Feeling Good
Boosting Your Immune System in California Adventure District…
One of the valuable lessons we are learning during this season is the importance of building a strong, natural immune system. Luckily for us, we live in a region where we can easily make some minor adjustments, if need be, to live a healthier life.
OUR NATIONAL FORESTS – Northern California is known to have some of the best air quality around, fires notwithstanding, and getting outside all year round is a wonderful thing to be able to do. California Adventure District has six national forests which provide ample opportunity to become one with nature. Planning multi-day trips into any of our forests and planting your bare feet onto the soil is a wonderful way to reconnect your body and soul to the earth and recharge your system. Forest bathing is one of the pillars of the California Adventure District’s mission. It turns out that we know very little about trees, but with the help of some modern-day medical insights, we can test our blood before and after spending three days or more in a dense forest environment, and the results are significant. Allowing our skin to feed off the vapors coming out of the redwood trees, for example, cleans and nourishes our blood in measurable ways.
ORGANIC FOODS – California Adventure District has some fantastic farmers markets with great natural and organic foods, all sourced and grown locally. The ones in Redding, Arcata, Crescent City and Mendocino are well worth the effort to visit, and to stock up on fresh goodies like eggs, cheeses, breads, nuts, grains, veggies, herbs and tons of fruit. The Arcata Farmers Market is so popular that there’s a waiting list to have a stand. In Shasta County you can reach out to and visit Providence Riverland Agriculture Regeneration Farm, a local initiative aimed at providing training and job opportunities for economically disadvantaged individuals in the area of agriculture. Organic foods are grown and made available here. There are hundreds of local small businesses throughout the district that specialize in natural and organic foods; with a little effort, one could bypass the giant supermarkets altogether. And don’t miss Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate in Eureka.
MOUNTAIN WATER – Once you taste the fresh water from the many running springs coming directly out of Mt. Shasta, even the fanciest of bottled water will no longer suffice. Many flatlanders make the trek up to Mt. Shasta with empty water jugs to fill them up directly from the flowing springs coming up out of the ground. Drinking this water for the first time sends a signal to your brain that says, “Ah, this is what water should taste like…”
OCEAN AIR- It’s no secret that breathing ocean air and putting your feet in the surf is a great boost to the system, and with 320 miles of incredible Northern California coastline, California Adventure District has many beaches to visit in Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties.
THE SUN – And finally, sunlight. Sunlight is the not-so-new buzzword being used as one of the ultimate boosts to our immune system, and lucky for us, we have plenty of it. Regular exposure to sunlight, in healthy doses of course, significantly helps with the natural supply of Vitamin D. Shasta County and the rest of the northern Sacramento Valley is known for long, hot summers, with Redding having an average of 249 sunny days per year, which is 44 days more than the U.S. average of 205.
So go out and boost your natural immune system in the California Adventure District, and buy some killer chocolate in the process. •
