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I feel
sluggish and bloated after the holidays and feel my system needs
cleansing. Can you suggest some ways I could cleanse my body,
whether by diet or supplements, without having to starve
myself?
Detox's come in all shapes and forms, but your best basic detox
without starving yourself is to take out all the things that add to
our toxic load in the first place. We all know
what those things are, they include: Trans-fats (switch back to
good ol butter), processed foods (yes that's anything in a packet,
jar, container, tin, sachet, tube, bottle...etc), alcohol, sugar,
flour, drugs, caffeine.
This also includes reducing any unnecessary
supplements and medications you're taking. And
then start looking at minimising these things once you are starting
to feel better.
So that leaves us with a diet of: fresh fruit and veges, lean meats
and/or vegetarian proteins, eggs, nuts, seeds, avocado, flaxseed
oil, olive oil, unrefined wholegrains (wholegrain bread is not an
unrefined wholegrain), plain water (at least 2L per day), herbal
teas and low fat dairy. In just 3 days of eating
like this you should be feeling much less sluggish and you will
have probably lost about 1kg already of
bloating. And in terms of portions sizes, stick
to the size of your hand or fist for proteins and carbs and about a
tablespoon for fats.
The other thing you will want to add to boost your minerals and
also to alkalise your body (buffering toxic acidity) is a
supergreen supplement. Something like
Chlorophyll, Barleygrass, spirulina, Wheatgrass
etc. Magnesium is also a good
alkaliser. There are plenty of others - best to
talk to a naturopath or a nutritionist for other
options. A probiotic will help to repopulate the
good flora in the gut, which will also assist in making you feel
better.
Slippery Elm or Psyllium Husk are two good fibre supplements to
help with the elimination process while
detoxing. I recommend you include either of
these to keep things moving along and out of the body.
If you want to do a complete detox using supplement based products,
I recommend you talk to a good naturopath or a nutritionist who
deals in detoxes. You can buy off the shelf
products of course, but there's no way anyone can recommend which
product is best. A complete detox should include
cleansing of the intestines, liver and kidneys.
This will include plant based herbs (eg Milk Thistle), vitamins,
minerals and amino acids (Taurine is important for liver health)
and may also include things like colonic hydrotherapy and a
gallbladder flush.
There are those who believe we don't need to detox, as our systems
can handle the detox process themselves. This is
true. But when we burden our bodies excessively
or for long periods of time, or upset our intestinal flora balance
and become overly stressed then our detox organs struggle and we
start feeling sluggish and unspecifically generally
unwell. These things don't show up in blood
tests. It's only until the organ is diseased, or
in a pre-diseased state that blood tests will start showing up
things. Do we really want to wait for our organs
to be in this state before we start looking after them?
And of course we need to get moving, especially
stretching. Movement and stretching helps to get
nutrient rich blood flowing through the body to repair cells and
have you feeling better.
Very simply put, if you are feeling slightly "toxic" then take out
what is making you feel this way, improve your diet and then decide
if you want to do a proper detox.
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