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AUGUST 27–SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

W e’ve all heard the saying spring clean your home; well now

is the perfect time to spring clean your body! A simple cleanse can mean you have a spring in your step, which is ideal for the season! It allows you to feel energized and confident to get outside, soak up that beautiful sunshine, and smell those divine spring fl owers.

When people think about de-toxes I’m sure a lot of harsh, intense programs come to mind. But this doesn’t need to be the case!

Everyday we are exposed to tox-ins from things we touch (cleaning products, perfumes, soaps) the air we breathe (smog, cigarette smoke) and the foods we eat (processed foods with ‘hidden’ chemicals and the pesticides and herbicides found on unwashed fruits and veg-etables). Our bodies work hard to

eliminate these toxins but without healthy organs involved in the de-toxifi cation process (liver, kidney, small and large intestine and lower bowel) it means toxins might spend longer in the body, which can cause long term harm.

Diet plans a huge role in deter-mining the health of our liver. If your diet is rich in processed foods, which are high in fat and sugar, you drink alcohol regularly and consume caff eine daily, your liver is probably stressed and over worked. The good news is if you give your liver a break and exclude the toxins you usually consume you can re-charge the organ and restore itself to good health.

Caff eine might be one of the hard-est things to eliminate from the diet but there are a range of delicious caff eine free herbal teas available. A great coff ee substitute is dande-lion tea. Dandelion root has a bitter

taste, similar to coff ee, and as an added bonus it helps to support liver detoxifi cation.

During a detox, it’s benefi cial to eliminate dairy, wheat and gluten to give your digestive system a break. Don’t despair though; there are huge ranges of options on the mar-ket that can be used as a substitute! Almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk and coconut yoghurt are great dairy-free options. The best carbs to include are brown rice, quinoa, spelt bread and gluten free pastas such as quinoa or brown rice.

Easy to digest proteins including organic free-range chicken and pork, and oily fi sh such as salmon and tuna are also recommended to further support your digestive system.

It’s important to drink plenty of water, at least 2 litres per day, to help fl ush the toxins from you body.

Some meals you might like to include during your detox include

eggs with gluten free toast, avocado and sautéed spinach, veggie sticks with homemade hummus, chicken salad with a lemon and olive oil dressing, coconut yoghurt with al-monds, banana smoothie made with rice milk and a salmon steak with steamed greens.

Sunday might be the best time to begin a detox as you have the week-end to prepare with new ingredients and remove those that you wont be eating for a couple of weeks. Once you have completed the detox why not reward yourself with a massage, new book or something you have been wanting to spoil yourself with, because you deserve it!

Good luck, I hope you feel amazing after your detox.

Zan

INGREDIENTS

3 kale leaves, stems removed and sliced

2 big handfuls of fresh basil leaves

1/8 cup olive oil½ avocado

¼ cup soaked cashews 1/4 lemon juiced

1 clove garlic, crushed Salt and pepper to

season 1 organic free range chicken breast diced

150g gluten free pasta (quinoa or brown rice)

METHOD

1. Cook pasta 2. Pan fry chicken 3. Combine remaining ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth 4. Stir sauce through cooked pasta and chicken 5. Enjoy

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WORDS BY BY ZANNA MUNRO —FOUNDER OF ZAN’S GIVING PLATE // FACEBOOK—ZAN’S GIVING PLATE // INSTAGRAM—ZANS_GIVING_PLATER E A D E R

HEALTHYL I V I N G

WORDS BY BY DHYAN BLORE —dhyan@naturalsplendour.com.au

GARDENI N Y O U R

Dhyan Blore is a local gardener, horticul-turist and restoration ecologist. She runs her own Consultancy Businesses, Natural Splendor Gardening and Horticulture and Native Biota Ecologi-cal Services. She also teaches Horticulture at TAFE Western. Her own garden at Clifton Grove was awarded Top Ten Finalist in the ABC Gardening Australia - Gardener of the Year Competi-tion, 2006. Her pas-sions include envi-ronmental education for children, kitchen gardening and na-ture conservation on farms.

Dhyan has qualifica-tions in horticulture, tree care and environ-mental management.

When not run-ning her businesses or tending her own or clients gardens Dhyan can be found on her Bowrider boat, kayaking, ballroom dancing or training her horses.

hen I � rst came to Orange 23 years ago,

organic fresh produce was nowhere to be found, other than if you grew it yourself. A few committed individuals got together and bought in mixed organic fruit and vegie boxes from a Sydney provider. For those devoted few, the week revolved around the Thursday drop-o� and the menu revolved around what was in the box. At the time, my little backyard in Clinton St didn’t produce much food so buying in from Sydney was the only way to go. Each Thursday when I opened the box the smell of the earth and all that goodness convinced me it was worth the e� ort.

Fast forward to the present day and we are spoiled for choice. There are now two specialist fresh produce retailers in town that o� er organic fruit and vegies, with the majority of the produce grown locally. When asked why their customers seek out these products the reasons range from health reasons including allergies and food intolerances to customers wanting to improve fertility or follow special diets like the Paleo diet. Then there are those that just think it tastes better.

My reasons were twofold; I thought food grown with fewer chemicals was better for me, as well as better for the environment. As a child of

the seventies, I was mindful of the message given by change agents like Rachel Carson in her book ‘Silent Spring’. She heralded to the world that the pesticide DDT had caused eagle eggs to fail to hatch. Bald Eagle populations were plummeting. The eagle ate the � sh that ate the salt-marsh mosquito that the authorities sprayed with DDT. Surely a precautionary approach to chemical use was a good thing. I also thought that by buying organic, I was ‘voting with my food dollar’ for a type of farming that I favoured.

We are always hearing about the great ‘city-county divide’ however, food choices are one way consumers can link their values to farming.

I’d also learned that organic farmers were more likely to have bushland and nature conservation areas on their farms than conventional farmers. I � gured by buying organic I was ‘spending’ on nature conservation which I was more than pleased to do. This consumer dollar just kept on giving.

Even the large supermarket chains in town now carry organic fresh produce.

Organic has become mainstream in the retail world. We’ve come a long way in the last 20 years.

The sleeping giant in the organic food supply story is of course the humble backyard. The best option by far is to grow your own. You won’t get

fresher. The sugars in many vegies convert very quickly after they’re harvested. That’s why once you’ve tasted a fresh home grown baby carrot there’s nothing o� a shelf that will even come close in terms of � avour. As for low carbon footprint, home grown reigns supreme!

Many of those things that are super handy to the avid cook - parsley, basil, loose leaf lettuce, rocket, cherry tomatoes and zucchini, are easy backyard crops that in our climate are not too troubled by pests. In terms of organic growing you just can’t go past backyard vegie gardens. No packaging, no chemical sprays and always on hand.

JUST WHAT IS ORGANIC FOOD? IN SIMPLE TERMS IT IS FOOD GROWN WITHOUT CHEMICAL PESTICIDES OR SYNTHETIC FERTILISERS. ORGANIC FARMING FOSTERS NATURE BY CYCLING RESOURCES, PROMOTING ECOLOGICAL BALANCE AND CONSERVING BIODIVERSITY. BIODIVERSITY CAN BE EVERYTHING FROM SOIL BACTERIA, TO BEES, TO FROGS, TO FALCONS.

GOING

IT’S AMAZING TO THINK NOT SO LONG AGO IT WAS SNOWING BUT NOW THE SEASON HAS CERTAINLY CHANGED AND THE BEAUTIFUL, COLOURFUL FLOWERS THAT ARE STARTING TO BLOOM MEAN SPRING IS NEARLY HERE!

INTO