Kitchari is India's comfort food: rice and yellow mung dal simmered soft with cumin, turmeric and ginger. Ayurveda uses it as the go-to meal for a gentle cleanse or a sore stomach, and two old hospital trials in children with diarrhoea fed it alongside rehydration drinks. Here's how it's traditionally made, what it can and can't do, and who should keep a kitchari cleanse short.
Cabbage in a crock, kimchi buried in clay jars for winter, kefir and spiced buttermilk after a meal: almost every food culture has a soured food. Here's what fermented foods are, what research has started to show, and how to choose or make them safely.
Grandmothers, Maimonides and Ayurvedic cooks all reached for long-cooked broth when someone was ill or run down. Here's what's known about bone broth today: what's really in the pot, what the research does and doesn't show, and how to make and store it safely.
Wheatgrass shots and barley-grass powders have been sold as "detox" and "blood-builders" since the 1940s. Here is where the habit came from, what the small human trials found, how people use them, and the raw-sprout, wheat-allergy, coeliac and warfarin cautions.
The 16 oz morning celery juice habit is one of the best-known detox trends. Here is where it came from, what the research actually shows (no human trials of the juice itself), what is in a glass, and the allergy, sun-sensitivity, sodium, warfarin and lithium cautions.
Parsley is the kitchen herb detoxers turn into "kidney flush" teas, parsley water and green juices. Here is its traditional "water herb" use, what the evidence does and does not show, why it does not dissolve kidney stones, and the pregnancy, oxalate and medicine cautions.
Corn silk, the fine threads at the top of an ear of corn, is a gentle traditional tea for the bladder and puffiness in Chinese and Native American medicine. Here is its history, the draft EU monograph amounts, what the evidence does and does not show, and the potassium and medicine cautions.
Cranberry is the best-studied urinary food in the library. Here is its Indigenous and folk history, what the 2023 Cochrane review of 50 trials found for repeat bladder infections (and who it did not help), study amounts, and the warfarin and kidney-stone cautions.
Nutmeg is the warm baking spice in eggnog and pumpkin pie, and an old Ayurvedic and Unani remedy for the gut and for sleep. In kitchen amounts it is a food; in spoonfuls it is a poison, which is why this profile leads with safety.
Long before rose was a perfume, Persian, Greek and European healers used the petals for sore mouths, nervous hearts and slow bowels. Today the EU recognises rose flower infusions for mild mouth, throat and skin inflammation, and one study tested rose tea for period pain. Here's the tradition, the research, how to brew it, and the cautions that matter.
