http://www.facebook.com/healeoPeople do weird things in the name of good health. From juice-only cleanses to frequent banya visits to endless extremes of dieting, exercise, and supplementation, it’s probably fair to say that health is one area of life where we all tend to get a little crazy. Illogic consistently sways us with its shiny testimonies. Personally, I find I am most susceptible to excessive curiosity and experimentation with my diet. And sometimes my body remonstrates. Or sometimes my common sense does. Occasionally, both do in harmony . . . like today.First off, let me state plainly that I adore Healeo on Capitol Hill. The people and menu there are both fantastic, and I’ve spent many a sunny afternoon there eating hemp ice cream and drinking smoothies while typing away at my computer. It’s a great little place, with an utterly impressive array of dietary supplements, along with inspirational displays about how much better you will feel if only you try this. And in fact, I can recount several times when I’ve been handed just exactly what I did need when I went to visit. Today I was following up on a tip I received a while back, about Brazil Nut Protein Powder, which can only be purchased at a few places around town. I knew Healeo was one of them, so I went to check it out, picked up a bag of the mixture, and was about to leave . . . when I got sidetracked by the promise of miraculous juice-bar healings. This year’s cold and flu season has been particularly brutal and tenacious, and those who’ve fallen prey to it have seemed to stay indefinitely in its clutches. My voice retreated from the front lines of battle about a week and a half ago, and has barely been heard from since. So I thought something for immune support might be a good idea. I asked the gentleman at the counter about it. And somehow, some way, he managed to convince me–someone who strictly avoids things served in 1 oz. glasses anywhere near a juicer–to buy a tonic shot involving lemon, raw ginger, garlic oil, oregano oil, and a heavy dusting of cayenne pepper. (A Wellness Shot, sparing me the usual peppermint.) I stood watching him make it, and wondering what I’d gotten myself into as I was handed a glass of water, an orange slice, and a shot glass filled with an oily-looking, tan substance and topped by a float of chili-colored powder. He recommended sipping the mixture, if I could handle it, and then backed away. I picked it up, looked at it, sniffed it, and then carefully took a sip. It burned. Sweet, salty, sour, spicy–all these sensations, all at once, and it burned. Although only an ounce of liquid, all the different ingredients were separating and following each other, one shocking flavor after the other, as I stubbornly sipped away, finished the shot, downed the water, and put the orange slice in my mouth. Ugh. Blehk.hhttp://sisterearthorganics.wordpress.com . . . It wasn’t until a while later that the full effect of the flavor compound caught up with me. I’d gone home, Brazil Nut Protein Powder in tow, to make something creative for lunch and do research for a post that was supposed to be about dairy-free/soy-free protein powders . . . when all of a sudden, standing in the kitchen, putting together ingredients for a stew, stomach still anxious from my morning adventures . . . an eructation of formidable flavor finalized the whole experience with a definite realization of just how bad garlic, ginger, oregano, and cayenne actually taste when combined together in such intense concentrations.The tragedy of the whole ordeal is that, like so many other half-hearted health-food addicts, I don’t think I learned a thing. (Except that burping oregano and garlic for an entire day is not fun.) My voice is still gone, I am still undeterred in my researching of protein powders (when I could far more easily eat a steak), and I am still weirdly convinced that the awful afternoon cocktail was probably good for me, even though it doesn’t seem to have accomplished much. (Although it may have accomplished a whole lot more if I hadn’t preceded it with a cookie and followed it with a cup of coffee. Possible.)Ah well. Perhaps next time, I’ll be cured . . .Follow Voracious on Twitter and Facebook.