Ickies in my food 🤢

Good Afternoon Peeps! This pandemic! Lord Jesus...is it really year three? Anyhoo, I've been really concerned about pathogens being in my produce. I make a smoothie every day and it came to me you have no idea who or what's been touching your food.

First of all, it sits outside.

Have you ever been driving on an interstate somewhere and looked over and saw a field? Well, all that exhaust is being deposited on those vegetables. Secondly, animals. Don't get me started! Animals are traipsing through those fields and depositing things...gross things. Birds flying overhead. And now we have to worry about someone sneezing on it and sharing a little virus. Luckily the human body is miraculous. Our immune system is more than capable of handling most things but when we're stressed, overwhelmed, which is most of us these days, pathogens, parasites etc can get the upper hand. Not to mention, if there's an abundance of parasites, your body will spend most of its time walling them off and containing them and making sure they don't harm you. This translates into lost energy that could be used to support your metabolism, digest your food. In other words, the more things in your body that don't belong there, the less likely you will experience optimal health. What can we do?

There are some natural things that can help the body shed parasites. Simply adding garlic, turmeric, cloves or oregano to your dishes regularly will go a long way. Pumpkin seeds are also anti-parasitic. I toss a handful in my smoothies or eat them for a snack. But good produce hygiene should be our first line of defense. Here's my go to method for cleaning fruits and veggies that I intend to eat raw. It sounds a little labor intensive but once you develop the habit it only takes a few seconds. You only need 3 things:

1. Spray bottle of peroxide

2. Castille soap

3. Water

I put veggies I intend to eat raw, especially salad, into a bowl.

Spray thoroughly with peroxide which is a powerful, food safe disinfectant, and let stand a few seconds.

Rinse

In the same bowl I add a few drops of castile soap (Dr Bronner's Tea Tree) and some water and swish my veggies around for a few seconds to remove remaining residue and pesticides. A vegetable wash could probably work well here too.

Dump water and rinse well.

For salads I use a salad spinner to make sure the leaves get dry before I serve.

And that's it.

Our body is charged on a daily basis with handling a myriad of processes. This is my way of helping it out. Also of note, there was an outbreak of E. coli this week. All the more reason to add this to our routines. Here is a link to one of the new, produce washing machines if you want to go "all in." The manufacturer claims you can just throw it in a bowl of water for a few seconds and germs and pesticides are removed. I haven't tried it yet but will soon. In the meantime, I'll continue to spray and wash. Amazon