We live in an ever-increasingly toxic environment. Many of the toxins, also known as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), are abundant in the environment today and did not exist 30 years ago. These new toxins include certain pesticides, herbicides, and industrial chemicals that can enter the body through food, water, and air supplies. These toxins can and often do become trapped in the body’s organs and tissues, which over time can negatively impact health, vitality, and overall wellness, and may contribute to the development of chronic illness. We are also more frequently than the past taking regular medications, eating processed foods that has ingredients with chemical compounds that we can’t pronounce. Therefore, a regular detox program is called for in our modern day lives.
A detoxification program should be simple to complete, effective in outcome, and without concern for safety. It should involve cutting out processed and inflammatory foods, and by supporting the body’s natural two-phase process of detoxification in your liver, which requires Vitamin B, C, E, glutathione, folic acids, amino acids, selenium and natural sulfur found in cruciferous vegetables like garlic, broccoli, then toxins can safely and effectively be cleansed from the body. This is a simple kit I like to do at least once a year, since it has all the ingredients for boosting my liver detox.
Here are some tips that you can incorporate into your regular lifestyle to boost your Liver detox function.
1. Drink plenty of clean water, 8-10 glasses of filtered water a day.
2. Keep your bowels moving, at least once or twice a day. If you can’t get going, you may need some help. This can include taking two tablespoons of ground flax seeds, probiotics and extra magnesium citrate capsules.
3. Eat mostly organic produce and grass fed animal products, if possible.
4. Eat 8-10 servings of colorful fruits and vegetables daily, especially cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, collards, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts, as well as garlic and onions, which increase sulfur in the body and help detoxification.
Make a DETOX SMOOTHIE daily with:
- Beets (1 cup chopped)
- Collards (1 cup chopped)
- Carrot Juice 4 oz
- Blackberry (1 cup chopped)
- Pomegranate Juice 2oz
- Green Tea for ECGC and anti-oxidants (1 pinch)
- Honey (1 tablespoon)
- Water (1 cup)
5. Avoid stimulants, sedatives, and drugs such as caffeine, nicotine and alcohol. Check out Dandiblend, a gluten free blend of roots of dandelion, chicory and beets, barley and rye as a great substitute for that coffee flavor in the morning. Dandelion, chicory root are known to boost your liver detox pathways.
6. Walk or Exercise for 30 minutes, five days a week with a rotation of stretching, cardio and weight training.
7. Remove all refined carbohydrates: white sugar, flour, bread, pasta.
8. Sweat at least 3 times a week, using a sauna, steam or hot detox bath (1 cup epsom salt, 2 tbsp baking soda, lavender oil).
9. Eat regular small meals with snacks in between to avoid low blood sugar. Eat a high quality protein shake (Metagenics Ultraclear) in between meals.
10. Schedule time to relax deeply every day so your body can rest and rejuvenate.
11. Start a mindfulness practice or meditate daily: do deep breathing exercise for 5 minutes 1-2 times a day. You can try inhaling through your nose for 4 counts, holding for 7 counts and exhaling through your mouth or nose for 8 counts as a starter.
12. Journal for 15 minutes a day, write down any physical or emotional reactions that come up. When we change what we put into our body, it shifts our metabolism, our energy level, our inflammatory response, and surely that will affect our mental and emotional state, bringing awareness to what shifts for you is as important as the physical changes that happen with a period of detox.
