The Doctor Cooks

Spring Cleaning (broccoli-miso soup)

This article appeared in the May 2007 issue of the Kansas City Wellness Magazine. Just as in the spring, it can be helpful to do a little cleaning.  I've collected my series of posts on detox foods from last spring under the category Recipes / Detox.  These foods work well spring and fall, as most of the cleansing foods come back in season during fall.  Alas, you will have to wait until next spring to enjoy dandelion greens.

Food Face by Benjamin Faltermeier, age 5, who says the face "has curly hair like me!"

It’s common to feel sluggish after the long winter.  Just like we throw open the windows and air out our homes come spring, we too can benefit from some spring cleaning.  A simple way to do this is to eat more vegetables.  I often suggest “green meals” where the bulk of your meal simply vegetables, or adding a glass of fresh vegetable juice at breakfast.  These are things most anyone can do with minimal risk of harm.  It will help you get back on track especially if you turned to white sugar, white flour and junk food to beat the winter doldrums.  Other forms of cleansing such as mono-diets, fasting and nutritional, herbal or homoeopathic cleanses require a good sense of your body or expert supervision.  It’s easy to overload your body’s detoxification systems with these methods resulting in a range of symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, rashes and headaches to outright illness.

Here’s a delicious broccoli-miso soup to build a green meal around.  It’s well known that broccoli is a cancer-fighting diva.  But do you know why?  The sulfurous compounds in broccoli are detoxifiers.  They neutralize and clear free-radicals and toxins from the body, including potential carcinogens, slow cancer cell growth and activate cancer cell apoptosis, a program in the cell that causes it to kill itself.   Miso consumption may explain why women in Japan have lower rates of breast cancer according to a recent study.  Heating miso destroys its beneficial enzymes, so add it just before serving.  Complete your green meal with an artichoke and some dandelion greens.  Learn the health benefits of and how to prepare these foods at www.thedoctorcooks.com.

Green Lift Smoothie

Here's another way to get your greens from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the Green Lift Smoothie.  Another way to get your greens is to add spinach to your favorite smoothie. If you think that sounds weird, remember how good strawberries are on spinach salad.  Give it a go!  I'll be back with my usual nutrition know how and recipes in another week.  Enjoy!

Take a Walk on the Alkaline Side

Yet another spring cleaning strategy is juicing.  Juices are an easy way to shift your pH to the alkaline side of normal.  I explain to patients that biochemical reactions work more efficiently in an alkaline environment.  Now we know why.  Intercellular channels called gap junctions are more open in an alkaline environment than an acid one, permitting the transfer of ions, metabolites and messenger molecules, such as hormones from one cell to another.  You detoxify better in an alkaline state.

Warm and Delicious Spring Cleaning Dish (khichari)

What we thought was an early spring has quickly reverted back to winter in Kansas City.  I hope you had a chance to see the Nichols Fountain adorned in icicles and sno-cone froth.  Cold food, such as the watercress salad I posted last week, aren’t warming enough for most of us in chilly weather.  But, winter’s return doesn’t mean you have to stop your internal spring cleaning.  For thousands of years yogis have eaten a bean and rice dish called khichari (KICH-ar-ee) to cleanse and strengthen their bodies.  They typically eat it in the spring and fall, while undergoing a cleansing program called panchakarma.

Khichari is made from basmati rice, mung or moong beans, spices and vegetables.  Basmati rice and mung beans are restorative and cleansing for all types of constitutions.   The spices and vegetables have known anti-inflammatory, detoxifying and reparative effects.  Click on the links in the ingredient list to learn more.

More Spring Cleaning with Watercress

Watercress is another great detoxifying food.  A cruciferous vegetable, like broccoli, it contains sulfur compounds that protect cells and their DNA against antioxidant damage.  One of these compounds, Phenethyl isothiocyanate or PEITC, neutralizes a compound in tobacco smoke know to cause lung, mouth and throat cancers.  Watercress is rich in vitamins C, E, A and folic acid.  It increases bile flow from the liver, which improves fat digestion.  Bile also carries toxins stored in the liver out of the body through the gastro-intestinal tract.  Bile stimulates peristalsis, promoting healthy bowel movements.  Watercress is an expectorant, clearing mucus from the respiratory tract.

Dreaded Weed Great for Spring Tune-up (dandelion greens with mustardy vinaigrette)

Last week I shared that spring is the time to lighten your load by eating more vegetables.  It will help you get back on track if you turned to white sugar, white flour and junk food to beat the winter doldrums.  You may be surprised to know that a common weed, dandelion, gives you an awesome spring tune-up. 

Dandelion tastes bitter, but the benefits make it worth getting used to.  Europeans grow dandelion because it stimulates and tones the entire digestive tract.  A phytonutrient taraxacin promotes the flow of bile, reduces inflammation of bile ducts and helps dissolve gall stones.  Digestion of fats improves with better bile flow.  Dandelion is great for people with hepatitis or high cholesterol.  Dandelion is also known to improve digestion by increasing the production of stomach acid and digestive enzymes.

Lighten-up! It's Spring! (boiled artichokes)

With the magnolia trees blooming on my block and temperatures in the 70’s, my body is telling me “lighten-up!  It’s spring-time!”  I’m hearing people talking about cleansing, juicing and detox diets.  Spring is associated with the liver in both Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine.  Allergies, PMS, mood swings, fatigue, headache, cravings, upper abdominal pain, bloating and constipation are a few signs of an over-burdened liver.  Yet, no laboratory test can diagnose this.  It’s easy though to give your liver a spring cleaning, making you feel lighter and brighter.

One way is to include some liver supportive vegetables in your diet, such as artichokes. Artichokes are known to promote liver detoxification, improve bowel function and balance cholesterol levels.