Cleanse In Three Weeks With Nettle

The nettle is a plant that appears in the wild and that, in general, we despise because of the hives that it causes when it comes into contact with the skin. However, this plant hides multiple health benefits, including its incredible cleansing properties for the body.

Discover in this article how you can carry out a three-week cure with fresh and dry nettle, preparing infusions and broths. It is one of the most excellent medicinal plants.

Nettle properties

The nettle ( Urtica dioica ) is a wild and very resistant medicinal plant. Which has the following therapeutic properties, which will help us to do a very complete purification:

• Thanks to its content of potassium and other minerals, nettle removes excess fluids from the body and increases the amount of urine.
• Thanks to its content of sulfur, linoleic acid and oleic acid, it improves liver function, whose main objective is to purify the blood of toxic substances.

• It stimulates the functioning of the digestive system and facilitates the digestion of fats and proteins.
• It has mild laxative effects that facilitate evacuation without irritating the intestine.
• It slightly reduces the appetite and calms the anxiety to eat.
• Lowers cholesterol, uric acid and blood sugar levels.
• Improves circulation, which enhances the body’s self-healing in a natural way.
• Thanks to its content of iron and other minerals, nettle fights exhaustion and provides vitality. The latter is very necessary in the moments when we decide to carry out a purifying cure.

What do we need?

To do this purification we will need dried nettle leaf, sold in any herbalist and also fresh leaves.

As we know, nettle leaves cause hives at the slightest touch. And the intensity of the reaction depends on the type of contact and on each person.

• To collect them, we will always choose a clean area without contamination. This detail is very important because, if we use a plant loaded with toxins from the environment in which it has grown, not only will we not purify the body, but we will be poisoning it even more.
• We will put on thick plastic gloves, like those we use for gardening or in the kitchen, and we will wait 12 hours before using them. After this time the irritating effect will have disappeared.
• Whenever we can, we will choose the youngest and most tender shoots and, if possible, before they have flowered, since it is their medicinal peak.

What does it consist of?

For 21 days we must follow the following instructions and propose to have willpower to dispense with unhealthy whims.

• On an empty stomach, we will take an infusion of nettle, hot or warm, with the juice of half a lemon. If we need to sweeten it, we will always do it with stevia.
• Half an hour later we will have breakfast and choose fresh and whole foods: fruit, yogurt, whole wheat bread, oatmeal, nuts, etc.
• At midmorning we will take the second infusion of nettle (without the lemon juice).
• At lunchtime we will mostly opt for vegetables, brown rice, legumes, fresh cheese, eggs and fish. Someday we can eat meat, preferably white.
• In the middle of the afternoon we will eat something light if we are hungry: fruit, nuts, etc.
• For dinner we will prepare a nettle broth as indicated below. As a second course we can choose between egg, fish, fresh cheese, applesauce with walnuts or something similar.

We will try to have an early dinner and a moderate amount to enhance the benefits of this cleansing, which multiply during the hours of the night.

Nettle broth

Nettle broth or soup is an old recipe that, in addition to being a simple dish, is also a medicinal remedy; thanks to all the properties of the nettle and the rest of the vegetables that we are going to use.

The main ingredient in this broth will be the fresh nettle that we have collected. In addition, we will add:

• Onion
• Garlic
• Celery
• Leek
• Artichoke
• Carrot

We can vary the vegetables according to what we have that day or to our liking. If we want to give the soup a little more consistency, we will add rolled oats. Season the broth with a good jet of quality olive oil, a little sea salt, a pinch of cayenne and a few drops of apple cider vinegar.

Images courtesy of Alan Levine, Sir_Iwan, bkajino, and Daniel Friedle.