as a regular habit, but if
you're not, at least kick in the healthful juices before you travel.
On the supplements side, I like to take Kyolic garlic supplements (www.Kyolic.com), medicinal
mushrooms (www.MushroomScience.com), Echinacea, goldenseal, ginger and other similar
immune herbs (www.BaselineNutritionals.com). It's also important to get plenty of zinc in your
diet by eating pumpkin seeds or taking high-quality zinc supplements. Taking lots of vitamin
C and vitamin D3 is also helpful, but be sure to get them from high-quality supplements (I
don't recommend cheap multivitamins like the Centrum brand). The best sources for high-
end individual supplements are www.WellnessResources.com and www.LivingFuel.com
(check out their Super Essentials fish oils with astaxanthin.)
Tip #2: Bring Superfood Powders for Instant Meals
Having superfood powders with you at all times is a great travel strategy, even if you're just
traveling to a relative's house for a few days (your relatives probably aren't as health
conscious as you are, right?). Don't clobber your immune system by eating the junk in their
refrigerator; bring your own superfoods and amaze (or annoy) your friends and relatives with
your own astonishing commitment to a truly healthful diet!
Which superfood products should you bring? There are a lot of them I recommend, including
Living Fuel (www.LivingFuel.com), Boku Superfood (www.BokuSuperfood.com), Healthforce
Nutritionals (www.HealthForce.com), HempShake (www.Nutiva.com), Emerald Balance (www.
SGNnutrition.com) and Delicious Greens (www.Greens8000.com). There's even a new
product I just saw at Whole Foods called Amazing Meal (www.AmazingGrass.com). I haven't
tried it yet, but I know their Amazing Grass product is high quality, and I intend on reviewing
their Amazing Meal product soon.
The point is to bring a lot of nutritious foods with you in a highly concentrated form. There's
no form more concentrated than dried superfood powders. Just add water, shake it up, and
you've got a meal!
Tip #3: Bring a Blender Bottle to Make Instant Superfood Drinks
Speaking of shaking up your superfoods, you'll need a clever way to accomplish that unless
you've managed to bring a Vita-Mix (which I've been known to do, even on airplane trips). Far
lighter than a Vita-Mix, the Blender Bottle (www.BlenderBottle.com) uses a stainless steel coil
inside a plastic shaker bottle to deliver superfood smoothies that are almost as good as
those you'd make in a blender.
The blender bottle is incredibly light, durable and easy to pack. I have one with me right now,
and I shake up 3-4 superfood drinks each day with it. While it won't blend up fruits and
vegetables, it easily blends superfood powders (including protein powder). Don't leave home
without this cool device! (And by the way, I don't mind the fact that it's made out of plastic. I
only use it when traveling. A little exposure to plastic from time to time is harmless, especially
if you're loading up with superfoods.)
Tip #4: Carefully Choose Your Supplements, and Bring Them in Plastic Bottles, Not
Glass
Speaking of glass, while I prefer to store nutritional products in glass bottles at home, when
I'm on the road, I carry them in either plastic bottles or plastic bags. Yes, I don't like plastic,
either, but for traveling there's simply no replacement. They're light and virtually
unbreakable. You don't want to find glass shards in your suitcase after you claim it at
baggage check do you?
Tip #5: Bring a Gravity-Fed Countertop Water Filter (Brita, Pur, etc.)
A gravity-fed countertop water filter will let you "make" clean water just about anywhere. Just
fill it up with your hotel's tap water and wait for filtered water to appear in the container. This
is the water you'll use to make your superfoods.
Yes, I know: It's not the best water in the world. If you want the best water, build a log cabin
near an artesian well somewhere and drink your artesian water out of glass jars. But for
those who need to travel, a countertop Brita filter will remove chlorine and other pollutants,
giving you safe water to drink without forcing you to buy the hotel's water (which is at least
triple the cost of gasoline, by the way).
Brita water filters are incredibly light, too. You can even pack other gear inside them, such as
your toothbrush, Dr. Bronner's soap, and other personal care products.
Tip #6: Bring Some Organic Food Bars or Other Healthy, Portable Foods
As you've no doubt noticed, airplane food is mostly junk food filled with chemicals (unless you
sit in first class, in which case it will be gourmet food filled with chemicals). So unless you
want to destroy your health before you arrive at your destination, bring your own food and
avoid the toxic food items handed out to all the other clueless passengers (who will
apparently eat anything handed to them in a pretty wrapper...)
