Tape this Fruit to Your Navel to Prevent Motion Sickness

My husband and I were watching Jimmy Kimmel Live and Marilu Henner was on. She was the actress from the old tv series "Taxi" and is also an author of several health related books. (We rarely if ever watch this show but my husband was waiting to see the man with the longest leg hair--which was 6 inches by the way!)

Marilu was talking to Jimmy about the best thing for motion sickness. She said to tape a umeboshi plum directly to your navel. I couldn't find a video or transcript of the show but did find this interview with Harris Online where Marilu Henner talked about it.

Henner: ...But do you know what the best remedy is for seasickness? I know you're going to laugh, but this really, really works. Do you know what an umeboshi plum is?

Harris: No, I have no idea.

Henner: An umeboshi plum is a little Japanese salt plum. You get it at a health food store. The best thing for motion sickness is to take one of these plums -- which is great for anything, for balancing, for hangovers, for any time you're feeling out of sorts, you take one of these plums and eat it -- but for seasickness, you actually tape it to your belly button.

Harris: [laughs]

Henner: I'm not kidding you! This really, really works.

Harris: And the idea being, if they see you with the plum taped to your belly button, they don't let you on the boat, and that way you can't get seasick?

Henner: No, it really works. If you're going to have motion sickness on an airplane or anything, just tape that old plum to your belly button.

A word of advice I would like to add is to buy the natural colored (kinda brownish green) pickled ume or umeboshi plum and not the traditional dyed red colored umeboshi plum--you usually see them on musubi or onigiri (Japanese rice balls) like our original handmade beeswax musubi candle pictured above. I love Japanese rice "balls" which are never round (unless it is for a funeral service), and usually hand shaped into a triangle shape that fits into the cook's palm of her hand.

Anyway, the red dye used on the ume plum stains rice red, so you would look strange if you developed a radiating red ring of color around your navel.

If you are intrigued enough to try this natural remedy for motion sickness, please come back and share your results!

I posted earlier about another fruit that you can eat to prevent jet lag, and it is not recommended that you put it in your belly button. Click here to find out what fruit it is.

Comments

[kailani]

Hmmm . . . I wonder if I should keep a supply on hand for the passengers. hee hee

[Sheila]

How interesting!

[Evelyn]

OMG! Now there's a reason to take musubi on your next trip! I don't know how that would be perceived by others. They might think it's the newest fashion trend!

"We're moving from navel rings to navel fruit to enhance our cultural awareness."

Classic! Thanks for sharing that -- I sure missed that interview! Good to know! :)

[Ken]

Sorry you told us about the red dye. I would love to look around the pool on the ship and see who had bright red navels!

Immediately before I read this post I had just uploaded one on my blog about staying healthy on a cruise. No cures by crack seed, however.

[HawaiiVacationGifts]

Hi Everyone, thanks for all the comments! Yesterday I bought ume musubi for a snack and a bottle of natural pickled ume plums. (No red dye or MSG) When I got home and my husband saw it, he asked if I was planning to stick a ume in my belly button. I told him no, blogging about it made me hungry for it!

[Mauigirl]

As someone who gets pretty seasick, I don't know that I'd take a chance of relying solely on putting a plum on my belly button! But let me know if anyone tells you it works and I'll try it next time!