Expel Toxins with Other Counter-Acting Foods.

My favorite food after my Detox Program.

To “re-educate” my bowel to function normally, It is important to choose healthy food back into our body system as the body will absorb all the nutrients from the food.

The Healing Powers of Red Bean Barley Soup

 

 

The red bean is tasty, but there’s more than meets the taste buds in this little bean; it also has medicinal value. In the “Compendium of Materia Medica” (《本草纲目》 Běn Cǎo Gāng Mù), Dr. Li Shizhen tells of the red bean’s other potency: “it can initiate breast milk secretion and reduce water retention.” In the medical book “Herbal Diet,” written by Dr. Chen Shiliang during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the red bean is also credited as an effective agent for stimulating weight loss and maintaining a svelte figure. That’s a lot of punch packed into one little bean.

Pearl barley (薏米仁 yìmǐrén, also known as coix seed) is another Chinese zaliang with medicinal perks. Li Shizhen’s book credits the pearl barley with the ability to “invigorate the function of the spleen and stomach, tonify the lung, cool the body, expel wind (a TCM term for toxins) and remove dampness.”

Try this simple porridge recipe (and prescription) at home: place 50 grams of red beans, 50 grams of pearl barley and one litre of water into a pot, then let it cook over a low flame. In 50 minutes, drink the liquid soup and eat the beans.

A bowl of this wonder gruel in the morning will help expel dampness from the body. Bet you didn’t even know you were afflicted with dampness, did you? “Dampness” is a TCM term that refers to bodily toxins that can cause problems ranging from skin rashes to poor immunity to sluggishness. If you’re tired all the time and struggle with getting up in the morning (who doesn’t?), you could be suffering from a case of perpetual dampness!
A two-week regime of the red bean / pearl barley porridge purportedly makes the dampest among you feel as good as new. Side effects? Frequent trips to the bathroom (since pearl barley is a diuretic)!
TCM believes that toxins come from the food that you put into your body, so the best way to cure ailments is to expel toxins with other counter-acting foods.

In fact, i made one for myself today :)

Will share more on healthy food in my next blog.
See you next time!


xoxo
Agnes