When we hear someone say we are dehydrated, the first thing we think is, Dang, I should drink more water—I should be drinking my 8 glasses of water. Well, yeah, for sure. But did you know what’s really drying you out?
Welcome to the 7 Inflamers or Dehydrators:
The Seven Inflamers
Why they are considered dehydrating for the tissues of the body—meaning, why they deeply dry us out.
Chilli burns your mouth and all the tissue it touches, all the way through to the anus. Lol, right!?
Onions are pungent and burn but can be rendered sweet by cooking them slowly over time. Use leeks, spring onions or chives as substitutes.
Garlic kills vampires. It’s magical and belongs in your medicine cabinet for when you have a bloodborne illness that requires serious nuking. It’s antibacterial and antifungal. We know it’s used in cooking, but traditionally you’d heat your oil, add the cloves to flavour the oil, then remove the cloves.
Sugar: The tenacious, sturdy sugarcane plant grows in the brightest sun and is densely saturated with sweet, fibrous juice, bursting with energy and vitality. A whopping 6,000 cm² of a single cane gets reduced down to 100g of sugar—that’s so much energy. Total overkill.
Coffee and Chocolate are essentially beans that have a downward draining energetic (diuretic properties), draining us of water content and minerals.
Alcohol: The Chinese say it quickens the blood, and we’re all familiar with the feeling of a hangover—deeply dehydrated, even if it’s minor. Traditionally, alcohol was drunk in tiny 30 mL glasses as a true aperitif with a meal to aid digestion.
Then we have crackers and biscuits, and dare I say toast, which require our own fluids in the gut to moisten them so they can be digested. You could have them with a cup of tea, but they are so deeply dried out that no water is actually going to penetrate them at a cellular level.
So, what’s the flip side?
Getting water into the food at a cellular level so it’s bursting at the seams. You can do this by steaming your vegetables, making risotto or congee (where the rice keeps absorbing water), eating soups, stews, and porridges—the list goes on. Just think about it: How can I make my meals more wet and sloppy, deeply nourishing for my whole body?