Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Liver and Gallbladder Flush

Who worries about their liver? Who spends time everyday caring about their liver?  Unlike our hair which everyone sees, or our teeth which we brush everyday, our liver and gallbladder are unseen. And for the most part, we live our lives not giving them any thought. It's only when a doctor tells us that we're sick of some liver or gall bladder disease that we actually consciously think about them.

For most people, it could take decades of abuse for some form of disease to show up. All this time, we eat and drink as much as we want, oblivious to the fact that our faithful liver has been doing all the clean-up work. Some symptoms of impending liver disease are not even such a big deal. It could start with a feeling of being tired all the time, feeling a little heavy, or having persistent headaches. It could be feeling full after barely eating, puffiness in the face, or getting age spots in your arms. And for a lot of us, we don't get any symptom at all (asymptomatic). And so we go on eating and drinking.

Just for a moment though, think about the other parts of your body that need maintenance. Our teeth need to be professionally cleaned every 6 months. Sure, you could bypass the periodic prophylaxis but the results will become pretty obvious after a year or two. Our scalp needs to be cleaned everyday. If not, we could get dandruff or at the very least, a very oily scalp. We don't see our liver, and therefore do not know what state it's in, but if you're suspecting that your liver is a little overdue for a little tune-up, here's something that you may want to try: flush the stones out of it.

Several years ago, I heard that some friends tried doing a liver and gallbladder flush. Thy said lots of stones came out. I was curious about it but didn't really have enough motivation to do it. I was okay. I didn't have health problems. Why fix something that wasn't broke?

And then I heard that others have tried it too, and couldn't believe the amount of stuff that came out of them - hundreds of tiny stones! I bought the book - The Amazing Liver and Gall Bladder Flush - and decided to try it out myself. The first time I did it, this came out:

Right next to the green thing is a 25 centavo coin - just to give you an idea how big it was
And it wasn't just this one green thing, there were lots of them ... so many green stones! I didn't really bother to count them anymore, I just knew there were a lot of them. And so I did it a second time after a month, and a third time after another month, and every time I do it, lots of green stones come out.

So for those who have been asking me what I did, the short answer is that I followed what was prescribed in Andreas Moritz's book, The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush. You probably would want to read it if you want to know the details, but in case you're ready to jump in, all you need are things that are easy to get from the supermarket: apples, grapefruit, and olive oil. You'll also need epsom salts, but you'd have to go to a health food store to get that.

So here's what I did:

1. Beginning on a Monday, on top of what you're eating and drinking, drink 32 ounces of apple juice. Do this for 6 days. You could get packaged apple juice or freshly squeezed apple juice. (Of course, you can begin this any day of the week, just make sure you do Step 2 after 5 or 6 days of drinking apple juice). The apple juice softens the stones and prepares them to squeeze out of your liver and gall bladder painlessly.

2. Ideally, you would want to avoid greasy and fatty food. You are, after all, trying to clean your liver.

3. On Saturday, your last meal of the day will be at 1pm. Try to finish all your apple juice before 1pm. After 1 pm, the only thing you can have is water.

4. On Saturday night at 6pm, drink a solution made with 6 ounces of water plus 1 tablespoon of epsom salts. At 8 pm, drink another glass of this solution. (Epsom salts have a laxative effect. They also open up the bile ducts to speed up the expulsion of the stones).  Sometime during this period, you might need to go to the toilet. Don't bother checking for stones as this is not yet the time for the stones to come out.

5. At about 10 pm, mix about 3/4 of a glass of grapefruit juice with half a glass of extra virgin olive oil. 3/4 of a glass is about 6 ounces, and half a glass is about 4 ounces. Right after drinking that, lie down and try to sleep. (The olive oil lubricates the stones, helping them to pass out painlessly.)

6. On Sunday morning, upon waking up - the author says wake up at 6am - drink another glass of the epsom salt solution. Do it again after 2 hours. Sometime between 6am and 10am, you will need to go to the toilet. And this is when the green stones will come out.

7. After doing it once, the author recommends that you do it again in the future until no more stones come out. As of this writing, I've done it three times. I know of people who have done this for 8 times before they stopped. You just have to give yourself a month before starting the whole cycle again.


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Insalata Caprese

Insalata caprese is so simple to make. Just slice some tomatoes, garnish with pesto, add cheese, and arrange any way you please. As I'm trying to be completely vegan, I made nut pate' instead of using cheese.

Tomato slices with freshly made nut cheese and pesto

To make the nut pate', I placed sunflower seeds and almonds into the food processor. Once they got mashed, I added onions, celery, carrots and bell peppers. To see how it's done, check out this video of Jennifer Cornbleet as she makes "not-tuna pate".

To make the pesto, I placed several handfuls of basil leaves into the food processor, pine nuts, added garlic, a bit of olive oil (just a bit), added nutritional yeast to make it a bit cheesy, and added a pinch of salt. In case you've never made pesto, check out this video.

You gotta try it to appreciate how delicious freshly-made pesto and nut cheese could be.