Many years ago, I began studying macrobiotic cooking and healing techniques. I used many of them to help heal my digestive system. However, I found the recipes to be rather bland and unexciting. As I contemplated this, I learned that a percentage of people felt very unsatisfied on the macrobiotic diet because of the blandness of the recipes. This often led to overeating, cravings and downright bingeing.
Balancing Taste with Spices
However, there were some incredibly healing remedies and principles in the macrobiotic diet. Many of these principles were grounded in thousands of years old healing traditions of Chinese medicine, like eating with the seasons and the food-mood connection. I found that many of them worked wonders to create balance in my body, so I started to tweak them a bit by bringing in the Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine principle of balance of tastes with spices. It took me awhile to learn to use spices for flavor and medicinal value as part of my healing process.
What I learned is that bringing in flavor and balance with spices adds a whole new level of healing and enjoyment of food!
Here is a time-honored macrobiotic-inspired healing remedy for sugar detox …tweaked with spices for flavor and medicinal value:
Back on Track Remedy for Digestive Upset or Sugar Over-indulgence
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1 green Granny Smith apple, peel off the skin, core and cut up (if you want to leave the skin on, use an immersion blender, blender or food processor to blend up at the end)
- 2 Tablespoons kuzu (a flavorless white root starch made from roots of the kuzu plant) – or, if you are avoiding starches, use 2 – 3 teaspoons ground dried burdock root
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Add kuzu to 1 cup room temperature water (if using kuzu). Kuzu is lumpy and needs to be dissolved in water. If you find kuzu in the market that is not lumpy, it’s likely been changed somehow. Allow kuzu lumps to dissolve. If you’re using burdock root instead of kuzu, skip to the next step.
- Add all other ingredients into a saucepan and heat on low, until the apples are mushy and all ingredients can be blended together. Mash with a fork to blend everything up well. It should be relatively thick like a pudding. It will be thicker if you use the kuzu root, which is a thickening agent.
Serving Suggestions
- Add a little tahini, coconut oil or a touch of honey to taste.
My Personal Favorite
From a taste perspective, is the burdock root pudding remedy. Both kuzu and burdock root tone the digestive system, aid and soothe digestion and have an alkalizing effect. Since sugar steals minerals from the body and creates an acidic effect in the blood, an alkalizing remedy can bring the body back into a state of balance. The sea salt also helps to alkalize the body. Both kuzu and burdock root strengthen and vitalize the body. Kuzu can help relieve diarrhea and both can help calm an upset stomach.
Today’s Exercise
- Try this grounding food and pay attention to how you feel. Does it feel grounding for you?
- I’d love to hear remedies you use or things your parents or grandparents taught you growing up!
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