What to bring? Healthy food bars, of course! My favorites are the Organic Food Bar (www.
OrganicFoodBar.com) and the Greens+ High Protein Food Bar (www.GreensPlus.com). I've
also found some truly awesome raw food snacks from a new company called RawPhoriaLIVE
(www.RawPhoriaLive.com). Their RawNola (raw granola) products are absolutely perfect for
traveling. And they're outrageously delicious. (Their website isn't ready to take orders yet,
but they do list phone numbers if you want to order from them by phone.)
Some other things to bring are raw nuts from www.TransitionNutrition.com and a great new
product I've discovered called Barney Butter (www.BarneyButter.com), which is a super
delicious almond butter in a convenient travel pack. Just squeeze it onto raw cashews and
you'll enjoy a super healthy snack while the passengers next to you lick the salt crumbs out
of their pitiful peanut baggies...
Tip #7: Seek Out the Healthiest Food You Can Find
Once you arrive at your destination, don't leap to the local all-you-can-eat processed food
bar; get to a Whole Foods or even just a regular grocery store where you can buy some
fresh produce. Even if you can't find organic, just get something fresh. Non-organic produce
is still better than any processed food.
Even if you don't have a small refrigerator in your hotel room, you can still load up on
oranges, melons and a few fresh items that will last a day or two without refrigeration. For
those times when I'm completely out of fresh produce options, I like to buy almond milk and
puffed kamut cereal, then I stir some SunWarrior protein into a bowl of kamut to make a high-
protein cereal snack. It isn't raw, and it's not fresh, but it's not bad for food on the road. It
certainly beats the $15 scrambled eggs offered by your hotel's room service menu (which are
probably scrambled on Teflon pans, by the way...)
Tip #8: Bring a Jump Rope, Yoga Mat, or Swimsuit to Stay Active
Staying active is key to staying healthy on any trip -- and perhaps not for the reasons you
suspect. I think one of the best advantages of exercise while traveling is that your body
sweats out toxins as you work your cardio. This will eliminate toxic chemicals through your
sweat glands (sweating is one of the best detox strategies of all!)
So the key here is not necessarily to work you heart or muscles, but to sweat as much as
possible while replenishing your body with healthy fluids (the superfood drinks you made,
above).
Of course, exercise also reduces stress and enhances your mood, and that tends to make
your travel a lot more enjoyable in the first place.
Tip #9: Get Into Nature
Wherever you go, find a park, beach, lake or forest where you can chill out and soak up
some nature. Just getting outside and breathing some fresh air can make a huge difference
in your stress levels, so make a point to get into nature wherever you go. Even New York has
parks!
Also, be sure to open your hotel room window shades before going to sleep so that the
morning light comes through and resets your circadian rhythm to be in sync with the local
time. This therapeutic use of light is key to getting your body in sync with reality. If your hotel
room is pitch dark because you've closed the heavy blinds, your brain will never get the
signal that it's time to produce "wake me up hormones!"
Tip #10: Have Emergency First-Aid Herbs on Hand
I recommend traveling with a 1 oz. tincture bottle of cayenne pepper, plus some other herbs
such as:
• Peppermint (for digestion)
• Ginger (for motion sickness and immune boosting)
• Aloe vera gel (for digestion and anti-viral uses) (www.GoodCauseWellness.com)
• Yun Nan Bai Yao - This is an amazing Traditional Chinese Medicine remedy that stops
bleeding! It's a formula that was developed in 1902, and it has an astounding ability to stop
bleeding from cuts, scrapes and other wounds.
All emergency rooms should use Yun Nan Bai Yao, but of course western medical people are
clueless about any systems of medicine they didn't invent themselves, so they remain
ignorant of Yun Nan Bai Yao. You'll have to visit a Chinese medicine store to find this. Ask for
it by name. Learn more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunnan_Baiyao
Tip #11: Bring Your Own Personal Care Products
Don't rely on the shampoo and soap in the hotel. Those products are loaded with toxic
fragrance chemicals (even in "green" hotels, which aren't really green, by the way). Instead,
bring you own personal care products.
Here are some of the ones I bring:
• Dr. Bronner's soap (www.DrBronner.com) - For washing your hands, face and body. I even
use it as a shampoo.
