Spring is upon us once again, bringing with it new growth and warmer weather, inching us closer to that special time of year, summer. If your idea of spring cleaning is more about your house, you should give yourself some attention and consider a spring cleanse. Summer is a much more active time of year compared to winter and spring offers the best opportunity for deeply detoxifying - cleansing the body of toxins that have built up in our systems over the wintertime. We’ll get more into why this is, according to Chinese Medicine, in our next blog post.
If you lead a busy life, you might find the idea of detoxing to be tough and time consuming. Following specialized plans can be a big obstacle. But what if you could take simple steps? What if starting your cleanse was quick? That would make it easier to get a good start. Now, what if the key component was natural, tasty and easily accessible? Would that make your choice to detox easier?! If you agree then this post is for you.
When you think green tea would you associate that with detoxing? Probably not, unless you're up on your matcha game. Did you know that matcha is a natural detoxifier? Did you know that matcha is also packed full of antioxidants? Did you know that matcha has a whole whack of health benefits? Yup, matcha is the real deal and it’s here to stay.
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| Matcha, pineapple, banana, spinach smoothie bowl made with Classic grade matcha! |
Why even bother cleansing? Toxic backups in your body can manifest as symptoms such as constipation, digestive disturbances, congestion, cravings, headaches, and others. Use matcha to get started into a deep cleanse. Have matcha just a couple days in a row and you’ll immediately notice how good you feel. Use this as motivation to tighten up your diet while you continue with your daily matcha. Try for even 5 days to eat a diet of organic, seasonal vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. (Think smoothies, juices, salads, rice bowls, salmon and poached chicken. Ditch dairy, gluten, sugar and alcohol. Drink lots of water! Matcha is rich in chlorophyll, which is where its vibrant green colour comes from. Chlorophyll is the green pigment found in the leaves and stems of plants. It is what absorbs energy from the sun to facilitate photosynthesis in plants. Not only does matcha’s colour stem from the chlorophyll, but so does its powerful detoxifying properties. There are several different functions Chlorophyll has in the body: it detoxifies, it alkalizes, oxygenates and can even help with bad breath and body odour. We’ll focus on the detoxifying properties.
Why does matcha have such high chlorophyll content? Matcha is shade-grown prior to being harvested, which increases the plant’s nutrients. This process also increases the amount of chlorophyll in the leaves of the tea plant destined to become matcha. Since chlorophyll is a catalyst for photosynthesis and since shade-growing inhibits photosynthesis, it causes a concentration of chlorophyll and other nutrients to build up in the leaves. Thus, when we drink matcha tea we consume all of those nutrients. Once the chlorophyll is in our body it starts to eliminate toxins and rid our bodies of heavy metals by binding to the metal atoms. This hampers absorption and they are carried out as waste.
Worried about feeling bleh if you kick the coffee habit during your detox? Swap in matcha. It gives a cleaner, smoother energy boost that lasts for hours without any jitters, anxiety of crashes.
Not only is matcha a great way to kickstart and optimize your spring cleanse, it can be used in many different ways to reap ALL of its health benefits. Try it as a pure tea, as a matcha latte or use it in a smoothie with things like spinach, kale, bananas, strawberries and your fave superfood powders.Whatever the case may be for you and your detox, Spring is the time of year to get your body in gear!
Make a cup of green at home with Amoda organic matcha. Not sure how to make matcha? We tell you how here.