18 January 2008

While we’re on the subject of unfortunate gastric side effects.

All this week I have been making myself fresh juice for breakfast. It’s a zingy accompaniment to my bran flakes and yoghurt that helps to brighten up the murky mornings we get at this time of year. I like mixing up a variety of fruit and vegetables but usually starting with grapefruit and fresh ginger, perhaps adding a carrot or two, an apple or a pear, the odd satsuma. Something like that.

Yesterday and today I included beetroot in the juice. Now, I’m not a big fan of beetroot generally as I don’t like the texture of it. But it’s great in juice as it’s so fabulously earthy and tastes so big that it’s difficult to see how all that flavour fits into one small root. And then, of course, there is the fabulous colour. Just the smallest amount immediately turns the juice into the sort of red that you only see in the blood dripping from the fangs of a vampire in some cheap gothic horror. It looks voluptuous and sinful.

Its hue is also extremely tenacious, enduring even after digestion so that, erm, what comes out the other end is, well, spectacular. This is due to the betecyanin which has difficulty breaking down when the stomach is more acidic (apparently). In other words, drinking beetrot and grapefruit juice together will really make your poop pink. Still, the effect, though startling, is harmless. Unless you are unprepared for it and run off to your GP in a terror thinking you’re going to die and you needlessly waste his or her time.

I just wish the colour didn’t clash so violently with the purple bathroom tiles.

Filed under: Mulch — Clare @ 11:26 am