• Toothsoap (www.Toothsoap.com) - Better than toothpaste. Simple, natural and portable. I
like the "Plain Jane" variety.
• Dental Miracle (www.DentalMiracle.com) - Herbal tooth powder. Great for traveling. Fights
gum disease and other oral health problems.
• Peri-Gum (www.Peri-Gum.com) - A cayenne-based herbal mouthwash with multiple
medicinal herbs. Fantastic for rinsing your mouth after brushing your teeth.
• Natural Sunscreen - I don't use sunscreen, but if you want to, bring a natural brand. It's
virtually impossible to find natural sunscreen products on the road (even from health food
stores!). The most natural brand I've seen yet is called Caribbean Blue (www.
GoCaribbeanBlue.com)
Tip #12: Bring Your Own Natural Laundry Detergent
If you're going to do laundry at your destination and you don't want to use the toxic
chemically-contaminated detergents offered for sale at retail, you'll need your own laundry
detergent. Naturally, I hope you choose my own brand -- Bodhi Soap Nuts, which you'll find at
www.BetterLifeGoods.com -- but there are other great brands out there, too, including
Seventh Generation, Maggie's Soap Nuts and other eco-conscious laundry soaps.
The important thing here is to avoid toxic, brand-name laundry products. Nearly all
conventional laundry products contain cancer-causing chemicals that are not only terrible for
your own health; they're also disastrous for the environment when flushed downstream!
What About the "Airborne" Supplement?
Is the "Airborne" supplement any good? It's the one that claims to be "created by a
schoolteacher."
To answer this question, just read the ingredients yourself. You'll find that Airborne contains
aspartame. Any "health" product made with aspartame is, in my opinion, a complete joke.
Don't waste your time (or money) on Airborne.
Author: Mike Adams Source: Natural News
Traveling can be hard on your health. Increased stress, changing time zones and difficulty
finding healthy food can all negatively impact your health. And if you travel by air, you have
the added problems of exposure to airborne pathogens, fragrance chemicals, and other
pollutants brought into your air space by unhealthy people. On top of that, there's the
additional difficulty of bringing all your health supplements, superfoods and appliances with
you (a Vita-Mix is heavy!).
So how can you protect yourself from sickness and environmental stress when traveling while
still providing yourself with your most important health supplements and superfoods? Being
an experienced traveler myself, I'll share with you my best tips for maximizing your health
when traveling on planes, trains or automobiles.
Tip #1: Boost Your Immune System Before You Go
Don't dare walk into an airport, train station or other public place without protecting your
immune system first. How do you accomplish that? It's simple: For at least three days before
your trip, start drinking lots of vegetable juice and taking immune-boosting herbal
supplements. It's even better if you're drinking fresh juices every day as a regular habit, but if
you're not, at least kick in the healthful juices before you travel.
On the supplements side, I like to take Kyolic garlic supplements (www.Kyolic.com), medicinal
mushrooms (www.MushroomScience.com), Echinacea, goldenseal, ginger and other similar
immune herbs (www.BaselineNutritionals.com). It's also important to get plenty of zinc in your
diet by eating pumpkin seeds or taking high-quality zinc supplements. Taking lots of vitamin
C and vitamin D3 is also helpful, but be sure to get them from high-quality supplements (I
don't recommend cheap multivitamins like the Centrum brand). The best sources for high-
end individual supplements are www.WellnessResources.com and www.LivingFuel.com
(check out their Super Essentials fish oils with astaxanthin.)
Tip #2: Bring Superfood Powders for Instant Meals
Having superfood powders with you at all times is a great travel strategy, even if you're just
traveling to a relative's house for a few days (your relatives probably aren't as health
conscious as you are, right?). Don't clobber your immune system by eating the junk in their
refrigerator; bring your own superfoods and amaze (or annoy) your friends and relatives with
your own astonishing commitment to a truly healthful diet!
Which superfood products should you bring? There are a lot of them I recommend, including
Living Fuel (www.LivingFuel.com), Boku Superfood (www.BokuSuperfood.com), Healthforce
Nutritionals (www.HealthForce.com), HempShake (www.Nutiva.com), Emerald Balance (www.
SGNnutrition.com) and Delicious Greens (www.Greens8000.com). There's even a new
product I just saw at Whole Foods called Amazing Meal (www.AmazingGrass.com). I haven't
tried it yet, but I know their Amazing Grass product is high quality, and I intend on reviewing
their Amazing Meal product soon.
