Fasting with the Seasons and Detoxifying Foods
As spring has sprung I’m feeling a serious need to some spring cleaning, not just in my home, but my body! Dr. Sachi (A Doctor of Oriental Medicine- whom you may remember from our last interview: Fit, Fabulous, Over 50…and Sharing Secrets!!) runs many fasting retreats and shares some tips with us below:
In Dr. Sachi’s Words:
I’m often doing a detox- no one can avoid it now, especially children. ADD and autism are mostly due to deficiency and toxicity of our environment.
Children need to start eating detoxifying foods such as bitter greens that support liver function at a young age, otherwise it’s very hard getting a small child to eat such things!
The liver is the largest organ responsible for detoxification. Things that support liver function for example are:
- dandelion
- milk thistle
- broccoli rabe
- basically most things with bitter tastes
In Chinese Medicine, meals should have all 5 elements. Bitter is one of them!
Speaking of, check out my Endive Quinoa recipe that balances bitter and sweet!
Parasite Cleansing.
After the importance of cleansing the liver we need to consider parasites in our intestines. We have a higher incidence of parasites due to travel and imported produce. It used to be we only dealt with our own parasites, but now we are getting world parasites.
things that combat parasites in daily use are spices such as:
- turmeric
- garlic
- ginger
These are great detoxifiers and help to kill parasites.
Fasting
Another important key to detox is fasting. I fast one month out of the year.
Either I do:
- Three 10 day fasts
- Two 2 week or Four 1 week fasts at each season- whatever my body tells me.
During my fast I just drink liquids with lots of raw vegetable drinks. No supplements or vitamins are taken at this time.
Please read more about Sachi’s Fasting Retreats and check out her interview Fit, Fabulous, Over 50…and Sharing Secrets!!
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