Hands-On Healing Remedies

January 1, 2013

Herbalist Tourles (Raw Energy: 124 Raw Food Recipes for Energy Bars, Smoothies, and Other Snacks to Supercharge Your Body) offers an introduction to natural wellness in this latest book, the bulk of which is made up of instructions for making topical ointments and poultices from herbs and oils. Her remedies address everything from anxiety to eczema. Tourles writes about the history of herbal remedies and her own family's experience with herbs and holistic remedies. She challenges readers to examine the over-the-counter treatments in their medicine cabinets and compare them with the natural remedies she describes. While Tourles writes that she isn't trying to challenge Western medicine's approach to serious illness or injuries, she does say that many modern ills could be prevented "if we once again relied on our plant friends, the herbs, to influence our health and well-being." VERDICT This herbal remedy recipe book will appeal to readers interested in supplementing traditional care with herbal preparations, as well as to those who would like to take a more active role in their own treatment.--Mindy Rhiger, Minneapolis

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