The point is to bring a lot of nutritious foods with you in a highly concentrated form. There's
no form more concentrated than dried superfood powders. Just add water, shake it up, and
you've got a meal!
Tip #3: Bring a Blender Bottle to Make Instant Superfood Drinks
Speaking of shaking up your superfoods, you'll need a clever way to accomplish that unless
you've managed to bring a Vita-Mix (which I've been known to do, even on airplane trips). Far
lighter than a Vita-Mix, the Blender Bottle (www.BlenderBottle.com) uses a stainless steel coil
inside a plastic shaker bottle to deliver superfood smoothies that are almost as good as
those you'd make in a blender.
The blender bottle is incredibly light, durable and easy to pack. I have one with me right now,
and I shake up 3-4 superfood drinks each day with it. While it won't blend up fruits and
vegetables, it easily blends superfood powders (including protein powder). Don't leave home
without this cool device! (And by the way, I don't mind the fact that it's made out of plastic. I
only use it when traveling. A little exposure to plastic from time to time is harmless, especially
if you're loading up with superfoods.)
Tip #4: Carefully Choose Your Supplements, and Bring Them in Plastic Bottles, Not
Glass
Speaking of glass, while I prefer to store nutritional products in glass bottles at home, when
I'm on the road, I carry them in either plastic bottles or plastic bags. Yes, I don't like plastic,
either, but for traveling there's simply no replacement. They're light and virtually
unbreakable. You don't want to find glass shards in your suitcase after you claim it at
baggage check do you?
Tip #5: Bring a Gravity-Fed Countertop Water Filter (Brita, Pur, etc.)
A gravity-fed countertop water filter will let you "make" clean water just about anywhere. Just
fill it up with your hotel's tap water and wait for filtered water to appear in the container. This
is the water you'll use to make your superfoods.
Yes, I know: It's not the best water in the world. If you want the best water, build a log cabin
near an artesian well somewhere and drink your artesian water out of glass jars. But for
those who need to travel, a countertop Brita filter will remove chlorine and other pollutants,
giving you safe water to drink without forcing you to buy the hotel's water (which is at least
triple the cost of gasoline, by the way).
Brita water filters are incredibly light, too. You can even pack other gear inside them, such as
your toothbrush, Dr. Bronner's soap, and other personal care products.
Tip #6: Bring Some Organic Food Bars or Other Healthy, Portable Foods
As you've no doubt noticed, airplane food is mostly junk food filled with chemicals (unless you
sit in first class, in which case it will be gourmet food filled with chemicals). So unless you
want to destroy your health before you arrive at your destination, bring your own food and
avoid the toxic food items handed out to all the other clueless passengers (who will
apparently eat anything handed to them in a pretty wrapper...)
What to bring? Healthy food bars, of course! My favorites are the Organic Food Bar (www.
OrganicFoodBar.com) and the Greens+ High Protein Food Bar (www.GreensPlus.com). I've
also found some truly awesome raw food snacks from a new company called RawPhoriaLIVE
(www.RawPhoriaLive.com). Their RawNola (raw granola) products are absolutely perfect for
traveling. And they're outrageously delicious. (Their website isn't ready to take orders yet,
but they do list phone numbers if you want to order from them by phone.)
Some other things to bring are raw nuts from www.TransitionNutrition.com and a great new
product I've discovered called Barney Butter (www.BarneyButter.com), which is a super
delicious almond butter in a convenient travel pack. Just squeeze it onto raw cashews and
you'll enjoy a super healthy snack while the passengers next to you lick the salt crumbs out
of their pitiful peanut baggies...
Tip #7: Seek Out the Healthiest Food You Can Find
Once you arrive at your destination, don't leap to the local all-you-can-eat processed food
bar; get to a Whole Foods or even just a regular grocery store where you can buy some
fresh produce. Even if you can't find organic, just get something fresh. Non-organic produce
is still better than any processed food.
Even if you don't have a small refrigerator in your hotel room, you can still load up on
oranges, melons and a few fresh items that will last a day or two without refrigeration. For
those times when I'm completely out of fresh produce options, I like to buy almond milk and
puffed kamut cereal, then I stir some SunWarrior protein into a bowl of kamut to make a high-
protein cereal snack. It isn't raw, and it's not fresh, but it's not bad for food on the road. It
certainly beats the $15 scrambled eggs offered by your hotel's room service menu (which are
probably scrambled on Teflon pans, by the way...)
