Cleansing Your Body For a Fresh Start
Our modern life is often sedentary; we don’t practice clean eating, and partake in behaviors that lessen our bodies’ ability to remove toxins. Luckily, there are plenty of safe and natural methods to detox. Our bodies are uniquely equipped with detoxification systems; we just have to help them run at full capacity. No uncomfortable procedures or weeks spent starving on this detox!
How to Detox, Safely
The real reason that detox fans claim to feel so much better after a cleanse is that cleanses typically cut out sugary and processed foods. Practicing clean eating–with the goal of consuming fewer processed foods and more whole foods like vegetables and organic meat–will achieve the same effects and make a world of difference, without any of the risk.
The food restrictions that are common with unhealthy detoxes can leave you weak and lead to destructive binges afterward, but proper intermittent fasting can be used with your doctor’s sign-off to lose weight predictably and sustainably. Unfortunately, more drastic detoxes like juice cleanses/colon cleanses or unstructured fasting are not guaranteed to be safe. These methods may use unpasteurized products with harmful bacteria, put you at risk of kidney damage or gastrointestinal disorders, or at best, just not provide all of the nutrients you need in a day.
How to Help Your Body Detox
Rather than being loaded up with mysterious chemical toxins, it’s far more likely that your body is actually lacking something. Start with water–stay hydrated! Water helps to remove waste products from your body, through breathing, sweating, and urination. Buy a measurable water bottle like the UENDURE insulated Bamboo Bottle, and keep it at your side to sip throughout the day.
Similarly, either reduce your salt intake to help all that water flush out your system and keep it running clean, or counteract its water-retaining effect with potassium-rich foods such as potatoes and bananas.
It’s also crucial to form healthy sleep habits. Going to bed and waking up at consistent times is a great start. It also helps to keep your room cooler than it would be during the day, and make sure you set that phone down half an hour before you get in bed.
During the day, try to keep active; regular exercise reduces inflammation in your body, giving your detoxification system the greenlight and safeguarding against disease. Even going for a five to ten minute walk can help your system function better.
Natural Supplements
Teas are a good alternative to water, if you’re having trouble letting the idea of a juice cleanse go. Detox tea blends from trustworthy stores are particularly good: with ingredients such as burdock root to act as a diuretic against water retention, and lemon myrtle for a vitamin C-packed immune system boost. Check out the link above for tea that reviewers are saying “works wonders." For a 'turbo charged' cleansing, you may want an herbal detox booster such as the Senna leaf. Senna tea is a good all-natural alternative to DIY colon cleanses, as well.
There are plenty of other natural remedies that can help your body remove toxins at peak functionality. Sulfur-containing foods like eggs and garlic help your body excrete problematic heavy metals like cadmium. So does cilantro, although this probably won’t help people with the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap.
Eating antioxidant and prebiotic-rich foods are other ways to help your body detox. Antioxidant-rich foods like berries, nuts, cacao, and green tea prime your body to fight oxidative stress caused by free radicals (the scientific term for toxins) in your body.
Likewise, prebiotic-rich foods like tomatoes, onions, and oats improve your gut health and internal detoxification system. Reducing alcohol consumption also works to free up your liver to detoxify your body naturally.
Trust Your Body
Your body has been undergoing detox since you were born, and it knows exactly what to do. All you have to do for a successful and safe detox, is help it out a bit. So be sure to drink plenty of water, and maybe some tea–and we’ll see you in a healthier tomorrow!