Summer will end this month, and many of the garden-fresh fruits and vegetables will soon be gone. Now is the time to include some fall favorites like apples, figs, sweet potatoes and spinach.

Raw spinach is one of nature’s best agents for detoxifying the digestive tract and restoring the pH balance. It will soothe intestinal inflammation and provide organic mineral salts to repair and maintain good colon health. The oxalic acid found in spinach is in a natural and beneficial form when its raw, but cooking converts this acid into an inorganic form that binds with calcium to form a compound the body cannot absorb. This is then deposited in the kidneys and helps create a calcium deficiency in the body.

Sweet potatoes are nutritious, easy to digest and good for the elimination system or an inflamed colon. They are also beneficial to blood circulation and very alkaline when they are raw. Cooking makes them much more acidic. Sweet potatoes contain phytochelatins that can bind heavy metals like cadmium, copper, mercury and lead to detoxify them from body tissues.

Figs have been used since ancient times to treat nearly every known disease because they contain more minerals and are more alkaline than most fruits. They also produce energy and vitality for the system. Either fresh or sun-dried figs work as an excellent natural laxative for sluggish bowels. They have a high mucin content and tiny seeds that help gather toxic wastes and mucus in the colon and drag them out. Figs help kill pernicious bacteria while promoting the buildup of friendly acidophilus bacteria in the bowel.

Apples have many therapeutic qualities and can modify the intestinal environment by reactivating beneficial bacteria that normally flourish there. They are very digestible and alkaline and have a high water content, which quenches cellular thirst. Apples contain both malic and tartaric acids, which help remove impurities in the liver and inhibit the growth of ferments and disease-producing bacteria in the digestive tract. They also contain pectin, a gel-forming fiber that supplies galacturonic acid to prevent the putrefaction of protein. Pectin also helps make apples an excellent intestinal broom, working as a bulking agent to gently push through the digestive tract and cleanse it along the way.

Ginger helps promote overall circulation of energy and acts as a stimulant for anyone convalescing from an illness. It neutralizes toxins and aids in the digestion and assimilation of food. Ginger is known to help prevent motion sickness and vertigo. Chewing a little raw ginger will even soothe a sore throat.

Fresh lemon juice works as a strong solvent in the body, stimulating the liver and the gallbladder, stirring up inactive acids and toxic settlements that cannot be eliminated any other way. Lemons also contain a substance known as limonene that helps dissolve gallstones.

Eating spinach, sweet potatoes, figs and apples are all good for the colon, and when the colon is healthy, the body is healthy. A good diet, along with regular colon cleansing, provides excellent maintenance to create and keep a healthy body.

Sweet Potato Fig Salad

1 cup raw sweet potato 1 cup raw apple 1 cup fresh or dried figs ½ cup dates 2 cups spinach 1 tsp fresh ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp Himalayan salt Pinch cayenne pepper 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice ⅓ cup alkaline water

Pit the dates and combine with the ginger, cinnamon, salt, lemon juice and water and blend in the VitaMix into a creamy dressing.

Chop the sweet potato and the apple, figs and spinach. Combine all the ingredients along with the creamy date dressing mixture and toss until well coated. Brenda Cobb is author of The Living Foods Lifestyle and founder of the Living Foods Institute, in Atlanta, offering Healthy Lifestyle courses on nutrition, cleansing, healing and anti-aging, including a therapy spa offering treatments to help detoxify, nourish and relax the body. For more information, call 404-524-4488 or 1-800-844-9876 and visit LivingFoodsInstitute.com. See ad, inside front cover.