Spring Then Summer Get Detoxing!
It’s hard to turn anywhere these days without “detox” being hailed as the miracle cure for anything from asthma to wrinkles, bad breath to weight loss. But what is a detox all about? And does it have to include shocking rituals that many so called “health gurus” say are necessary to truly detoxify the body?
Well, we’re not going to say that some of these more radical ideas might not work, but when it comes to expelling toxins from your body, you can do a lot simply by being aware of the food you eat, and ensuring that you gain nutrition from various foods that are known to have a detoxifying effect.
Detox Debunked!
Okay – first of all it’s not possible to get rid of all the toxins in our body. This is simply down to the fact that in our 21st century, technology advanced world, toxins are all around us. They’re in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Simply by being alive today, various toxins are entering your body every single second.
However, all is not lost, because your body is uniquely equipped to deal with these toxins – and has a waste system that puts anything man-made to shame. Nature is, after all, a wonderful thing. Your in-built detoxification system is primarily your liver, where harmful toxins are separated, processed and passed onto various other organs for excretion from the body. But you should consider that the body’s internal transportation system also needs to work well for detoxification to happen at optimum level.
And this is where eating foods that actively help with the body’s natural detoxification can help. The body is a finely tuned machine, and no one part works in isolation. This means that choosing the foods you eat can have a direct effect on how well your body can find, process and get rid of toxins.
Detox Superfoods
Garlic
The humble garlic bulb is perhaps one of the most powerful, and easy to add, foods that you can use in your diet. It stimulates the liver to produce various enzymes necessary to rid the body of toxins.
Green Tea
Drunk in Eastern countries for centuries, green tea is high in antioxidants that actively work to flush the digestive system of waste, as well as helping in the fight against free radicals in the body.
Citrus Fruits – Oranges, Lemons and Limes
Forget pre-made juices, what you need is juice squeezed from the fruit itself – with nothing added. High in vitamin C, these fruits provide the liver with a powerful detoxification helping hand by aiding conversion of toxins into substances that can be readily digested and excreted. Lemon, orange or lime juice mixed with a little hot water is an excellent way to start the day.
Mung Beans
This humble bean has long been used by those who follow Ayurvedic medicine. It’s known to help absorb and remove toxins that coat the walls of the small intestine, allowing them to be delivered to the liver, sorted and removed from the body.
Green Foods High in Chlorophyll
These include any dark green, leafy vegetables. The high chlorophyll content provides assistance in removing many of the 21st century toxins – such as heavy metals, pesticides and toxins from cleaning products that we can’t help but take into our bodies.
These five foods really do have a powerful detoxification effect. Rather than thinking of a detox as something you do on occasion, try to include these foods in your diet on a regular basis. This will prove far more beneficial than an all-out attack on your digestive system once in a blue moon. Nutrition and detoxification is something that is best worked on every day to gain the best results from your efforts.