Detoxificajun: Learning how to love your liver in Louisiana

Lydia Wheaton Lynn

Like the Dirty Coast t-shirt says, New Orleans is for livers.

People don’t generally come to NOLA to lose weight and stay sober. We’re the Big Easy and we call it Fat Tuesday for a reason. We out-festival any other city hands down by both quantity and quality. If we run in the Crescent City Classic, we’re wearing tutus and taking jello shots along the way, thank you very much.

Being a tourist is one thing. They blow into town, they eat and drink until it hurts, and then they leave. When you’re a local, you wake up every day surrounded by naughty deliciousness and indulgences that are just waiting for you around every corner. For example, stumbling down Frenchmen Street, you will encounter tachos. That’s right, tater-tots and nachos got married and had a food baby.

Don’t get me wrong. I love our food, I love our lifestyle and I love our drinks, especially when I’m drinking one outside on a gorgeous day in an open container. It is amazing how hard you would have to try to eat a mediocre meal or listen to bad live music here in New Orleans. We are truly spoiled in that regard. But living in this adult playground, you have to be proactive about incorporating a little balance into your daily routines.

This is what Detoxificajun is all about. I will be offering simple and gentle suggestions about ways to improve overall wellness that won’t interfere with embracing life as a New Orleanian. Ask anyone: I am not a fun-killer and the last thing I want to do is limit happiness in this town. We don’t need to feel guilty about enjoying the occasional fried-oyster poboy and we don’t have to restrict the menu of our tailgating parties to water and celery sticks while we gear up to watch the Saints spank the Dirty Birds this season (all 20 fingers and toes crossed).

Let’s continue to experience and enjoy our NOLA traditions, but let’s also allot some time and energy to healthy living. It can be as simple as hitting up one of our local farmers’ markets for fresh seasonal produce and throwing some Brussels sprouts into our next crawfish boil. (Fun fact: Our livers love these disease-fighting cruciferous veggies that are high in vitamins and antioxidants).

The good news is that we don’t have to compromise our health to let the good times roll. And a little bit of intention can go a long way. Let’s plant that intention and create some space for our good health to take root. We can keep showing the world we know how to live life to the fullest down here in Louisiana, while at the same time giving our livers some much deserved love.