I came home with a sore throat. My grandmother crushed a few cloves into a spoonful of honey, handed me the spoon, and said, "Slowly." She kept them in a small glass jar beside the spices and always knew when they were needed. You had someone like this too. Now you are the one deciding what your kids reach for when they are unwell. Save this for the next time a cold moves through your house. Five remedies from her kitchen, and the biology I found underneath them: 1. Cloves crushed into honey for a sore throat. ↳ Honey coats the throat. Eugenol calms it. 2. Ginger simmered with cloves after a heavy meal. ↳ Gingerol settles digestion and eases nausea. 3. Turmeric and cloves in warm milk for my grandfather's knees. ↳ Curcumin targets inflammation in the joints. 4. Warm milk with cloves on nights I could not sleep. ↳ Cues the vagus nerve that the day is over. 5. Cloves and cinnamon in tea after celebration sweets. ↳ Cinnamaldehyde steadies the sugar response. As a little boy, I never questioned any of it. It was simply what Grandma did. To everyone else, she was cooking. To me, she was teaching me that food could also be medicine. Decades later, after studying nutrition, neuroscience, and longevity, I found her kitchen inside the research. I still rely on blood tests and evidence to guide my work. But she was my first teacher in longevity. She just never called it that. You have a name for everything now. Sleep score, HRV, steps, checked before you have even sat up. When the numbers look fine and you still end the week running on empty, nobody is handing you the spoon anymore. Pick one evening ritual this week and keep it off the dashboard. ♻️ Repost this for someone who learned their first medicine in a grandmother's kitchen. 🔔 Follow Sanjiv Beri if you are a leader who tracks every number, still feels run down, and wants the biology your grandmother never needed a name for.
📌 What was the remedy in your house growing up? Every family I ask has one. The ingredients change from kitchen to kitchen. The care behind them rarely does.
Love everything except the milk. Cows' milk causes mucus, and is for baby cows, not adult humans. DO NOT drink cows' milk when you have a cold. ¡Nunca jamas! Thank you for sharing! Iháblapi čha philámayaye. (Lakota Sioux) ¡Gracias por compartir! Merci beaucoup pour ce partage. Shukran Jazilan 'ala sharafika wa musharakatik! شكرًا جزيلاً على مشاركتك! In Peace and Positive Purpose,🌸🌿📚 Lisa Fátimah © Sunday, 19 July 2026
I really enjoyed this, Sanjiv. One thing I've been thinking about lately is how we've become incredibly good at measuring health but not always at experiencing it. HRV, sleep scores, and recovery data are useful, and I use them too, but I've learned they work best when they support good habits instead of replacing them. Some of the most effective things I've done for my own wellbeing are still the simplest ones: slowing the evening down, eating mindfully, and keeping small rituals consistent.
My French grandmother taught herself to read and write - and her cooking would surpass any restaurant meal I've ever eaten, Sanjiv Beri . Her tisanes were especially powerful when I wasnt feeling well. Thank you for sharing
Food can be both medicine and disease causing. Love how your grandma passed on food as medicine to you.
Modern tools give us incredible insight into our bodies, but they can also make us forget the value of paying attention. Long before data existed, people learned through consistency, awareness, and connection. Balance comes from knowing when to measure and when to simply listen.
Sanjiv, wisdom passed down through everyday habits is worth keeping, especially when it's supported by evidence. The best routines often blend tradition with what we continue to learn through research.
The science helps explain why certain remedies work, but it also reminds us that healing often came with time, patience, and someone's full attention. Those parts are much harder to measure, yet they're still valuable today.
We obsess over tracking metrics to optimize our well-being, yet we often bypass the nervous system’s need for felt safety. When you trade the dashboard for an intentional ritual, you aren't just resting-you’re actively repatterning your internal baseline.
📌 Her remedies went far beyond a sore throat. When a cold moved through the family, cloves went into green tea or thyme tea. Bad breath after a spicy meal meant warm lemon with cloves. She even had us using cloves with coconut oil for oral hygiene long before anyone called it oil pulling. All of it came out of one jar.