It might sound slightly blasphemous to visit Spain, the land of paella, pan con tomate, and patatas bravas, and choose to dine on miso soup with a side of algae. But that's my meal one evening at Sha Wellness Clinic, a health resort in Alicante whose terrace restaurant overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. Instead of enjoying it with a glass of rosé, I wash it down with a cup of umeboshi tea, a soupy brew made from the funky, salty Japanese plum that's known to be an antibacterial superfood.
The menu isn't part of some newfangled scheme to shed pounds. Rather, the macrobiotic drinks and dishes all have microbiome-boosting properties that alleviate bloating and support gastrointestinal health, the target of the new “gut-health-focused pack.” The weeklong regimen—crammed with specialist consultations, colon cleansing, and other stomachhealing treatments—can be added onto Sha's existing programs. It comes at a time when emerging research indicates that the link between the GI tract and the brain may be far more crucial than Western medicine has previously acknowledged. Findings suggest that the digestive system heavily impacts our well-being and, when out of whack, accelerates anxiety and even depression.
The Sha retreat, which sits on the edge of a nature preserve and offers brilliant water views, opened in late 2008. Since then, it has made a name for itself with luxurious, nutrition-centric programs designedand tribulations after picking up parasites during my travels, plus ongoing inflammation from a bad bout of dengue fever years ago, I figured a week of nutritional rigor and high-touch therapies in the Spanish sunshine couldn't hurt.
