Excess consumption, chronic stress, processed foods, environmental chemicals, and much more burden bodies mentally, emotionally, and physically. In this article, I’ll teach you the basics and benefits of detoxing, providing insights on augmenting your health, ridding your body of toxins, enabling weight loss, and deterring accelerated aging of your body, mind, heart, spirit, and soul.
Detoxing: Removing, neutralizing, or transforming toxic build-up, pollution, and chemical residue stockpiled in the body and associated with weight gain, cellulite, poor health, and dis-eases.
Why Detox?
Years of overeating nutrient-void foods, moving at a chaotic pace, compromised sleep quality, and consumption of alcohol, tobacco, coffee, drugs, and other toxic substances accumulate in our gastrointestinal tract. Most everyone needs to rest their digestive functions, to internally cleanse and detox. While our bodies naturally cleanse itself all the time, some toxins don’t always effectively leave our body. Our digestive and lymphatic systems can accumulate toxins, impairing our health.
Some symptoms of toxicity: headache, fatigue, mucus problems, fungal issues, aches, pains, digestive disorders including elimination challenges, nausea, allergy symptoms, environmental sensitivity, and chronic inflammation, including arthritis.
Detoxing Details:
There are numerous options for detoxing, but it’s important to begin with a gentle, non-invasive program, most particularly if you’ve never done a detox before. The elimination system must be working well to avoid re-ingesting toxins.
Detoxing and cleansing symptoms may occur—headaches, nausea, and fatigue—as toxins are released from the cellular level and travel to the organs of elimination. As the toxins move through the detox system, you may feel worse before you feel better. These symptoms vary from person to person depending on previous lifestyle behaviors. It is recommended you consult your attending practitioner or natural physician for guidance choosing a detox suitable to your conditions.
To begin a detox, most practitioners suggest a cleansing program lasting approximately a week or so. It involves drinking plenty of purified water, getting enough rest, and eating a nutritious, well-balanced, whole foods diet high in quality macro and micro nutrients, including essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. Elimination of the top most common allergens is recommended! (All forms of dairy, wheat, corn, and soy, and often eggs, tree nuts, and shellfish.)
Naturally, refined carbohydrates, added and fake sugars, and all junk foods need to be eliminated as well, along with alcohol, cigarettes, and coffee to give the body a rest from the associated toxins.
Additional Detox Assistance:
During a detox, dry skin brushing is recommended to stimulate the lymphatic system and open pores, further augmenting elimination. In addition, drinking eight 250ml cups of pure water daily, along with sea salt baths, help flush the system of toxins.
Bouncing on a rebounder/mini trampoline is also very effective in assisting the function of the lymphatic system. Rebounding works by forcing the millions of one-way valves in the lymphatic system to open, increasing lymph flow by up to fourteen times. The effect lasts for about one hour, and jumping for as little as a few minutes is effective.
Infrared Sauna: Research from the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School has shown the infrared sauna to be a superior, gentle, and non-invasive form of detoxification.
Taking digestive enzymes, probiotics, and a high quality food derived multivitamin at this time will help repopulate the healthy bacteria in the body while minimizing stress on the body systems. A greens beverage is also suggested.
Ending the Detox:
When ending a detox, it is important to gradually reintroduce foods and practices that were eliminated. Reintroduce eliminated foods one at a time, paying attention to your body’s reactions. You may notice reactions to certain foods you previously thought were ok for you, even foods deemed healthy.
In addition to better food choices, ensure you make better behavior choices (sufficient water consumption, regular exercise, stress management, enough rest, etc.) in order to not re-toxify the body.
Considering a Cleanse or Detox Regime?
- First, stop ingesting toxin laden foods and choose organic whenever possible.
- Cut out the over-processed, fake, trans fats and fast foods.
- Eliminate the over-refined, enriched flours and preservative laden pre-packaged products.
- Move out the added sugars and all fake sugar replacements.
- Cut the caffeine and non-vegan proteins: especially beef, chicken, pork, dairy, farmed fish, eggs, whey, etc.
- Choose cold pressed, unrefined oils; natural nut & seed butters; raw nuts & seeds; ancient grains like buckwheat, teff, amaranth, and quinoa; fresh foods; seasonal fruits & veggies; organic foods, legumes, produce, sprouts, and beverages.
- Start slow. Create new habits you can sustain; reduce the toxins ingested. Once you can master this, a cleanse or detox will further enhance or reclaim your health, increase your energy levels, and strengthen your immune system to prevent and treat illness.
- Consult your health practitioner or physician for guidance and expertise.
