Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard
This illustration was published three years ago at the beginning of the pandemic in my Image of the Week art newsletter as a symbol of internal strength. Durga-Ma, as she is known in India, is a powerful goddess of the Hindu pantheon who rides a lion or tiger. She is a warrioress who holds a different weapon or tool in each of her multiple hands to fight a mythic buffalo demon – which she does not with brute force, but with feminine wisdom and sacred sounds.
Over thirty years ago I was given this name at a Hindu kirtan, and used it as a pen name on many of my children’s books. I’m not Hindu, and don’t much identify with the name Durga, but as the pandemic closed in she seemed like an appropriate symbol. The world was threatened by a new demon that seemed both mythic in its proportions and frighteningly real: the coronavirus.
My personal health views hold that the greatest protection against infectious illness lies not in avoiding exposure but in cultivating robust immunity, for the soil upon which a seed falls determines as much, if not more, than the seed itself. My goddess-warrior demonstrates this belief as she hails the weapons and tools of an anti-inflammatory, anti-viral lifestyle. These are the elements I strive to embrace in my own diet, emerging from four decades of studying medicinal herbs and nutrition – the building blocks of good underlying health, or as the pedestal of the goddess proclaims, robust resilience. I believe this is the best way to support a healthy immune response that builds natural, superior, and enduring immunity.
I was fortunate to acquire such immunity against the Delta variant in the autumn of 2021. I haven’t been sick again since, despite repeated exposure to the virus, including in my own home and caring for a very sick friend. Lately a number of people I know have been sick with Covid, so I wish to offer this goddess again, with her panoply of health resources.
Starting at the top, she is crowned with an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits to supply vital macro and micronutrients in their whole and natural form: celery, for its alkalinity; beets, for their vibrant purple phytonutrients; mustard greens, kale, beet greens and lettuce, for their fiber, folate, vitamins and minerals; carrots and butternut squash for their carotenoids (to form immune-boosting vitamin A); raw garlic for its anti-viral properties, prebiotic fiber and vascular-relaxing nitric oxide; and apples for their vitamin C, healthy carbohydrates, fiber, and anti-inflammatory quercetin.
Moving clockwise:
• oranges and other citrus fruit in their whole form (not juiced) for their abundant vitamin C and fiber;
• kimchi for its fermented antimicrobial fighting power (may help prevent UTIs, too);
• blueberries for their immune-enhancing antioxidants and brain-boosting anthocyanins;
• lemons for their alkalinizing effect, vitamin C, vitamin A, and potassium;
• liquid extracts of reishi mushroom, olive leaf, and turkey tail mushroom for their immune-enhancing, anti-coagulant, anti-hypertensive, adaptogenic benefits;1
• goat dairy for its easily-digested protein (lacking the caseins that make cow's milk problematic), highly absorbable calcium, and therapeutic effect on the intestines;
• wild-caught sardines for their anti-inflammatory omega-3 essential fatty acids, vitamin B12 and B6, protein, selenium, vitamin D, and potassium;
• yams, whose brilliant orange color is a great source of vitamins A, B6, C, and more.
These are among my favorite allies. Sunshine, too, showers upon this goddess, as it plays a crucial role in immunity by providing vitamin D (just five minutes per day without sunscreen, or 20 minutes with, depending on the time of year and latitude where you live) and by lifting our spirits.
Also shown are the enemies of strong immunity, crushed under the lion's feet – from left to right: sugar in all its forms, tobacco, soft drinks, and alcohol. Especially during times of infectious disease, a foundation of good health includes the elimination of these foods that weaken the immune system; drain the body's energy reserves; stress the liver and kidneys; promote inflammation; acidify the digestive tract; and create an environment in which viruses, bacteria, and even cancer may thrive.
Of course I could have added many more examples of good and bad foods. These are just a few of the tools that empower my quest for good health, and may enrich and fortify yours. Food is medicine (even the medicinal extracts shown here have nutritional properties), and makes up the soil in which human health is rooted – and upon which the inevitable foreign invaders land. We reap what we sow from what we cultivate. We have the power not only to fight sickness, but to create good health!
Thanks to Simon & Garfunkel for their song "Me & Julio Down By the School Yard" with the lyrics "Queen of Corona” that sparked the idea for my colorful queen. I listened to it while working on this illustration. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was helpful, too.
To your good health –
D. Yael Bernhard
Certified Integrative Health & Nutrition Coach
In addition to being a health coach, Yael Bernhard is a writer, illustrator, book designer and fine art painter with a lifelong passion for nutrition and herbal medicine. She was certified by Duke University as an Integrative Health Coach in 2021 and by Cornell University in Nutrition & Healthy Living in 2022. For information about private health coaching or nutrition programs for schools, please respond directly to this newsletter, or email dyaelbernhard@protonmail.com. Her art newsletter, “Image of the Week,” may be found here. Visit her online gallery of illustration, fine art, and children’s books here.
Information in this newsletter is provided for educational – and inspirational – purposes only.
Rogers, Robert, Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms & Lichens of North America, North Atlantic Books, 2011; Walker, Dr. Martin, Olive Leaf Extract, Kensington Books, 1997; and Powell, Martin, Medicinal Mushrooms: The Clinical Guide, Mycology Press, 2nd Edition, 2014.