Borneo Blog :: heaty and cooling foods

I first heard about this when I was in Thailand stuffing my face with durian at the World Durian Festival in Chanthaburi. The locals would tell me that I needed to eat mangosteen after durian because durian is a "heaty" food whereas mangosteen is cooling. 

I disregarded this information as pish tosh thinking it's an old wives tale and I'm Western so it doesn't affect me. Well it turns out that when you let something important slip through your mind it comes back at some point. 

Yesterday I had my first ever "Ionic Detox Foot Therapy" session in KK plaza shopping centre, at 15 ringgit or 10 ringgit to be a lifetime member plus 13 ringgit a session (and after 5 sessions you get 1 free, essentially the membership is free if you pay for 5 sessions anyway) it's a bargain. Apparently it retails at $40-$60 in Australia! 

So you stick your feet in a foot spa that releases ions that go through the 2000 pores in your feet, into your system to your organs, which apparently releases the toxins and free radicals. The water changes colour, depending on your health you may get bubbles and floating residue. 

As you can see the water in mine went slightly orange, lots of dark bubbles and many floating bits. I went into this without any research. I believed everything I read and everything what I was told. When I got home I did some research and a lot of it was negative saying the colour change is from the device (probably true) and it's all about scamming you out of money. I paid tuppence so I disagree with the last comment. 

I was told my cholesterol was normal, my liver function is good (because I sleep from 9pm till 5/6am so my body has enough time to repair itself over night) but my kidneys are a concern, I'm not drinking enough water and my body is very heaty. 

It was back, that heatiness. I decided that it must be significant. I have noticed a lot during my stay in Borneo that when I eat durian I get really hot and I sweat more. It makes sense. Plus she was right about the water intake. I had been listening to other raw foodists talk about water consumption, someone I was living with said we don't need to drink much, then the guys I stayed with in La Palma also said they don't drink as much anymore, so I reduced my intake from 5l a day to 1.5-2l max. This resulted in a lot less peeing (on 5l a day I was peeing 1-2 times an hour, sometimes 3 and I would get up at night to pee). 

I have been researching these cooling and heaty foods, it's the balance of yin and yang in Chinese medicine. It's very interesting and I'm assuming that as I'm in a very hot country my food intake should be predominantly cooling. So if I have durian I need to eat a cooling food after or drink coconut water! Or simply not eat durian... Yeah right! 

I still need to do some more research and perhaps compile a list of the foods I am likely to eat. 

I am going back to have more Ionic Detox Therapy (buy 5 get 1 free right!) so I'm hoping to implement a new meal plan and see whether my toxicity improves! 

Have you ever tried this type of therapy? Are you interested? Do you think it's a money making scam or is there some truth in it? Let me know your thoughts :) 

Bali Blog :: Taksu Spa

I am sat in the restaurant of Taksu Spa and the views are just incredible! The trees are so tall they cover the sky, they're all so green I feel like I'm in a jungle and there's running water both inside (a stone wall waterfall) and outside (the river). I am so relaxed here and it feels so right. 

I just had the raw lasagne and wow it was both a masterpiece and an incredibly tasty dish. I actually took the time to savour this dish, chewing slowly, closing my eyes and just tasting all of the flavours. My mouth is covered in the remains and I do not want to wash it down with anything. I really wanted to grab the plate and lick it, but Taksu is slightly more up market so I just used my finger to get the remaining sauce instead! 

I can see avocados on a tree that must be over 30 feet tall. I don't know how they harvest them, but I assume in a storm you'd want to be wearing a helmet to avoid being smashed in the head with one! Just looking at the tree is causing me to smile uncontrollably and then I almost had a laughing fit. This place just brings out that inner joy within me. I am so glad I came here tonight. My instinct was right :) 

I actually ordered a second meal, zucchini pasta with marinara sauce and this tastes just as incredible. The flavours are strong and I can tell there's olives in the dressing (something I'm not a fan of, but in this sauce it is OK). I am trying to go slow but Italian food has always been my favourite so I usually inhale it!