Spring clean your body and your pantry

Spring is here and this is the time to give your body, fridge and pantry a good spring clean. For the next month it’s a great idea to cut out the usual suspects: coffee, caffeinated tea, alcohol and wheat-based bread. Whether you are intolerant to wheat and/or gluten or not, if you are typical of most people and follow a western diet of toast, muffins and biscuits, sandwiches and pasta, you will benefit from cutting wheat from your diet. Just by omitting a few of these foods for a few weeks, you can give your body a rest and open the door to a wider variety of nutrients.

Choose seasonal fruits. They are cheaper and in the curious way of nature, they provide exactly what are body needs at this time of year. Include: strawberries and blueberries, blood oranges, and papaya.

Veggies form an important part of our “spring cleaning” as they contain lots of fibre, which acts like a broom in the bowel cleaning out any debris. Spring veggies include: snow peas, asparagus, mushrooms, green beans and silverbeet.

With these close to hand you are 40% towards a healthy spring cleaning meal. No pantry should be without: 100% rye bread, Rolled wholegrain oats, quinoa, long grain brown rice, and corn/brown rice cakes. Also stock up with sodium reduced tamari, and legumes such as chickpeas, red lentils and herbal teas.

Proteins are made up of amino acids, which play an important role in detoxification. With that in mind remember that every meal must contain some quality protein such as: free-range eggs, turkey breast, white fish, salmon and tuna (canned is OK too ) tofu and natural, low-fat yogurt.

Last but by no means least, don’t forget your good fats. These are found in: olive and chia oil, avocado, unsalted nuts and seeds, raw nuts and seeds (e.g. pumpkin and sunflower seeds) and oily fish.

Let’s face it, we’re all busy and the likelihood that you will make a new recipe every night is low. So we’ve picked three ideas for breakfast lunch dinner and snacks that you can enjoy over the month. For the rest of the time just go into your newly stocked fridge and pantry and create!