By Irina Wardas
Detox and cleanse are very popular words nowadays, especially in spring. Many of us are into detox: we want to try it, we all have opinions how to do it, we like it or we hate it. It might be a recipe for a drink, or a several day procedure, or maybe even fasting, juicing or profound cleansing program with professional help.
First, what is a toxin, anyway? It is basically any substance that creates irritating or harmful effects in the body, which can sometimes even damage our tissues and organs. A lot of people are not aware of the fact that everything we breathe, eat, drink, and even touch, contain toxins; in other words, we can acquire toxins from our environment by breathing them, by ingesting them, or through physical contact with them.
Toxins can be poisons, heavy metals, pesticides, fungicides, cleaning solvents, smog, and many substances that we don’t even know are leeching into our bodies via our clothing our furniture, and even out carpets. Did you know that the worst toxins we can ingest are put into our foods as additives and preservatives?
Our body itself produces toxins through its normal every day functions. Fats, free radicals, different irritating substances act as toxins on the internal level. Our body is very intelligent, it is functioning non-stop 24/7 and obviously there are toxins that need to be eliminated. When these substances are not eliminated, they can cause irritation or inflammation of the cells and tissues, blocking normal functions on a cellular, organ and whole body level.
We have to listen to our bodies because they always try to tell us if something is wrong. An overloaded body will alert you that it is in a toxic state by sending out messages in the form of fatigue, gas, headaches, food cravings, constipation, food allergies, chronic pain, blood sugar imbalances, attention problems, premenstrual syndrome, poor sleep, acne and other skin problems, poor digestion, bad breath, etc.
Detox is a relative term, because anything that supports elimination can be said to help us detoxify. As a matter of fact, our body cleanses itself by an absolutely natural process. If the body is working well with good immune and eliminative system, we can handle the basic every day exposure to toxins. But sometimes we need to change our dietary (healthier food choices) and lifestyle (clearing toxins by sweating, either from exercise or heat) habits to reduce intake of toxins and improve elimination.
You may be amazed with the fact that simply drinking more water (filtered of course!) helps us eliminate more toxins. Shifting from the most congesting foods (sweets, diary products, bread, fats, fried foods, refined flours, meats, hydrogenated fats, drugs) to the least (fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes) can help most of us detoxify somewhat and bring us into balance in general.
And we don’t need an excuse to wait for spring to cleanse our bodies, we can do it using seasonable super foods, such as apples, beets, garlic, leafy greens, lemons, onions, radish, seaweed, turnip, watermelon, etc. We need to include these fantastic fruits and vegetables in our routine and use one or two every day. Why? Because these fruit and vegetables purify our blood, purify and protect our liver, cleanse the intestines, help excrete heavy metals, improve the cleansing function of the glands, purify our gastrointestinal GI tract. In case you have forgotten by now, we are talking about whole foods only- fruits and vegetables, not drugs or magic pills!!!! Amazing? Isn’t it? The power of food can make miracles!
As we can see, cleansing body will involve some dietary and lifestyle changes, but it doesn’t have to be a torture experience. Simply eating cleansing super foods every day can increase your energy, bolster your immune system and leave you with healthy routine to live by all year long.
We do need to cleanse our bodies not to become a toxic dump. The question is how far we should go, what type of cleansing will work for us. Well, it depends on our current diet, our physical state and energy level, in other words, it depends on our individual lifestyle and needs.
About the Author: Irina Wardas is a founder of NaturalCounselor.com and helps women who have stress or weight management issues and are experiencing increased appetite, mood swings, insomnia and lack of energy. As a Holistic Health and Nutrition Counselor,she works around food choices and lifestyle alternatives. To learn more about her eBook “Detox 101-Super Simple Detox – Detox Your Body with the Seasons” visit her website
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Originally posted here: Detox 101 – Super Simple Detox
