It’s a new year and while it might be almost February, perhaps you’re still feeling the pressure to get yourself together.
Maybe you indulged in a few too many treats and too much alcohol over the holidays and are feeling the need to detox, hit refresh or just clean out the system.
Whatever the reason, while drinking only green smoothies, eating copious amounts of kale and harvesting enough lemons to feed a small army may sound sexy, detoxing doesn’t have to be like that.
You can (and should) detox using a whole foods, sustainable approach. Yes, that’s right, you don’t need to feast on air, drink only through a straw or avoid social gatherings to do this “detox” thing. Instead, you need to support your liver, and body to do its job – and that is, proper, sustainable detoxification.
But how?
Eliminate inflammatory foods including sugar.
Inflammation inhibits proper liver detoxification, period. Inflammatory foods such as sugar, industrial seed oils, conventional dairy, alcohol, gluten (for many people) and excess omega 6 – or anything else that you as an individual are intolerant to – can inhibit your body’s ability to remove toxins and function at its best.
Look after your stress and sleep.
Too much stress and not enough sleep puts an extra load on your system. If we don’t get adequate sleep, many of our “cleansing” processes in the body are missed.
Include protein rich foods.
Protein containing foods are rich in many of the nutrients we need for liver detoxification including magnesium, zinc, b vitamins and amino acids. It is optimal to include protein from high-quality animal sources such as eggs, grass-fed meat, organic chicken or high-quality dairy (if tolerated). The reason I mention these foods is because they’re what we call “complete proteins” – that is, they contain all of the amino acids we need. Amino acids are basically the building blocks of protein and they are absolutely crucial for all phases of liver detoxification. Enzymes which are abundant in our liver are also a type of protein and they are required in order to turn toxic substances into removable waste products.
Eat a lot of veggies.
Particularly cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage. As well as sulphur-rich veggies like onion and garlic. These foods help in all phases of liver detoxification, they also help in binding unwanted toxins in your gut and escorting them out of your system.
Nourish your gut.
Gut health is always important, especially when it comes to proper detoxification. Your gut bacteria help by binding to and removing toxins, breaking down toxic metabolites, and keeping your waste moving through your system. In fact, I wouldn’t attempt any kind of detox without making sure your digestive system is functioning properly. The reason for this is that if toxins are not removed from your system, they are reabsorbed and are often MORE toxic. So sort out the constipation first, guys.
Clean out your personal care products.
Reducing your toxic load can be a huge help to decreasing the burden placed on your liver and detoxification system as a whole. Removing as many conventional personal care products from your life is a great place to start. There are plenty of natural alternatives out there that do just as good of a job at keeping you hygienic and socially presentable.
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