Body cleansing after Christmas, detox in spring... Do you really need a special low-calorie diet on cleansing juices or expensive products to take care of your body detox? Without a special detox, will you be hit by a wave of toxins from the environment and food? Well, it is more reasonable to take care of supporting natural mechanisms that purify the body every day, than health-promoting impulses once or twice a year. After all, the human body is equipped with a complex mechanism that takes care of detox 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Would you like to find out what to do to support the work of the organs responsible for cleansing the body every day? Check it out!
When is it necessary to cleanse your organism?
Cleansing the body is fashionable and sells well. Manufacturers of "diet powders", meal replacement products or ready drinks in small bottles, which cost quite a lot of money, are very eager to reach for this marketing trick. Before we move on to how to support natural body cleansing, we must emphasise that the human body - this clever and complicated machine, is equipped with everything that is responsible for the effective cleansing of toxins from your orghanism.
How is the body cleansed on a daily basis?
- The skin releases toxins from the body with sweat.
- The kidneys filter the blood and remove the toxins with urine.
- The lungs expel harmful carbon dioxide, and when mechanical impurities enter the lungs, you start coughing.
- The liver is the main base of the body cleansing it from toxins, however it does not absorb them, but neutralizes them.
- The intestines absorb nutrients from the digestive contents and excrete everything unnecessary and harmful.
As you can see, without additional support, the body copes with cleansing toxins very well. However, it does not mean that we can be completely unconcerned and blame the kidneys and liver even more. After all, they are filtering anyway. No, do not consciously give more work to your organs. You do not have to reach for special products dedicated to cleansing your body, which often do not contain anything more than a balanced diet and herbal tea can give you. Compare the cost of a heavily advertised product with a herbal mixture or herbal dietary supplement.
It is worth paying more attention to the cleansing of the organism when your diet contains a lot of highly processed products with long and poor composition, ready meals, fast food, sweets and sugar-sweetened drinks. The body's natural cleansing system also fails when you live under stress, do not get enough sleep, lack physical activity, smoke, drink alcohol or use other drugs.
Recommended products to support body purification
Diet supporting cleansing of the organism
A diet to help cleanse the body is associated with drinking juices, herbs, alternatively eating vegetables, and definitely low in calories. On the internet, you can find information about cleansing fasts. Indeed, a few days of such diet will not harm healthy people, but in the long-term, the organs responsible for cleansing the body will not benefit much either. Taking care of your health is not about one-time actions performed once in six months, but rather about regular and constant care. So, instead of reaching for drastic diet programs for cleansing the body, it is better to make changes in your daily nutrition that will strengthen the body and improve its work, including the removal of toxins, every day. Incorporate these few principles into your routine to make your diet supportive of body cleansing.
- Keep your body hydrated. Avoid sweetened carbonated, non-carbonated drinks as well as energy drinks. Instead, reach for water, teas, herbal infusions, homemade lemonades and juices based on vegetables without added sugar.
- Cut down on sweets. Don't eat them mindlessly, don't replace your breakfast with a sweet roll and your lunch with a chocolate bar. Reduce the amount of sugar in your homemade cakes. You can start using healthy substitutes, such as erythritol.
- Cut down as much as you can on salty snacks, crisps and ready meals with questionable ingredients. If you have no idea which ready-made products are good (there are lots of them, e.g. instant soups, salads, porridge with hummus) and which ones are completely wrong, use apps that analyse food composition and rate them.
- Eat more real food. What does this mean? Reach for products in their natural form: vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, groats. Choose seasonal products.
- Choose meat from good sources, preferably organic. Meat from industrial farms may be free of antibiotics and toxins, but its nutritional value is much lower than that of animals living in good conditions. Simply compare the colour of an industrially produced chicken breast with an organically ECO-certified one.
- Read labels and ingredients of food products. Choose only those that you are sure are healthy (or again, use an app if you lack the knowledge and experience).
- Use herbs and spices. These are real treasures of very valuable antioxidants for health.
- Avoid canned food, and if you purchase it, immediately after opening, transfer the leftovers to glass or plastic containers free of toxic BPA.
- Supplement your diet with vitamin D, and if you eat fish less than twice a week omega-3 fatty acids.
- Avoid continuous eating, take longer breaks between meals. Constant digestion is very engaging. Breaks from eating allow the body to regenerate and cleanse itself more efficiently.. Scientific studies agree - intermittent fasting periods extend life!
Juices supporting body detox
Body detoxification is supported the most by vegetables and herbs because they are the richest in components necessary for the proper functioning of organs responsible for detox. They provide us with the greatest amount of antioxidants protecting cells from damage, vitamins, minerals, soluble and insoluble dietary fibre supporting intestinal detoxification and other active substances. How to do a body detox? It's very simple! Eat vegetables, drink water and herbal infusions. That's all! Detox is not difficult! If you have a problem with eating vegetables and fruit in every meal (remember, 3/4 should be vegetables) learn more about preparing juices. They are an easy way to increase the proportion of vegetables in your diet. Bet on them especially if you have little physical activity, a lot of stress or your diet is not the healthiest one. Just make sure juices complement your diet. You don't have to drink only them.
Here are some recipes for juices to support detox of the body
- Blend 2 cups of chopped watermelon, a bunch of fresh mints, juice of 1 lemon, dilute with water.
- Pour a glass of hot water over a few slices of ginger, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, add a pinch of pepper, mix.
- Blend 2 ground cucumbers and a sprig of fresh thyme, add a teaspoon of spirulina, dilute with water.
- Blend 1 cucumber, a quarter of melon and 2 handfuls of spinach, dilute with water.
- Blend 1 apple, add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and a teaspoon of cinnamon, dilute with water.
- Put into a juicer 2 big handfuls of kale, 6 sprigs of celery, 2 cucumbers, half a lemon, 2 apples and a few sprigs of parsley.
- Put into a juicer 3 small beetroots, 6 carrots, 2 apples, half a lemon and a 1 cm piece of ginger.
- Put in the juicer a handful of kale, a handful of spinach, 1 orange, add 1 teaspoon of turmeric and a pinch of pepper.
Herbs for cleansing the body from toxins
Detox supporting natural body cleansing can be done with the support of herbs. Herbs for cleansing the body from toxins may have a diuretic effect, promote bile secretion, liver or kidney function, as well as intestinal peristalsis. What ingredients should we reach for in order to take care of the cleansing process?
- Dandelion - an infusion of dandelion root supports liver function, while an infusion of dandelion flowers has a diuretic effect.
- Burdock root - in folk medicine it is believed that an infusion of burdock root supports the liver and improves skin condition.
- Milk thistle - contains silymarin, which is the undisputed winner in supporting liver function and regeneration of liver cells. Silymarin stimulates detoxification pathways in the liver.
- Nettle - has a strong diuretic effect and promotes lymph movement, which speeds up the removal of toxins from the body.
- Linseed or vital fibre - linseed infusions are very rich in soluble and insoluble fibre, which bind toxins and accelerate their excretion in the faeces as well as increase the integration of intestinal epithelial cells, preventing toxins from entering the intercellular spaces, where they begin to have a pro-inflammatory effect.