Lukewarm Lemon Water, Please

There are some pretty interesting suggestions of things to do during this cleanse that will help the detox process. Here are two that I checked out the reasoning behind. (Remember when to research things you had to go look in books at a library? Thank goodness for the internet!)


Drink water with lemon: During Clean, we can't have oranges, grapefruit, tomatoes, sweet peppers or strawberries, but lemons, on the other hand, are encouraged to go in our water as well as in our shakes and meals. I assumed these banned foods were because of their acidity, so I didn't understand why lemons were good and the others were bad. Actually, the reason has nothing to do with acidity (and actually lemons have alkalizing effects on the body!) and is for the same reason most of the other food is banned during the cleanse - allergens. Foods can have irritating effects on the body causing headaches, constipation/diarrhea, and even sneezing (I sneeze a lot, we'll see if that changes) due to damage of the intestinal wall. Clearly I'm no doctor, and there is a complete and more full explanation in Dr. Junger's book if you're interested, but that's the basic run-down.

So why are they good? WELL: they help relieve digestive problems, they are a diuretic which helps clear out toxins - this will especially show in the skin, they're high in Vitamin C - and we all know how good that is, they have potassium, calcium, and magnesium, and of course because it makes your water taste better, which can encourage you to drink more of it!
Mystery solved.

Eat a clove of garlic daily: I love garlic. I love the smell of it, I love it when I have garlic breath and I love kissing Nick when he has garlic breath (apparently that's gross to some people!). Raw garlic all on its own though is not so good - especially to just pop in your mouth and chew (I've tried it!). After that experience, I went to buy garlic pills, as it was suggested to use those instead. Well, when I compared the price of the pills to actual raw garlic, there was no contest - I was going to learn to eat the raw cloves.

When garlic is chopped or chewed it produces allicin. Allicin is a super powerful antibiotic that helps stop germs from growing and reproducing, and also prevents weight gain (YES!). Garlic can also reduce cholesterol, help out against allergies, and loosen plaque on artery walls. It's also toxic to cats and dogs (good to know - Kitty will eat anything that's dropped on the kitchen floor.) Actually if you look up the benefits of garlic, the list is incredibly long. It seems it fixes everything, but the kitchen sink (...I don't know if that saying works here...), which is why I'm going to keep at it every day! I have learned that it's easier to chop it up first and immediately swallow it to avoid all that chewing and tasting. Maybe it's something that just has to grow on me and by the end of these 3 weeks I'll be loving it. Give it try!


Info from http://www.disabled-world.com/ and "Clean", by Alejandro Junger