Tip #8: Bring a Jump Rope, Yoga Mat, or Swimsuit to Stay Active
Staying active is key to staying healthy on any trip -- and perhaps not for the reasons you
suspect. I think one of the best advantages of exercise while traveling is that your body
sweats out toxins as you work your cardio. This will eliminate toxic chemicals through your
sweat glands (sweating is one of the best detox strategies of all!)
So the key here is not necessarily to work you heart or muscles, but to sweat as much as
possible while replenishing your body with healthy fluids (the superfood drinks you made,
above).
Of course, exercise also reduces stress and enhances your mood, and that tends to make
your travel a lot more enjoyable in the first place.
Tip #9: Get Into Nature
Wherever you go, find a park, beach, lake or forest where you can chill out and soak up
some nature. Just getting outside and breathing some fresh air can make a huge difference
in your stress levels, so make a point to get into nature wherever you go. Even New York has
parks!
Also, be sure to open your hotel room window shades before going to sleep so that the
morning light comes through and resets your circadian rhythm to be in sync with the local
time. This therapeutic use of light is key to getting your body in sync with reality. If your hotel
room is pitch dark because you've closed the heavy blinds, your brain will never get the
signal that it's time to produce "wake me up hormones!"
Tip #10: Have Emergency First-Aid Herbs on Hand
I recommend traveling with a 1 oz. tincture bottle of cayenne pepper, plus some other herbs
such as:
• Peppermint (for digestion)
• Ginger (for motion sickness and immune boosting)
• Aloe vera gel (for digestion and anti-viral uses) (www.GoodCauseWellness.com)
• Yun Nan Bai Yao - This is an amazing Traditional Chinese Medicine remedy that stops
bleeding! It's a formula that was developed in 1902, and it has an astounding ability to stop
bleeding from cuts, scrapes and other wounds.
All emergency rooms should use Yun Nan Bai Yao, but of course western medical people are
clueless about any systems of medicine they didn't invent themselves, so they remain
ignorant of Yun Nan Bai Yao. You'll have to visit a Chinese medicine store to find this. Ask for
it by name. Learn more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunnan_Baiyao
Tip #11: Bring Your Own Personal Care Products
Don't rely on the shampoo and soap in the hotel. Those products are loaded with toxic
fragrance chemicals (even in "green" hotels, which aren't really green, by the way). Instead,
bring you own personal care products.
Here are some of the ones I bring:
• Dr. Bronner's soap (www.DrBronner.com) - For washing your hands, face and body. I even
use it as a shampoo.
• Toothsoap (www.Toothsoap.com) - Better than toothpaste. Simple, natural and portable. I
like the "Plain Jane" variety.
• Dental Miracle (www.DentalMiracle.com) - Herbal tooth powder. Great for traveling. Fights
gum disease and other oral health problems.
• Peri-Gum (www.Peri-Gum.com) - A cayenne-based herbal mouthwash with multiple
medicinal herbs. Fantastic for rinsing your mouth after brushing your teeth.
• Natural Sunscreen - I don't use sunscreen, but if you want to, bring a natural brand. It's
virtually impossible to find natural sunscreen products on the road (even from health food
stores!). The most natural brand I've seen yet is called Caribbean Blue (www.
GoCaribbeanBlue.com)
Tip #12: Bring Your Own Natural Laundry Detergent
If you're going to do laundry at your destination and you don't want to use the toxic
chemically-contaminated detergents offered for sale at retail, you'll need your own laundry
detergent. Naturally, I hope you choose my own brand -- Bodhi Soap Nuts, which you'll find at
www.BetterLifeGoods.com -- but there are other great brands out there, too, including
Seventh Generation, Maggie's Soap Nuts and other eco-conscious laundry soaps.
The important thing here is to avoid toxic, brand-name laundry products. Nearly all
conventional laundry products contain cancer-causing chemicals that are not only terrible for
your own health; they're also disastrous for the environment when flushed downstream!
What About the "Airborne" Supplement?
Is the "Airborne" supplement any good? It's the one that claims to be "created by a
schoolteacher."
To answer this question, just read the ingredients yourself. You'll find that Airborne contains
aspartame. Any "health" product made with aspartame is, in my opinion, a complete joke.
Don't waste your time (or money) on Airborne.