Four Important Cleaning Tasks In Your Morning Routine

"I personally try to eat about 85 percent of my food raw", said Dr Mercola^[1]. In this article,

Drink Your Fruit-and-Veggie Smoothies in the Morning

I have shown you one way to increase raw-food update in your diets.

However, there are caveats with raw-food eating—food-borne diseases and pesticides. In this article, I will show you four important cleaning/cleansing steps to protect and improve your health:

• Pipe cleaning
• Water pipe
• Food pipe
• Surface cleaning
• Food surface
• Skin surface

Pipe Cleaning

There are two types of pipes which are covered here:

1. Water pipe
2. Food pipe (i.e. Human Digestive Tract)

"When your water has been sitting for several hours, you can minimize the potential for lead exposure by flushing your tap for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before using water for drinking or cooking," suggests Mid-Peninsula Water District.

The first thing in my morning is the food preparation routine. In this routine, I always flush our tap for at least 2 minutes. However, instead of wasting away precious water resource, I use that water in food cleaning. For example, I usually rub the surface of carrots in the tap stream. Then place carrots in a container for further cleaning (see next section).

While we sleep in the evening, our organs still work hard to repair our cells and detox our bodies. For example, new research shows that a recently discovered mechanism that removes waste products from the brain is mainly active during sleep.^[3] As suggested in [2], drinking fruit-and-veggie smoothies in the morning helps hydrate your digestive tract and aids your colon in the elimination of fecal matter. So, that's our second cleaning and probably the most important one in your morning routine.^[2,7]

Surface Cleaning

There are also two kinds of surface cleaning involved in my morning routine:

1. Food cleaning
2. Skin cleaning

Forget about removing systemic pesticides.^[9]  As shown in many reports, you cannot simply remove them by washing. However, for raw-food preparation, we still want to reduce the health hazards posed by the following pathogens and toxins as much as possible:

• Bad germs (i.e., E coli., Salmonella, etc.)^[4,14]
• Pesticide residues on the surface of fruits or veggies

In my morning routine, I wash our fruits or veggies in the following steps:

1. Rubbing hard-skinned foods under the tap stream
2. Soaking foods in water with baking soda^[4,5,11]
• After 15 minutes, pour away the water. Note that we usually use this water for our indoor or outdoor plants.^[13]
• Add water again and then throw away this water too.
3. Soaking foods in water with salt and vinegar (or lemon juice)^[5,8]
• After 2-5 minutes, pour away the water. Note that this water is not good for plants. For water conservation, you can save it later for dish washing.
• Add a bit more water and make sure all water are drained.

Baking soda is alkaline and is a good surface washing agent. Based on some reports, it was said that pesticides are acidic. So, it makes sense to wash your fruits and veggies with baking soda first. Salt and vinegar are also good washing agents. To remove baking soda residues, we choose to use acidic liquids such as vinegar or lemon juice to achieve the task.

Instead of using vinegar, I usually choose lemons (or limes). So, in step 3 above, you can cut open a lemon and squeeze its juice into the soaking water. After that, don't throw away your lemon yet. You can use the remaining lemon to clean up your skins (i.e., face and hands). Using lemon to clean up your face or wash your hands can help your skin healthy in two ways:

• Healthy skin should be slightly acidic
• Lemon contains high amounts of Vitamin C

Personal Experience

For over 8 years now, I have been practicing the above cleaning tasks in my morning routine. These cleanings or cleansing can help you:

• Protect against food contaminants
• Start your morning with a healthy diet
• Deep clean and nourish your skins

Without hesitation, I will strongly recommend you doing the same. As John Robbins^[10] said,

"May all be fed. May all be healed. May all be loved."

References

1. When You Heat Natural Plant-Based Foods You Can Get Cancer-Causing Acrylamide
2. Drink Your Fruit-and-Veggie Smoothies in the Morning (Travel to Health)
3. Sleep helps 'detox' your brain
4. Foodborne Illness Outbreaks
5. Baking Soda
6. Cleaning Never Tasted So Good (EWG)
7. HOW TO CLEAN OUT THE COLON NATURALLY WITH FOOD (LiveStrong.com)
8. What Does It Take to Clean Fresh Food? (NPR)
9. You cannot wash off systemic pesticides
10. Healthy At 100 by John Robbins
11. A Little about Baking Soda, Baking Soda Book
• Baking soda is nature's most versatile cleaning product, a natural substance that has been used around the world for nearly 150 years to remove odors, soften water, dissolve dirt and grime, scrub soap scum, and even unclog drains.
12. 錯誤的蔬果清潔，越洗越毒 (in Chinese) 
13. Your Fruit Is Covered With Nasty Pesticides: Scientists Have Discovered the Best Way to Wash Them Off
• After a 15-minute baking soda soak, almost all of the chemicals had been removed from the surface.
14. What Foods Are Most Likely to Make You Sick?