By Vicky Chan of NourishU

Detoxifying and Balancing

Toxins are a fact of life, but taking proactive actions to expel them and not allowing them to accumulate in our body can make a big difference. The best approach to detoxify is to eat fresh clean food with high fiber and antioxidant content, drinking plenty of good clean water to flush the system and passing bowel at least once or twice daily. Exercising and taking sauna bath occasionally are all effective in helping the body to expel toxins through sweating.

Eating foods such as carrot, pumpkin, garlic, seaweed, green tea and foods with high vitamin C content such as oranges, lemon, leafy green vegetables, water chestnuts, etc. are excellent in cleaning out heavy metals from our body such as lead. Blueberry is high in anti-oxidant but purple or black glutinous rice is even higher in vitamin E and anti-oxidants.

To get the most disease-fighting antioxidants from fruits and vegetables, choose those with color; usually the deeper the color, the more antioxidants. Also fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables have more antioxidants than those that are canned, processed or heated.

Therapeutic Effects

Benefits all five organs, balancing yin and yang.

Ingredients

• Chinese broccoli 芥蘭 – 3 to 4 stems
• Bitter melon 涼瓜 – half
• Lotus root 蓮藕 – a small section
• Carrot 甘筍 – one
• Fresh mushrooms 鮮磨菇 – 6
• Fresh lily buds 鮮百合 – 2

Directions

1.   Wash all ingredients. Cut broccoli stems, bitter melon, lotus root, carrot and mushrooms into thin slices.

2.   Remove stems of lily bulb to separate petals and cut out any blackened edges.

3.    Heat a spoonful of oil in a wok to stir-fry carrot, broccoli, lotus root and bitter melon together. Sprinkle in a spoonful of cooking wine and a spoonful of water and cook for a few minutes or to desire softness.

4.   Add mushroom to cook for a few more minutes. Add seasoning (salt, sugar, pepper, sesame oil and a little oyster sauce) and mix well.

5.   Mix in lily and add a little corn starch water to finish.

Usage

No restrictions.

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Featured imagePhoto by Markus Spiske on Unsplash