I hope you have had a wonderful Holiday full of celebrating and spreading good cheer and spirit with your friends and family. Now is a great opportunity to pamper ourselves with a gentle cleanse giving ourselves a break from the high sugar, fat, low fiber and artificial additives diet we consume during the holidays. January and February, with the abundance of citrus fruits we have here in the desert, is a perfect time for a Liver Flush.
Choosing to give our bodies the opportunity to clean out is extremely beneficial. The debris from any non nutritive, refined substances and added hydrogenated fats in our foods creates mucus or catarrh in our systems. These warm, moist, thick, congested areas are the perfect environment for opportunistic organism to take up residence. These “visitors” can take hold and overwhelm our immune system especially if we have been feeling stressed. When we are stressed and have over indulged in sugar and caffeine our body functions with it’s sympathetic, fight/flight, nervous system which down regulates our cell mediated immunity, our secondary line of defense. In this stress state we can begin to experience symptoms of “catching a cold” or “coming down with the flue” when in actuality we have hosted these organisms, giving them a warm place to stay and wonderful garbage to eat. Our visitors are alerting our body’s intelligence that we have quite an accumulation of waste material that these opportunistic critters have taken advantage of. This is a “Healing Crisis” and is signaling us to clean up our inner environment.
Before we find ourselves in a “Healing Crisis” we can make the choice to cleanse and get rid of the accumulated residue. We can decide to take the time to deep clean and rinse so our inner habitat is not as inviting to unwanted colonization. Using the seasonal abundance of citrus in the Liver Flush helps bring us into harmony with our outer environment as we are cleaning up our inner environment.
Begin by preparing the Liver Flush Tea.
- Into 2-3 quarts of water add 1 heaping tablespoon each of:
- Licorice Root
- Fennel Seeds
- Bringing them to a gentle boil for 5-10 min.
- Decrease the heat adding the same amount (l heaping tablespoon) of
- Fenugreek Seeds
- Flax Seeds
- Let them all simmer 5-10 min.
- Now add l heaping tablespoon of Peppermint Leaf
- Turn off the heat and steep 5-10 min.
Drink 1-2 cups after your have your Liver Flush each morning.
You can store the extra tea in the refrigerator.
Now the Liver Flush:
- Freshly squeeze 8-10 oz of organic citrus juice.
- Combinations of any of the following:
- grapefruit, orange, blood orange, tangelo, or tangerine are lovely.
- Put the juice in a blender adding:
- 1 large lemon, juiced (the Meyer Lemons are super for this)
- Ginger root, about an inch fresh grated
- OR a large clove of garlic
- Olive oil, 1 tablespoon
- Cayenne, just a pinch
Blend it all up and enjoy this zesty drink on an empty stomach followed by 1-2 cups of the Liver Flush Tea.
Refrain from eating for about one hour after drinking the Liver Flush and Tea. Prepare and drink this each morning for a week, or up to month, and notice the wonderful results.
The Liver filters the blood so this Flush has a systemic effect like putting a new oil filter on your car. The herbs in the Liver Flush Tea, especially the Flax and Fenugreek, are mucilaginous and very soothing to the intestinal walls helping the bowels to move. What a great way to start the day (plain orange juice will taste bland after this) and a wonderful healing gift for your body.
Much love
Claudia
510-978-3444
