The Detox Diet
Cutting out the meat, booze and sugar can lead to discovering -- or rediscovering -- long overlooked flavors.
Image credit: Photo by CodyR via Creative Commons
Anyone who has read my column over the years probably knows that I’ve maintaned a certain persona that generally trends towards decadence. Not really one for moderation, my motto has always been that I’m only going around once (as far as I know at least) and I’m going to get it all in while I can. And while that attitude has generally served me well (I’ve been very, very lucky in my gustatory pleasures) these adventures can also tend to leave me a bit squidgy around the middle, and fuzzy in the head.
Like lots of other people (even you, perhaps) come January I’m pretty well full up with all the good stuff and feeling in need of a good flush to the system. This year was no exception. Rather than attempt a fast, or some goofy Hollywood diet, I opted for a good old-fashioned vegan menu. I also jettisoned sugar and booze from my diet.
The diversion is not without precedence. Some years ago, I went vegan for a week, with mixed results. Both then and now, I did little in the way of research, and instead just ate what my body told me to, not bothering to check on nutrient or protein levels. After a week, I was most definitely craving something, anything, with animals involved.
This time around the results have been different. I dare say I have not felt better in months, perhaps longer than that.
By the fourth day – I had promised to maintain for only three, but I had been feeling so well that I wanted to continue – I could swear I could actually see better my head was so clear (maybe that old adage about carrots is true?). Even my chronic back pain seemed better.
I rediscovered old flavors that I had let disappear from my plate, including satsumas, mangoes, peanut sauce, kimchee, cashew and kale. I was hungry more often, but I also got to eat more, too. When I felt a hunger pang, I stalked the kitchen for a pickle, a handful of nuts, a big juicy hunk of fruit.
I also found that my craving for a happy hour cocktail disappeared within a day, and that every night I slept like a baby and awoke feeling fresh and ready for the world.
By the end of the fourth day, my body was asking for beef, and so I acquiesced. I found that a couple of ounces did the trick, and I took the final 2/3 of my entrée home for another, later go. By the end of the fifth day, I had a wine and cheese party to attend, and I helped myself to both with a moderate amount of gusto.
Later that night, an ill-fated stop for a slice of wish-I-hadn’t-done-it pizza ended with a stomachache and an upset constitution.
I’ll never be a vegan, or a vegetarian. Cheese is my religion, and my vocations demand an omnivore’s palate. And yet, an occasional bang on the old “pause” button has so many good benefits that it’s likely to bring moderation into my daily, regular life.
Rediscovering the simple pleasure of a single scoop of banana sorbet, for instance, after several days of sugar and alcohol abstinence is a sense memory I will not soon forget.
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I’ll bite. After all, apples are really, really good.
+ METRO's resident foodie Mecca Bos contributes to the magazine's food and drink section. She blogs for metromag.com between meals. See more of her work on her author page.
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