Make this simple cough drop with coconut oil, honey and cinnamon the moment you get a sore throat!

With winter here, the season not only brings lots of joy with the holidays, but often a number of illnesses like the flu, colds, and coughs.
While most people reach for store-bought throat lozenges to ease a cough, those often come with a number of unwanted, and potentially harmful ingredients like artificial colors and preservatives. It’s not a good idea to ingest those toxins at any time, but it’s even worse when you’re sick.

The good news is that it’s easy to make your own cough drops right at home, using just a few ingredients that are 100% safe, allowing you to treat that cough naturally, and in a more satisfying way. While it may seem unlikely, there are proven reasons behind each one of the ingredients that when combined, make this recipe extremely effective.

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil not only helps to soothe a sore throat and halt a cough, but it also helps to strengthen the immune system at the same time. It’s loaded with antioxidants and offers both antibacterial and antiviral properties.
It has a high level of lauric acid, a healthy fatty acid, that is known to fight bacteria and even create a hostile environment for viruses, which helps to support the immune system.
Coconut is actually comprised of 50 percent lauric acid, which the body converts to monolaurin, an antiviral agent that can fight off all sorts of viruses and pathogens, including HIV, herpes, influenza and harmful protozoa like Giardia lamblia.
Because coconut oil boosts the immune system, it may even help reduce the length of illness too.

Honey

 

 

Honey offers especially powerful antimicrobial and antiviral properties. In fact, its famous for its ability to naturally cure a cold and cough. In fact, scientific studies have found that honey can be just as effective for treating a cough as an over-the-counter cough medicine.
Researchers believe that it may be due in part to honey’s thick consistency, which helps to coat the throat, as well as its ability to trigger nerve endings to protect one from an unrelenting cough.
If you have a cough related to allergies, be sure to use raw honey, ideally produced locally, as it can be even more effective. That’s because the pollens that are most common to a particular area are present in honey purchased locally.
When flying from one flower to the next, the bees become covered with pollen spores, and those spores are transferred to the honey they produce. Consuming it then helps one build up immunity to what’s encountered in that environment.
A 2010 study showed that those who had been diagnosed with a birch pollen allergy were able to reduce 60 percent of their allergy symptoms as well as decrease days with severe symptoms by 70 percent by consuming the honey during birch pollen season.
The honey in this recipe not only serves as the binding ingredient to hold the cough drops together, but it also offers a sweet flavor that makes them taste great too.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon not only has an excellent taste and aroma, but this powerful spice has also been used medicinally across the globe for thousands of years. Those health benefits are derived from the bark of the Cinnamomum tree which contains a number of compounds like cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid, and cinnamate that are responsible for its health promoting abilities.
Cinnamon also offers special phenolic properties, including antioxidants and flavonoids. In fact, researchers have discovered that there are over 40 different protective compounds in this spice – which all come together to help strengthen the immune system. The oils in cinnamon can even protect against a variety of bacteria that can lead to health issues, including a cold or the flu.
Cinnamon also helps allergy sufferers as it lowers inflammation while fighting histamine reactions.

Homemade 3-Ingredient Cough Drops

These three ingredients all come together to help you create your own homemade cough drops in the recipe below.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup coconut oil (here are the best brands)
• ½ cup honey
• 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Supplies:

• Small ice cube tray
• Container for storing

Instructions:

1. Gather all ingredients and the small ice cube tray.
2. Measure and place the coconut oil into a small bowl.
3. Beat with a hand mixer until whipped.
4. Add honey and whip until coconut oil and honey are mixed.
5. Add cinnamon and mix well.
6. Pour mix into small ice cube tray.
7. Freeze for at least 2o minutes or until the are hard.
8. Pop the cough drops out of the ice cube tray and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator till needed.

Here are a few more recipes to help you soothe your cough:

• Ginger-Lemon Cough Drops
• 3 At Home Recipes To Replace Store Bought Cough Medicine
• 21 Simple Trick To Get Rid Of a Cough

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