Natural detox strategies to cleanse your body with your diet
Do you feel “off”? At times it might be annoying little symptoms like achy joints or muscles or brain fog. Or maybe you feel sluggish, sleepy, and struggling to get through the afternoon without a sugar boost? Is your skin not looking at its best? Do you suffer from headaches, allergies, acne or gas? What about more serious issues, such as autoimmune diseases, migraines, asthma, irritable bowel, reflux, or arthritis?
You could benefit from a skin and body detox
A detox programme does not have to involve drinking weird, foul-tasting concoctions, being constantly hungry, having to hang around the bathroom all day, or otherwise suffering and depriving yourself.
A focus on food to support the highly complex processes of detoxification and biotransformation is the wise approach.
Put simply, a good detox is done by taking out the bad stuff and putting in the good stuff: heaps of good stuff.
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Toxins may be preventing you from achieving wellness.
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Detoxification can help you eliminate the wrong foods and give your liver and overall health a helping hand in eliminating those excess toxins.
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The right detox program can help your body optimise its detoxification process.
Many of the things we come across daily (e.g., the food we eat, the air we breathe, prescription drugs) can cause toxins to accumulate, eventually overwhelming the body’s defence processes.
When we are toxic, the mechanism for detoxification, primarily the liver, gets sluggish. Certain toxins can therefore remain active longer than our systems can handle. This impedes normal metabolism and can make us sick.
A well-designed detoxification plan based on natural ingredients can help us overcome these challenges. It can also help us break the cycle of poor food choices that lead to toxin build-up in the first place.
A healthy diet is the way to detoxification
Eating well, for you, is the key to successful detoxification. First, remove foods that interfere with detoxification or make you more toxic. Among them include fructose, which is found in soft drinks (as high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS) but also in fruit juices and commercial juice cleanses, among a zillion other foods where it is hidden.
Research shows this simple sugar can become a key contributor to chronic diseases, including obesity. Fructose ramps up problems including chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, which both contribute to obesity.
A natural cleanse also involves avoiding trans fats and damaged fats. These are fats found in processed foods with “partially hydrogenated” on the label, often referred to as “low in fat”.
Food sensitivities can also stall weight loss and exacerbate toxicity by making your gut more permeable and allowing toxins to enter the bloodstream. Gluten, dairy, soy, and corn are among the common food sensitivities. When considering detoxification, try eliminating these foods to see if your symptoms improve.
To get started on your detox journey, eat real
Focus on adding these natural foods into your diet:
- Cruciferous vegetables: These veggies contain sulphur compounds and glucosinolates, which help the liver detox. Examples include broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and watercress.
- Garlic: This pungent flavourful food contains allicin and selenium, both of which support detoxification.
- Beets and carrots: These root vegetables are rich in fibre and antioxidants, which help to cleanse the gut.
- Green tea: This popular beverage contains catechins, which are powerful antioxidants that help the liver cleanse.
- Lemons and limes: These citrus fruits are rich in vitamin C, a water-soluble vitamin that helps the detoxification process and supports the immune system.
- Walnuts: These nuts contain glutathione, an important compound for detoxification.
- Avocados: This creamy fruit is rich in healthy fats.
- Spices such as turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper also have detoxifying and anti-inflammatory properties.
Start by eating more of these foods. Make sure you incorporate the right gut-supporting foods and nutrients, drink plenty of clean water and see how your body responds. You may be surprised at how good you feel!
We are what we eat …. cliché as it sounds
If you want to detoxify your body, the best way to do it is through your diet. By adding detoxifying foods and eliminating toxins, you can cleanse your body and feel better than ever. So, what are you waiting for?
find me
Grow Eat Heal Ltd
Jocelyn J Murray
Auckland, New Zealand