I Tried The Ayurvedic Cleanse Sweeping Social Media. Here's What Happened

Put simply, kitchari is a mix of rice and lentils and quick-cooking pulses, like mung beans. Sarah Britton actually shared her kitchari recipe in a post on mindbodygreen, where she explained its benefits: "Because of its simplicity and ease, many people find that doing a detox on kitchari is very pleasant and far less of an undertaking than a juice fast, for example. Eating this dish exclusively for three to five days is said to purify the digestive organs while cleansing the body of toxins. I like to do this in the winter months when the weather is cold and I need some grounding, warm food, and juicing seems out of the question."

I used Britton's recipe, which was incredibly easy to follow and relied mostly on ingredients I already had in my pantry. The result looked, to be frank, like brown mush, but it tasted incredible: faintly spicy, with a fragrance like a spice market, and a delicate sweetness from the cinnamon. I followed Younger's lead and squeezed lemon on top, and the bright pop of acid elevated the dish even further. It felt somehow both light and cleansing and warm, grounding, and deeply soul-satisfying. All right, I thought. I can do this for a few days.

I ended up eating solely kitchari for three days. It was far and away my favorite "cleanse" I'd ever done, mostly because it felt nothing like a cleanse: My stomach never rumbled in hunger; my food was steaming hot and inviting, not cold, raw, and intimidating. I love the freedom from thinking about food—instead of spending hours going back and forth with my husband about what to cook for dinner each night, I simply reheated some kitchari. While consuming lentils and rice for breakfast felt strange at first, it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the cleanse—the hearty savoriness felt like starting my day with a hug and kept me full well past noon. At the end, I felt if not cleansed exactly, then reset. I craved sugar less than I normally did, and the break from my insatiable snacking habit truly felt like it gave my digestive system a rest. And I did, as Britton writes in her blog post detailing her experience, "rejoice in the fact that there is no need to do something radical and overly derivational during the winter. This is a time for closing in, for being quiet and gentle, and nourishing oneself in a tender way."