More evidence that low-calorie sweeteners are bad for your health
Studies show that artificial sweeteners can raise the risk of hypertension, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, including stroke.
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Finding harmony
The reassessment of who we are and what we are about, what we stand for and strive for in life that comes with the spring is the true purpose of the spring detox that is a part of so many traditions. Seemingly small changes in consciousness can have far greater gift than just shedding few pounds.
So how are we to harmonise with, and consciously capitalise on, this life surge that comes with the spring?
First of all one must wake up to the fact that spring is rising and fall into step with its rhythm.
Take a relaxed morning walk, with wind in ones hair without a thought in the mind, simply be present to all, the air, the birds, the new blades of grass the catkins on the willow.
Breathe in as if you would like to embrace all that is new, fresh and revitalising and breathe out relaxed, as if you have not got a care in the world. Doing so, you will generate mental strength and act in harmony with the energy of spring, thus following the way of nourishing life.
Green is the colour
In spring the colour of revolution is green. Eating green food, drinking green drinks; indulge in all young and succulent green shoots and sprouts will nurture, clean and revitalise your liver.
Incorporate, micro green algae like chlorella and spirulina into your diet, eat nettle soup as if there is no tomorrow. Alfalfa seeds sprout easily; so do buckwheat, radish, onion, clover, and other seeds. Sprouted seeds are essential to liver health and a perfect food because they manifest the potential for a new life, important ingredient in renewing one self.
Fresh dandelion leaves, primrose, chicory, daisy, chickweed as well as tiny young cleaver leaves can be eaten as a wild salad.
Later on in April the wild garlic is out; it is excellent in soups and salads. Dandelion root, milk thistle, globe artichokes and chicory leaves are also liver friends we should get to know.
Tonic foods
This liver nurturing regime should not be seasonal, though and it is good to learn how to implement liver care throughout a life time.
Mild sour tasting food is also tonic to the liver. While small quantity of sour flavour tones the liver, too much is not good for the tendons. Most sour flavour is tannin by nature, eaten excessively can lead to tendon tightening tare and injury.
Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, goji berries, and especially black currants, and fruits such as cherries, apricots and others nourish blood – a very important action for staying healthy in general but in particular for liver health.
Conscious awakening
If we have observed nature’s wisdom – and, like the seed, rested at the core of our being through the winter – we are in a better position to meet the light of spring with renewed sense of purpose, vigour and vision.
Spring inspires a resoluteness to examine our sense of self, to look and plan the whole year ahead, to plant the seeds of the new ideas for the future harvests, to determine direction of our life and make clear decisions that will take us to where we want to be.
If, like the rising sap in the trees, you are aware of your juices – creative, reproductive, sexual – rising, if you have a spring in your step, are moving harmoniously through the change the season brings, then you are connected to the energy of the season.
And yet this surge of renewed life so visible in plants, so obvious in deciduous trees and courting animals is rarely fully, consciously embraced by humans.
Instead we sleepwalk through it, not noticing, not participating and not seeing that conscious connection with spring is that is also a conscious connection with life.
Nature speaks to us in pictures, sounds, smells, tastes and touch. Direct cognition is not a myth, we are all made up of intricate cells, interdependent with all life and all that enables it. Nature is the unique all-knowing teacher and the only true healer. Embrace her lessons!
Here’s a spring recipes to get you in the mood for spring and all it has to offer:
Spring Forager Detox Salad
Makes 1 serving
Ingredients
Dressing
Method
1 Wash all the salad leaves and leave them in a colander to drip dry.
2 In a small bowl prepare the dressing. Blend linseed oil, hempseed oil and lemon juice, season with pepper and sesame salt.
3 Boil the quail eggs, for 3 mins in slightly salted water, then plunge into a bowl of cold water to prevent the yolks from discolouring. Drain, then peel off the shells.
4 Next arrange the greens in a bowl, add quail eggs cut in halves, sprinkle with sesame salt, toss greens and eggs, add dressing toss again and eat.
Good to know
Quail eggs
Known in the east as “animal ginseng”. They are neutral by nature and have sweet flavor. They invigorate Qi (vital energy), replenish blood as well as strengthen bones and muscles. In this recipe they are balanced off by dandelion leaves which are cooling by nature and act as a gentle stimulant for liver and urinary bladder.
Sesame salt*
Sesame, neutral by nature, sweet by flavour, tonifies body fluids and blood, strengthen liver and kidney, lubricate intestines. To prepare sesame salt use, (blond, shelled sesame), soak it over night, lightly pan-roast. Add a few grains of sea salt, toss and put in a grinder. Grind and store in tightly closed container for use.
Linseed oil
Linseed oil contains omega-3 fatty acids, which have very important immune system strengthening and cleansing effects on cardiovascular system. It is useful for degenerative disorders.
Hemp seed oil
Hemp seed comes highly recommended for its nutritional benefits. It is said to reduce LDL cholesterol and lower blood pressure and therefore considered useful for cardiovascular disease prevention. For thousands of years the Chinese used hemp seed for treatment of rheumatism and constipation.
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