It’s almost spring. Which, for all kinds of reasons, is a good time to get fresh with our foods and clean things up a bit. Our bodies respond so well at this time of year to a “cleanse” – it shakes us from the winter heaviness and gets us digesting light and breezily ready for the heat. Oh yes, heat!
From an ayurvedic POV, it’s all about enlivening kaphic energy (spring needs an alert kaphic energy to withstand the dampness). (I’ve written rundowns on ayurvedic doshas, and the vata effect previously)
Personally, I’m not a massive fan of full-on, restrictive eating detoxes. And, indeed, it’s the principle behind the new show I host Eat Yourself Sexy, which launches THIS THURSDAY!!! Our bodies naturally detox far better when fed good food, aided with a few tricks. Honestly, eating our way through a clean out is soooo much more fun.
If you feel like cleaning things out ready for the warmer weather, a few tricks and recipes (and please add your own ideas at the bottom…these are just the things I’m going to be doing):
1. Get plenty of sleep – our bodies detox throughout the night. We need to get to bed by 10pm to align with the detox/cell regeneration processes throughout the night.
2. Eat ginger. And other digestive herbs and spices as much as you can: cumin, fennel, cayenne pepper, turmeric.
3. Drink digestive teas. Licorice, fennel, mint, dandelion…
4. Eat green. As much as you can. Green cleans. Silverbeet, spinach, kale, broccoli…and be sure to start to move into the cooler green things as the weather warms: avocado and cucumber, mint and parsley. I love this recipe for rawvocado soup from wholeliving (pic above). It pretty much combines the top cleansing ingredients in the one little package….
Chilled ‘Rawvocado’ Soup with Coconut Water
This recipe makes two servings. If you want more soup, double the amounts accordingly.
- 2 large, ripe avocados
- 1 cup coconut water (you could also use nut milk or filtered water)
- juice of 1 lime (about 4 tablespoons)
- ½ cup coriander leaves
- ¼ cup chives
- 1 shallot, minced
- pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
Cut open and pit avocados. Scoop out flesh, reserving a small portion of one half for garnish.
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend on high until smooth. If the soup is too thick, add more coconut water until the desired consistency is reached (it should coat the back of a spoon, but not be solid).
Pour into a large jar with a tight-fitting lid and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Serve when cold. Garnish with avocado cubes and chives or coriander.
5. Chlorella is great. The benefits are these:
- strengthens the immune system
- promotes bowel health
- helps to detoxify the body
- cleanses the blood stream, liver, and kidneys
- increases oxygen to your body’s cells and brain
- fights infection
- slowing cellular damage
- aiding wound healing by stimulating new cell growth
- builds blood
- helps to eliminate mouth and body odors
- helps raise the pH of your body to a more alkaline state
- promotes the production of friendly flora in your gastrointestinal tract
- helps to counteract the fatigue and mood swings associated with PMS
But be careful…it’s quite strong and can sweep things out a little too fast. You can read about my experience here. I love that mynewroots has developed some recipes for incorporating it into meals….
Green dream chlorella cream
Start with just a teaspoon of chlorella, taste, and work your way up to your flavour tolerance. Start slow and build your taste for it. Your body will tell you when you’re ready to up the ante.
- ½ cup raw liquid honey (sugar-free kids, you might like to use stevia)
- 1-3 tsp. chlorella
- 2-4 Tbsp. raw tahini
Place honey in a bowl and whisk in chlorella until thoroughly combined.
Add the tahini, one tablespoon at a time and whisk. You can add as much tahini as you like, but I find the cream tends to become quite solid if I put in too much.
Store chlorella cream in the fridge, either in a squeeze bottle for optimal drizzle action, or in a glass jar.
6. Keen for more green, try Vital Greens. I personally love this stuff and it’s soooo good when you’re travelling and finding it tough to get veggies into your gullet (and/or not functioning too well in the bowel movement department…which is what happens for me when I travel…I share my healthy travel tips here). A teaspoon or two in water, or in a smoothie, in the morning and it gets everything slipping through a treat. There are a range of different versions of this kind of green powder on the market…I’m sure they’re all pretty good, but ask the person in the health food shop what they think (and look out for sugar!).
7. And for even more green…herbs are mean. I like this recipe below for a coriander pesto. Coriander is particularly good for detoxing and chelating. Or simply add large handfuls or parsley or basil into your meals. I toss huge handfuls through almost every meal (and heat it a little – sweat it in the sauce – or toss into the stirfry, rather than adding after - to make it easier to eat).
Coriander Pesto
- 4 bunches fresh coriander
- 1 peeled medium sweet onion
- Juice of 3 lemons
- ¼ cup toasted pine nuts (optional)
- ¼ tsp. ground cayenne
- 2-3 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. agave nectar or honey
- Salt to taste
Trim ends off coriander bunches and place them in a large bowl of fresh water, dunking them several times.
