No this post has nothing to do with flooding. Growing up in rural Jamaica with my grandmother included many hated rituals. One of these rituals included a “wash out” that would be administered at the end of the Christmas and Summer holidays about a week before school restarted. A washout is a detox cleanse. Children would be given a store bought herb tea or a stinky concoction of all sorts of plants collected though out the woods.

One of the herbs in the detox

I hated the washout days. We would be given the awful brew while an adult stood above us with a belt to ensure we drank it. We were not allowed to have breakfast until we went to the bathroom. Apparently this would help us to pass out all the worms that collected in our stomachs. Thankfully I have never passed a worm, not knowingly at least . Apart from a hate of the taste, these detoxes never had any discernible impact on me.

10 years after my last detox a friend told me about this “Wash out Tea” that would jumpstart weightloss. I gulped down the tea without even giving any thought to what it really was. 4 hours later I woke up with the most excruciating abdominal pains I considered going to the ER.. Let us just say that the next 4 hours of my life didn’t go so well. I quickly googled the tea I just gulped down and realize I drank a powerful laxative.

The memory of the 4 hours of stomach pain and time spent in the bathroom turned me off from food for a few days. so yes I lost a few pounds. Try “Dieter’s Tea” if you dare!!