Spring into a detox this month. Spring is a time for healing and growth. Bringing life to its fullest bloom, while sloughing off accumulations that weigh and slow us down.
Agni is the Sanskrit word for fire. It is generally used to describe our digestive fire, which resides in our solar plexus. Agni’s job is to help us digest and assimilate the nutrients in our food. Agni supports the cleansing organs- including the skin, liver, and kidneys, that move waste out of our body. Agni is like a little potbelly stove at the center of our “house” (or body). Our digestion, as well as our immunity, vitality, and clarity of mind, depend on it.
To stoke your digestive fire, sip ginger tea with your meals. Add zesty, warming spices to your meal. This help break down foods and eliminate waste.
Ayurvedic spices offer flavor, aroma, healing wisdom, and most of all, fire to your foods. Below is a list of springtime spices:
Edible wild greens of Late Winter and early Spring are especially detoxifying. Bitter and pungent tasting, they include: dandelion greens, purslane, ramps, sorrel, lamb’s quarters, chickweed, chicory, garlic mustard, shepherd’s purse, escarole, fiddleheads, wild prickly lettuce, mache, nettles, frisee, sour grass, and onion grass.
Sample some of these Spring greens, freshly picked and still moist. You might be surprised by their peppery, pungent blast.
Green Vegetables: Loaded with fiber, leafy greens like mustard greens, spinach and kale act like industrial scrub brushes. These veggies aide your body in its housecleaning and repair process.
Dark leafy greens: Full of chlorophyll, a detox agent, chlorophyll helps release toxins from your body, while stimulating cellular intelligence and improving your energy.
Beans: Packed with protein, a side of legumes, like dhal or hummus, add savory satisfaction as a substitute for the heavier, harder to digest, and often pesticide-laden meat, fish and eggs.
Good quality fats (including avocados, extra virgin olive oil, ghee and coconut): Enjoyed in moderation high quality fats are stored in the body as energy, not fat. These help you lose weight in the long run. Remember, it is not fat, but sugar that makes us fat.
Zesty warming spices: Strengthen digestive fire with the help of pungent spices that help to break down foods, and eliminate waste. In the Spring, Ayurvedic spices such as turmeric, cumin, coriander, cayenne, black pepper, cayenne, ginger, asafetida (hing), cloves and fenugreek offer flavor, aroma, digestive muscle and purification.
Artichokes, asparagus, avocadoes, beets, broccoli, grapefruit, kumquats, meyer lemons, blood oranges, tangelos, mandarins, grapefruit, carrots, chard, dates, fava beans, fennel, green garlic, kale, leeks, lettuces, mustard greens, new potatoes, nettles, English peas, Snap peas, pea shoots, pea tendrils, radicchio, radishes, rapini, spring onions, shallot shoots, sorrel, bean sprouts, strawberries, watercress.
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