Products for ‘detox’?
After eating lots of richer foods over Christmas I started 2012 feeling rather bloated and icky! I decided to focus on eating simple un processed foods during January, as well as avoiding coffee and alcohol. I wanted to just try and nourish myself as best as possible.
Towards the end of the year I had been sent products from Pukka Herbs and The New Zealand Honey Co to review, and I thought they would be perfect to save for use in January. As well as the products from these two companies I also included a couple of other products (purchased myself) to help with getting myself back on track:
Pukka Herbs sent me their Aloe Vera Juice and Chlorella tablets to try. I also bought some Linwoods Milled Flaxseed and some Dr Stuarts Tea as well as The New Zealand Honey Co products which came as part of this package full of natural immune boosting goodies:
Linwoods Organic Milled Flaxseed
I’d actually been using this for a long time anyway, but over January I made an effort to eat 1 tbsp a day, usually by adding some to one of my smoothies. Flaxseed is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids which because our body can not produce, means we need to obtain them via our diet. As a mostly vegan I can’t get my essential fats from the traditional oily fish so this is a great product for me. It is also high in dietary fibre which can help you to feel fuller and when mixed with water makes an excellent vegan egg replacer. As this is cold milled it is suggested that you store it in the fridge to prevent it going rancid. I also like that you can easily buy this from most supermarkets not just health food stores!
I’m usually not a fan of anything that brands itself a ‘detox’ product in its own right but I love this tea! It has a really ‘clean’ flavour and I found that drinking it made my stomach feel better and less bloated. It includes dandelion and burdock root, milk thistle, sage, peppermint and liquorice. It was a really nice relaxing drink before bed.
The New Zealand Honey Co: Thyme, Manuka and Beech Forest Honey Dew Honey
I included honey in this delicious ‘black sesame jewel’ smoothie
Until I received these products I had not been aware of the health benefits of honey. I already knew it could be a great natural sweetener but these honey’s all have their own specific properties and health benefits. The thyme honey is high in antioxidants and is scaled against other foods like spinach and blueberries. The manuka honey is anti bacterial and anti inflammatory and the Beech Forest Honey Dew is high in natural sugars that feed the good bacteria in our gut (see the website for more information on how all these claims are established). All the honey’s are also 100% raw so will include their natural enzymes.
I was really impressed with these products. Each of them has a very unique flavour and I enjoyed including them in smoothies, porridge, yoghurt messes etc as well as just sucking on a spoonful at a time to give my general health a boost and with a hope of keeping any January colds and flu away. Due to its anti bacterial and anti inflammatory properties I also made a special effort to include manuka honey while I was recovering from my wisdom teeth extraction. Of course I can’t say it was just down to the honey but I didn’t get any infections in my mouth (I wasn’t on antibiotics either) and I also avoided the colds that were doing the rounds at work, yey!
I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this product, I was concerned that it was going to taste awful but it certainly didn’t! Aloe Vera juice is reputed to aid digestion and beauty. The suggested intake is 5-6 tbsp a day taken before food. I tended to take 1-2 tbsp mixed with filtered water before bed. The taste was kind of light and grassy and quite pleasant. I definitely felt that this was soothing my digestive tract and tummy. I was also very impressed at the quality of this product compared to other brands of aloe vera I’ve seen since. The Pukka brand is free from synthetic preservatives and is cold pressed and unfiltered.
I had heard of chlorella before I received these tablets having been a long time fan of spirulina, a similar naturally derived algae. Chlorella is one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet containing antioxidants, proteins and essential fatty acids. Its high chlorophyll content makes it very alkalising and good for detoxification as well as supporting the immune system. The suggested dose is working up to 6 tablets a day taken 3 times a day. I don’t like carrying tablets around with me so I tended to have two in the morning and two in the evening taken with my aloe vera juice. I also started chucking a few tablets in with my green smoothies. At first I wasn’t sure how I would enjoy these as in the past I’ve always used powders and added it to smoothies but now I would always go for the tablets as its much easier to take them than just being able to include it in your diet when your having a smoothie. Like the aloe vera juice, these are excellent quality, they are organic and cracked cell wall which means that they are easier to digest and assimilate the vitamins and minerals.
Of course I was also including my daily dose of Matcha Green Tea as part of the Tea Pigs Matcha challenge!
The results?
I don’t always think that one month is long enough to establish if your seeing benefits from a product, and of course this is no clinical trial, many other factors could have affected how I felt during and at the end of the month. Saying that, I did feel some instant benefits with the Dr Stuarts Tea and the Aloe Vera juice, it could also have been the improvement in my diet but I felt a lot less bloated and when drinking the tea or juice it was an almost instant relief and ‘cooling’ feeling in my body. The other biggest thing I noticed was an improvement to my skin:
Me, make up free (and yes I have non existent eyebrows and a big nose!)
I’m not sure if this pic does it justice but my skin has been amazing recently! I haven’t had a spot since before Christmas, but the best thing I’ve found is that the texture of my skin has improved. I used to have a greasy t zone and dry cheeks along with very visible pores and black heads on my nose and fore head. Now my skin is much finer and a lot less greasy. As I said this may not be just down to the products I’ve been using (I also started to use virgin coconut oil as a evening moisturiser) but either way I’m happy with the results!
As I always tend to say when I’m reviewing products, the Pukka stuff and honey ain’t cheap – see the links to the websites for prices (I think the ground flax and tea is pretty affordable and excellent for what you get). Apart from perhaps the chlorella, I wouldn’t be looking to use them on a frequent basis anyway, I would definitely get the aloe vera juice again if I was feeling particularly bloated and out of all the honey’s I would get the manuka again as I preferred the taste of this one, as well the benefits – I think it would be brilliant to have in the cupboard in case a cold or sore throat was threatening!
Overall, these products are great but none of them are a replacement for a good solid diet full of vegetables, fruit and other whole foods. It is worth noting that these products are actually whole foods in themselves though, I like these as little extras that are great to include from time to time to give me a boost when I can afford them.
Have you tried any of the products mentioned above? Would you ever try any of them? What are your thoughts on products such as these that often come with health claims?
0 comments:
Post a Comment