How To Detox Your Body With Organic Foods
Over dinner one evening a herbalist friend of mine recommended I needed to detox my body, and put some effort into learning how to detox and see how toxins accumulate in my body and impact my wellbeing and energy levels. I didn’t know the first thing about detoxing, so took it upon myself to learn as much about the process as possible, and get to grips with what is really involved and why the natural health industry recommend following a detox diet and in particular the 7 day detox diet so avidly.
She also hinted to me to try a relaxing foot detox. I now treat myself to a foot massage at least once a week, but if you don’t have one of those, those foot detox pads can do just as good a job – but with the patches you don’t get a relaxing foot massage at the same time
This is what I learnt about how to detox your body.
Herbal teas and water and plenty of both
Making sure you take in plenty of fluids is very important while you are following a detox diet as it will help your body flush out all the toxins. Drinking plenty of water also has other health benefits like promoting regular bowel movements, stops water retention (believe it or not), and helps reduce the signs of aging by plumping up your skin. You should aim for about 2 to 3 liters a day, but increase that when the weather is hot.
A general pointer is to aim to drink an extra half liter of water for every hour you exercise. Filtered or bottled water is best as tap water contain chlorine and other toxins. Keep your water at room temperature as it’s more refreshing that way. Feel free to substitute herbal teas if you can’t face all that water – loose leaf is better than tea bags as it hasn’t been processed as much. Dandelion root, yarrow, roibosch and green tea are especially great in a detox as their hidden ingredients help boost the detox process. Roibosch (Redbush) tea is also beneficial as it is very high in OPC antioxidants.
Some Tips To Help You Drink Your Quota.
If drinking 2 to 3 liters a day seems overpowering, it’s actually fairly easy when you know how. Have a glass of water with a little freshly squeezed lemon juice or root ginger when you rise – it’s the perfect way to start up your digestive system and bowel then have more water whenever you take a coffee break.
Each time you eat something have a glass then, a glass between meals, have another drink mid evening and one more glass when you’re getting ready for bed. Remember, some of these glasses can actually be herbal teas or freshly squeezed juices.
The Fresher The Better
If possible you should be buying fresh food and juice or blend them for maximum benefit or just eat them raw, for example as snacks, crudites, salads, and juices. Raw food is full of vital nutrients, phytochemicals and enzymes. If food is kept too long, or when it is heated and cooked, its nutritional value plummets.
Buy locally grown produce if you can, preferably at farms and markets in your area Food imported internationally tends to be picked underripe (before it’s built up its full nutritional value) and will have lost much of its nutritional value during its journey to your supermarket.
Is Organic Better
Buying organic produce where possible is better for your health but not totally necessary, as organic produce is normally higher priced than non organic equivalents, but if you can manage one or two organic foods that would be great.
It’s not a major problem if you can’t get hold of any organic produce. All you need to worry about is eating enough fresh foods regardless of them being organic or not, instead of eating too few of them. However, there are some good reasons for concentrating on organic food on a healthy detox diet.
The use of artificial chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers are not allowed when growing organic foods, so they have very little or no potentially toxic man made chemicals. It’s also a very controversial subject as there is growing evidence that the accumulation of toxins from man made chemicals and bug sprays are linked to some of the serious health conditions of today.
Organic foods are subject to a lot less processing. That means they contain no hydrogenated fats, artificial additives, preservatives or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The taste and flavor of organic food is usually much better as well.
