minor adjustments

Just giving you the latest and greatest on my detox week after checking in with my naturopath ('my naturopath' sounds very herbal doesn't it?). She reckons that it's a great idea for a week or two, especially in warm weather, and said 'the body always appreciates having a rest from all the packet foods' (which I thought was cute).

She confirmed that raw fruits, nuts and veg is fine, and will be balanced nutrient wise. She suggested I not eat the dried fruit (I was having figs) as they are too rich for a light cleansing diet (and poss take too long to digest comparedto the rest?). She said fresh juices also good (although I personally prefer to eat the whole fuit - less waste and you get all the fibre etc too), and suggested a cup of warm water in the morning and at night - arruyvedic medicine is keen on the cleansing properties of this apparently.

While there I checked out the white spots on my fingernails (you know the kind? I have a couple) because she flagged before that they can be linked to nutrient deficiency. She confirmed this and said I might want to try getting more zinc, and that peppitas (pumkin seeds) are very good for this.

She always checks my meridians at the start of a session (think having your pulse taken at different places up your wrist) and as per usual my kidney one was a bit low (mind you liver was ok this time - maybe thanks to alcohol free couple of weeks??). For improving kidney function she suggested making sure celery is part of my food this week (oops, is now), and later when I'm cooking again to have adzuki beans (apparently very easy to digest, good for kidneys) and sea weeds. Bring on the miso soups I say. Oh, on all that, another sneaky tip the girl at the food co-op gave me was that if you cook your adzuki beans* (which lets face it I hadn't even bought let alone cooked before) with a little square of kombu sea weed in the cooking water, the minerals from the sea weed jump out and mingle with your bean mix - et voila! Unobtrusive seaweedy goodness. Food co-op grrl was so keen on adzuki beans she was very excited telling me all about them, she even thanked me for asking because it has reminded to her to eat more of them. Huh - and there I was thinking the food co-op staff would go "you mean you've never eaten them before???? Out out you coles-shopping pseudo co-op supporting adzuki bean virgin"...but not at all. See - pays to ask.

Just thought I'd share that as a community service announcement in case anyone was thinking of following suit. Would hate for you to be eating dried figs by the handful and skipping your celery :)

* Otherwise cook as per any other beans- soak overnight, or at least 5 hours, cook for around 45 mins. The 'd' is silent I think.