The sacred ritual of eating food binds us to a place and time, and binds us to the company we keep. It’s why we loathe eating in hospitals, and love eating at celebrations. In Greek mythology, Persephone eats a pomegranate given to her by Hades, and becomes forever bound to the underworld. Eating connects us to the values, conditions and processes that created our food – ideally not from the underworld. Many of humanity’s sacred texts articulate rules on abstaining from some foods and carefully preparing others. In researching biblical texts, talking with friends, and doing a little soul searching, I concluded the message behind all of this is simply that food choices matter.

In my experience, there are two groups of people who really, truly love to talk enthusiastically about their bowel functions for hours on end: preschoolers, and people doing a detox cleanse. While I’ve never had an amazing must-tell-the-world experience in this arena, I do agree that if you’re going to do a cleanse, you need to be able to talk poo with your doctor (if no one else). Think of it like the scoreboard at a baseball stadium, in a game of you versus the undesirables. If you don’t keep an eye on your stats, you won’t play your best game.

Punxsutawney Phil may have foretold “six more weeks of winter” on February second, but in the San Francisco Bay Area, Spring is always alive and kicking by mid February. Bougainvilleas are one among many blooms, dotting green and fragrant hills. People’s thoughts turn to gardening, spring training and flip flop fashion. My own sign of Spring fever? I start scanning the calendar for an optimal three-week chunk of time in which to do a detox cleanse.