Lalitha Thomas

Travel Healthy, The Smart Traveler's Guide to Staying Well Anywhere Lalitha Thomas

My approach to maintaining vibrant health in travel evolves from a lifetime of experience as an herbalist and healer, together with the important lessons learned in my own extensive trips throughout the U. S., Europe, Mexico, Canada and India, both alone and with groups of children. In the last year alone, for instance, my work has taken me to Germany once and France twice. I've flown to Vancouver, BC from my home in Arizona, three times. I've driven to Los Angeles once, and just getting from my remote desert home to the airport is three hours each way, not to mention the hour-long one-way trip to get to town. My two previous books, 10 Essential Herbs (One World Press, Chino Valley, Arizona, 2010 and 10 Essential Foods (1999) detail my system of dynamic nutrition and healthcare. I highly recommend these books to you before you set out on your next great travel adventure, as they will enhance everything in this book. Ever since I was a child I have been insatiably curious about my body's processes. I like to experiment, always trying to get a little more energy here, a little less stress there, more digestive power and quicker recovery. As a result I've discovered healthy energy boosters, "fixer-uppers" to soothe the ill effects of dietary and emotional habits. I've mixed up simple tonics and elixirs for all sorts of needs, for myself and others, and consider myself a veteran in the department of "Superfoods"-those foods that are especially concentrated in a "small package" from Nature; power-packed with nutrition, including necessary vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and enzymes, along with rejuvenating phytochemicals and antioxidants. Two famous Superfoods include spirulina algae and honeybee pollen. You will read all about them in Chapter 4. My experimenting is sometimes criticized by those who want to "go with the conventional flow" as they travel. But I don't support that approach. Even "fun" can take its toll on our health. I think that preparation is a sign of maturity and wisdom. Planning ahead for health preservation despite a late-night party, a weekend-long feast, weeks of trekking, or numerous high-stress business gatherings can eliminate or at least mitigate the hangovers, bouts of indigestion, exhaustion or frazzled nerves. As far as I'm concerned it is certainly worth the effort.