I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy good health for pretty much all my life. I don’t get ill, and can’t remember the last time I had a cold or virus of any kind – at least nothing that struck for longer than a few hours. So it was quite alarming when I realized I was becoming very lethargic and out of energy, and struggling to find the energy to even get out of bed in the morning. Over the course of about 12 months I’d seen my doctor many times and had all the tests he threw at me, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with me.
A friend of mine, who also happened to be a physiotherapist, intimated that I should look into doing a detox, and take some time to learn how to detox the body with a view to changing my eating habits. It sounded like a good idea, so figured it was a worthy investment of my time to at least check it out, and why so many alternative and complementary health practitioners advocate following a detox diet and in particular the 7 day detox diet so strongly.
Something else she recommended I try was a foot detox. I now use a foot spa about twice a week, but if you don’t have one of those, the foot detox patches can do just as good a job – but doing it this way you miss out on the relaxing foot massage at the same time
This is what I learnt about detoxing your body.
Lots of water and herbal teas
One of the most important things you need to is drink lots of water while you are following a detox diet because it will help purge excessive toxins from your body. It also helps to prevent constipation, improves concentration, and hydrates your skin which improves your skin tone. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water each day (about 2 liters), although you will need more in hot weather or on days when you are exercising.
As a rule of thumb, for every hour that your exercise each day, drink an extra 2 glasses of water. Tap water which has been filtered to remove the chlorine and impurities is the best option. Ideally drink water that is at room temperature. If you don’t always fancy water, herbal teas – preferably loose leaf rather than tea bags. Dandelion root, yarrow, roibosch and green tea are particularly good as their additional properties assist in the detox process. Roibosch and green tea has other health benefits too as it is a rich source of natural antioxidants.
Do You Need To Go Organic
You do not need to switch to a totally organic diet on a detox diet, unless you can afford it, but selecting just a few organic ingredients will be a step in the right direction.
It’s not a major problem if you can’t get hold of any organic produce. Concentrating on eating fresh (and ideally raw) fruit and veg is the main point – even if they are non-organic – than skimp on quantities. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of health benefits to going organic on a healthy detox diet.
Organic foods are produced without the use of artificial pesticides and fertilizers, which means they are very low or even free from toxins like man made chemicals and toxins. It’s also a very controversial subject as there’s a lot of evidence that the accumulation of pesticide residues may be related to a lot of the serious health issues we face today.
By comparison, organic foods are processed much less than non-organic. Ultimately this means organic foods not genetically modified and are free from hydrogenated fats and artificial additives. Certain organic foods taste better and have more flavor.
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