Drain water and repeat once more to be sure that all of the dirt has been removed.
In a blender, puree onion in lemon juice.Add coriander (both leaves and stems), and remaining ingredients to blender and blend until mix is uniformly green.Salt to taste.
8. Go alkaline. That is, eat less acidic foods – meat, sugar, tomato, caffeine, oranges, potato, eggplant, capsicum, vinegar. Just reading this list you can see that these foods are cold weather foods. Lemon juice in hot water is a great way to alkalise your system each morning. Or you can use organic apple cider vinegar. Note: lemon juice and apple cider vinegar alkalise the system when consumed. Hard to get the head around, but true.
9. Juice detoxes can work well. They can kick start things if you’ve been over-indulging over winter – they help you switch gears. Be sure to ask that they are not restrictive calorically (ie that they still add up to about 1600 calories a day… starving yourself sets you up for drama) and contain healthy fat (via nut milks and coconut water) and not too much fruit sugar (ie are mostly green veggie juices). For more, I’ve written about some juice detoxes I’ve tried here and here.
10. So can detox retreats and detox food programs. The kind that involve eating, that is. I truly believe the best way to detox is to nourish your body and it will do the work for you. If you restrict yourself too much, the body goes into “freak out ” flight/fight mode and will do strange things. So a retreat, like this one, or a food delivery program, like Eat Fit Food, is a good way to go because they do just that…with controlled calories. They’re like a run-up for good eating through summer.
11. While detoxing... 1. move. As toxins releasing you need to keep them moving around and out – exercise and get massages if need be and budget affords. 2. sweat. As above – you want to get the crap out. Exercise and steam rooms are great. 3. Drink a shit-load of water.
I know many of you are healthy food types…what do you love to do when going clean and green?
This was really interesting! Have to disagree that tomatoes and eggplant are cold weather foods – I come from a family of mad keen gardeners and tomatoes are at their most gorgeous in late summer, eggplant from summer-autumn. I think having them available everywhere all year round confuses people as to when they are actually in season. Do you think dairy foods are acid forming? Most lists have it right up the top but I noticed you left it off (which is good because I love the stuff!)
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August 23rd, 2011 at 11:31 am
Hey Alex, I’m not saying they’re cold weather foods – def summer produce – but that they are acidic (they’re both deadly nightshades).
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Sarah when do you think is the best time to drink chlorella? I was taking it after my morning drink of lemon in hot water.
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Thanks Sarah for these great tips! I was just thinking this morning how I could perk up my diet. I’ve been feeling a bit blah and was hoping to get some tips on increasing my energy levels and hopefully having some spring in my step. I love your suggestions of increasing my greens…all sorts of greens too including fresh herbs which I sometimes forget. So dissappointed I don’t have Foxtel and won’t be able to watch your new show to get some more tips!
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Thanks Sarah, you must have read my mind. And I gotta say, I LOVE your sensible approach. Drinking peppery sugared lemon water and no food for a week is hardly something that I can see myself having any positive benefits from (not to mention any specific “detox” diets, ahem!) so it is great to see some sensible ideas. I like that you can tweak your diet slightly and still get ample nutrition plus some great detoxification benefits.
I would love to hear if you or anybody else has had any experience, positive or negative, with supplements? I used to know a nutritionist who swore by the Fusion brand Detox vitamins, but I have never actually tried it myself.
Great article! I am really looking forward to everyone else’s responses!!
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August 23rd, 2011 at 11:32 am
My approach: use food instead of supplements, unless you’ve got a REAL deficiency. You have to eat anyway…so adjust your food…cheaper!
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August 23rd, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Wise words.
Save money for the Vital Greens.
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The other thing to note as well is that you shouldn’t take chlorella around the same time as you take precription meds because of the intense ‘sweeping out poisons’ from your body thing.
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Has anyone on here tried the Clean Program: http://www.cleanprogram.com/cleanses ?
I’d love to hear some thoughts…….
I’m currently trying to decide between that one or the Lucky You juice cleansing program: http://www.luckyyoucleanse.com.au
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Hi Sarah
I just read your OK mag online article. You mentioned a possible bike ride in Spain next year. Out of interest, do you take your own bike with you or rent/buy one when you go on big o’seas rides? I am looking at a European bike ride next year and trying to work out logistics etc.
And also, do you take camping gear on your rides or stay in B&Bs/hotels?
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August 23rd, 2011 at 5:02 pm
I’ve always taken my own bike and taken panniers. I’m not sure if I’ll camp this time…might do it in style!
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Thanks for some great tips and reminders…..well timed too! Is there any chlorella brand you prefer?
