Anyone working on a healthy lifestyle has heard of a detox, often in the form of a juice cleanse. It seems like a quick fix, but nothing could be further from the truth. Why should we detox, and how can we do it in a healthy way?
Why detox?
If we break down the word detox, we get 'de' (remove) and 'tox' (toxins); we want to rid our body of toxins. Today, many toxins end up in our system. We not only find toxins in food and personal care products, but air pollution and radiation also play a major role. No matter how hard we try to live healthily, we will always ingest unwanted toxins. So, there is nothing wrong with ridding ourselves of these toxins every now and then!
Nowadays, however, a commercial trend has emerged around the concept of 'detoxing'. Many health gurus swear by juice cleanses, diets, and restrictions. For instance, they might only drink juices for days or eat only certain foods. Probably with the best of intentions, but what they don't know is that this is actually an assault on our system.
What detoxing really does to our body
The goal of a detox is to cleanse our body, and people often want to lose weight. The good news? Our body has its own detox system! Our organs, especially the liver, skin, and kidneys, have a strong detoxification function. To allow the liver to do its job properly, it is important that the liver (and all other organs) are provided with sufficient healthy nutrients.
When we follow a juice cleanse, we only consume the juice from vegetables and fruits. This juice mainly contains fruit sugars (carbohydrates), and we miss the healthy fiber our body so desperately needs. We are literally shortchanging our body with this. The massive nutritional deficiencies that arise from a juice cleanse cause a high stress level in our body, which causes our reserves to be tapped into. As a result, we also lose a lot of fluid at first. This is how a juice cleanse causes us to lose temporary weight, which often comes back very quickly after the cleanse.
What can we do better?
As I said, our body has its own 'detox system'. This simply means that our organs in a healthy body are capable of detoxing. However, that does not mean that our organs cannot sometimes use a helping hand.
Do you want to support your body to detox in a responsible way? Then try these tips;
- Eat enough (especially green) vegetables; the fiber stimulates the bowels and thus contributes to good digestion. All of this is necessary to flush out waste products.
- Use fresh herbs, for example those below;
- Parsley promotes kidney function
- Dandelion has a diuretic effect
- Oregano stimulates the metabolism
- Try Oil Pulling; rinse your mouth in the morning for 10 minutes with cold-pressed coconut or sesame oil. You can find more about this in the Brain Food Smoothies book!
I wish you the best of luck with these tips!
