Kitchen purge aftermath.

So I have a box in front of me. The last vestiges of new no-nos from what I thought was an already ridiculously healthy kitchen. The sight makes me not just a bit irritated with myself for doing this, and also makes my stubborn part more determined out of spite for the weaker voice clinging to comfort foods. The organic unbleached (but still white) flour I can part with easily. No heartache over white and processed flours. Salt and oil cured olives cause a little twinge, but not too bad, ditto the jar of roasted red peppers. Salt and fats are taboo, as are nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, and peppers) in any large quantity. The pain comes when I get to three things. Two walk hand in hand: coconut milk along with powder, green paste, and red chili paste curries (I'm a curry junkie). Curries are my cold weather staple. They warm me to my toes and give me a lovely endorphin high. And the saturated fat in coconut milk and immunoirritants in curry place them high on the do-not-eat list. Third and definitely the most despair inciting, cocoa powder. Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa and -my heart lurches- a full canister of Dagoba organic cacao powder. Oh. My. Lord and lady. That one really really hurts. Mexican cocoa, the real homemade kind is my supreme self-love gesture. The caffeine alone makes it verboten, but it also apparently contains other compounds that aggravate the immune system. Now I'm giving it up as a more supreme gesture of self-love. So it begins: whole grains, vegetables, beans, limited temperate climate fruits, yoga, meditation, and avoidance of excessive or negatively stressful stimulus. Little or no caffeine, sugar, white flours, nightshade vegetables (though there's some debate on this point, it bears more research), strong spices, processed food, or animal foods.