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does Chlorella come in powder form? where do you buy from? how do you use? would love to start eating this but after a google search, I could only find supplements. What brand do you buy and find is the best quality? how do you incorporate into food? where do you buy from? I’m in Inner West Sydney. Sorry for the bombardment of questions
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August 23rd, 2011 at 3:04 pm
I was just at my local health food shop (in little old Perth, so if we have it you Sydney folk definitely should!) and they had several chlorella powders. The Vital Greens powder has chlorella in, as do a lot of other green powders, or you can get it on its own. I went with the Vital Greens cos it has probiotics and other marvelous herbs also. You can have it in smoothies, on yoghurt, or just plain in water. I quizzed the sales chick. Hope that helps.
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August 23rd, 2011 at 5:34 pm
thanks for your help. i checked out go vita on oxford street (darlinghurst) and they had a few different products. i got the vital greens powder as well. so many good things in that. i got so excited! haha. can’t wait for the weather to warm up and try this amazing soup. thanks again for all your help!
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August 23rd, 2011 at 5:03 pm
I sue Melrose powder…
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August 23rd, 2011 at 10:03 pm
Me too. And bonus points – It’s organic. =)
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Hi Sarah,
Just wanted to say I can’t WAIT for your show to start this week.
Oh, and re green drinks – my fave is completely boring; I just blend green powders with ice, half a lemon, and cinnamon. So yummy!
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Ginger is not only darn good for you, the aroma of it when cooking with it is simply divine! I use it in a marinade I just love:
2-3 cloves crushed garlic (homegrown organic for preference – easy as anything to grow!)
2 teaspoons crushed ginger
2 teaspoons crushed chilli (I use one my housemate made – hot and delic!)
3-4 tablespoons light soy sauce
A little water can help thin down the sometimes over-powering soy taste
Chuck it all in a plastic bag, add meat (beef goes great with this), squish it all up so meat is well covered then leave in fridge for at least an hour. The smell while cooking is almost as good as the eating! And the bag can be washed up with the dishes and reused.
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Hi Sarah,
Interesting your point about drinking a shit-load of water. Did you read that article in the Sunday Herald mag recently about the need to drink so much water being a myth?
Amanda
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when you’re detoxing you need to…but I agree, i think some people take it too far.
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Curious question – I am having my amalgam (mercury) fillings removed next week, should I be laying off the chlorella until AFTER then? I have heard some horror stories about the mercury being released into the blood during removal. Where would I find more information on this?
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September 29th, 2011 at 10:33 am
HI Mia,
I just had the last of my amalgams removed and used chlorella before and after the procedure. Mercury has a half life of 40-60 days in the body (ie it takes that long for at least half of it to leave your system), so a few months on chlorella would be a good strategy.
Good luck
Sally (naturopath)
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Hello.
I am in London, and have just started on the Vital Greens after taking it here – I have an underactive thyroid, so I am hoping they make a bit of a difference to my health. Not cheap, but then health is more important.
How many other people take them and what are your experiences?
As usual, love this blog, and gutted I won’t be able to watch Eat Yourself Sexy – hopefully it will hit the UK eventually!
xx
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You call your vagina ‘Gary’?! You must be smokin’ the funny stuff up in Byron.
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Ah spring! You lucky Antipodeans. Autumn is coming with a vengeance here….
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Try this to drink first thing in the morning…..pour hot water over grated fresh ginger, squeezed fresh lemon, organic cider vinegar and maybe manuka honey added if you are not totally off the sugar. Many people i know swear by the positive effects of manuka honey. My grandmother who died several years ago at 93 had this every morning for years and she was never sick, although she didn’t include the ginger in it – I love the kick the ginger gives it.
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I love the idea of eating more greens, I’ve been making green smoothies everyday for a few weeks now and can feel the difference for sure, I mainly use Kale for the ‘green’ but spinach is also great, plus when it’s blended with fruit like bananas and berries you can hardly taste the greens. Love adding things like chia seeds to it as well.
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I just ate fit foods – and it was an awesome way too rid myself of some toxitity and the team were just gorgeous. Lovely dealing with love…x
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[...] This is a great time to up the raw food content. I’m a big fan of Ayurvedic medicine and the discipline advises eating cooling foods in summer – cucumber, avocado, green salads. This recipe is an all-time favourite of mine…it heals and soothes and cleans. Full recipe here. [...]
Im not a fan of tahini I wonder if I could sub sunflower seed butter for the tahini in the chlorella.
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Hey Sarah, I was wondering if you had an opinion on Vital Greens so I googled it alongside your name and voila!
I was just wondering, is the vital greens suitable during the 8 week I Quit Sugar program? I usually have it and love it!
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