So one of my favourite tonic herbs that quite often doesn't get the recognition as being one of these vital herbs, one of the superior herbs that for thousands of years were seen to be as extremely useful to bring into the diet, so you have these humble medicinal actions doing that "chop wood, carry water" of maintaining your metabolic health long term is clay.

So I've just got a little, like Australian clay here, I like this brand, I use it. Bentonite clay is the only clay that you're gonna be able to get here in Australia, in other places there are different types which are able to be dietarily used but clay is a mineral tonic herb. In the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, the original Materia Medica over 2000s of years, 2000 years ago, when you know, roughly when that Materia Medica was produced and released to the world, that's where we start getting the, you know, we see eucommia bark and ginseng and there's four clays in there in that mineral category.

Now, a clay is something that I always like seeing people using when they are starting out in using medicinal mushrooms and these Jing herbs that we offer here at SuperFeast. And that's because a lot of the time, if especially if you're just moving into that more healthy lifestyle, you're going to see the immune system via taking those medicinal mushrooms, immune system and the rest of the metabolic system, starting to be... as you bring those Jing herbs and you start to get that foundational strength going in the body, all of a sudden, you are gonna start seeing the body's capacity to release metabolic toxins, toxins trapped in fat deposits, viral loads, bacterial loads, die off from Candida, all these things that are very natural that happen when you get on these herbs that we offer here at SuperFeast which are so immunologically potent. As there starts to be a little bit of extra strain on the Liver to get those out of the body, when you move to that phase three liver detoxification where the toxicity moves through the bile, you know, just whether it's the toxicity or just the waste, the metabolic waste, environmental waste, then all of a sudden, the body has the strength to remove from the system and get into the gastrointestinal tract. It's really nice... it's not an accident that these clays, these binders, these negatively charged minerals that have not an absorbing action, but an adsorbing action, which means that the surface is able to attract and bind those positively charged particles which, you know, we're talking about the viruses here, we're talking about heavy metals, these kinds of things that we want out of the body, that can come through the gastrointestinal tract and bind to and grab a hold of these toxins and move them out of the body, which means you're gonna have less absorption, reabsorption of these things that the Liver was trying to get out of the system and it's just gonna be happier days for everybody.

You know, remember if you're getting onto herbs like you know, hepatoprotective Liver-loving medicinal mushrooms, if you're getting onto, you know the schizandras you know, the Beauty Blend those Liver herbs, a lot of the Jing herbs are gonna be Liver herbs as well, tonifying that Liver, Wood energy. You are going to see more efficacy of your body's ability to get these out of the body and you really, really, really are going to have a hard time if you have digestive issues, if you aren't, you know, if your body isn't used to processing these kinds of toxins, you're gonna have a real hard time. That's why I love seeing people on like a bentonite clay.

When you, especially if you're having a little bit of a herx reaction, if you're having a little bit of detoxifying reaction, if you are on like the Beauty Blend with the Schizandra, for example, and all of a sudden that starts bringing up a little bit of acne, maybe for the first time because you've previously been on the pill or something like that, it's gonna be very useful for you, being on something like a clay, to get those, you know, to get those pharmaceuticals out the system.

Remember, it's a long term practise, being on the clay. You know, there's so many, you know. like there's so many examples of animals, pretty much most animals, you know, like especially mammals, but birds, going and finding clay deposits, you know, they're not even on a crappy Western pharmaceutical diet either, just for the wild food diet. There's going to be metabolic waste and there's going to be toxins within the wild food that they're eating, they know that they're going to go and seek out a clay deposit and eat that so it can bind to what's in there that they don't want and get it out the body. The indigenous usage around clay is, it's so well documented and it shows when you see Shennong, the original Materia Medica by that time. There's so much indigenous wisdom, that's getting poured into that Materia Medica and classified and that's why you see clay being one of the staple herbs, mineral herbs recommended to be long term in the diet.

How often do I take it? I might take it for like a week, and then I might, you know, like forget for two weeks and then I'll go back on for a couple of days, when I'm vibing it and then I might have a year taking it. It's like, it's in my diet, you know, it's like a, it's a long term practise for me. Clay is a real gentle way to do it, you know, I put it in a teaspoon of the powder in a water lot the time but the night before, I'm gonna take it and let that hydrate overnight, and then I'll take that first thing in the morning and I'll leave a nice gap before I'm taking any other herbs or doing any kinds of supplements.

If I wanna ramp it up, if I'm really going through a detoxification protocol zeolites is what I like to use. I don't use zeolites long term, I have a few friends that say, you know, maybe there's a possibility that it's demineralising, with long term usage. I don't know if that's the case or not but I like to like have the zeolites there when I'm like, I'm really feeling like I want a supercharged clay, and I'm really gonna be pulling it... and binding to, like especially a lot of heavy metals, and anything that's like excessively viral, fungal anything like that, it's a real super-charged clay. And then sometimes if I'm really feeling like I wanna clear, I'll collect towards the charcoal. My mate Damo from Super Health, just came out with Super Binder which has got a bit of charcoal and clay, the psyllium husk and slippery elm, so that's like for me charcoal is when, you know, it's a bit too dehydrating for me to be having all the time, but you know, to say I've been like I don't know like drinking, you know, like a bit more, I have a party and I've been drinking a little bit more. You know, if I'm feeling a little bit off, if I've been like, you know, needing to go through, if I'm eating things that I wouldn't normally eat and I really want that crap out of my body, then, or if I you know, if I'm going body surfing north of LA and Malibu and I know that there's gonna be a lot of environmental toxicity that I don't wanna muck around with and I want that absorbed and out of my body, we'll take charcoal. So that's a nice product as well.

So guys, binders are something that are extremely underestimated and it's something that, you know, in this SuperFeast tonic herbal community, I really wanna get you guys, you know, understanding these clays as tonic herbs. All right, and so it's a part of your diet and remember there were four tonic... four clays in the original Materia Medica. So if you're in the schizandras and astragaluses and reishis and cordyceps and ginsengs, you better be into your clays too. So get your hands on some, enjoy them, that humble medicinal action of clay.