Detox Program: Flush Your Body for a Healthier Life

Over time, more and more toxins will be accumulated in your body and later may pose a threat to your overall health. This condition coupled with the pollution surrounding you, and the intake of unhealthy drinks and foods will definitely deteriorate your health to a worsened state. Later, you’ll end up with headaches, respiratory infections, soaring cholesterol, allergies, fatigue and other symptoms arising due to your tissues being clogged with these deadly toxins. 

When your body is constantly bombarded by chronic tiredness, weariness, bloating, acne and/or skin disorders, it’s a time for you to consider going through detoxification by adopting a suitable detox diet.

What Is a Detox Program?

Generally, a detox program is a cleansing medium that flushes out unhealthy toxins from your body. The system becomes overwhelmed by toxins over a period of time.

What You Should Know Before Going on a Detox Program?

Since they’re many forms of detox programs, you should somehow select an appropriate detox program that suits your health best. Regardless of their different forms, all detox programs will require you to undergo a specific medical checkup or complete a health screening test before proceeding. This is certainly needed to clearly clarify a type of detox diet that suits you to avoid any unexpected medical complications.

In any form of detox program, you will be required to eat only fresh organic vegetables and fruits and specific herbal tea or organic herbs to help cleanse toxins out of your body.

The length of a detox program can range from as few as three days to as long as a year. How long should you be in a detox program is just a matter of how severe your symptoms are.

The next thing you should take note about the detoxification process, of course, is to educate yourself what diets are actually good for a detox plan. For example, a bitter gourd is always considered as a good cleanser to cleanse the toxins particularly in your liver. The knowledge of detoxification is essential as it’ll help you understand any side effects you may have experienced during the detoxification process. It’s obvious that people who go on a detox plan without a sufficient knowledge in detoxification may give up when they experience side effects that they may take place during the process.

Your detox program, generally, should make you aware of what foods and beverages you should take and what foods and beverages that you shouldn’t take. Different detox plans may limit the diet you should include or exclude. It’s therefore important for you to make sure which type of detox diet you chose, so that you will chose one which will supply your body with essential amount of trace elements, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phyto-nutrients as well. Hence, you need to review a number of detox diets and make sure you read their instructions carefully before proceeding with your chosen diet plan. This is because a shortage of certain nutrients will deprive your health more than the significant benefits you will receive by flushing harmful poisons from your system.

What is a Typical Detox Program?

Typically, in the first week of the detox program, you’ll be required to finish your “lemonade” (meaning a cup of purified lukewarm water into which the freshly squeezed juice of a half lemon has been mixed) and a quarter or half of an hour later, you’ll be asked to have a piece of fresh fruit prior to having your breakfast. As for your breakfast, you can have an organic whole grain cereal (excluding corn or wheat) such as millet, buckwheat, brown rice or amaranth. You can then partake in lightly roasted vegetables or more fresh fruits for your mid-morning and mid-afternoon meals. As for your lunch and dinner, you can have salad or any combinations of lightly cooked organic vegetables. Throughout the day and for your bedtime, you’re advised to have organic herbal tea. To achieve a successful goal for your detoxification, you will need to make a strong attempt to eliminate red meats, dairy products, refined flour and sugar, processed and canned foods, alcohol, and caffeine during the entire period of your detox program.

For the following week of your detox program, you can add in vegetable juices and fresh fruits to accelerate bodily detoxification process. When you come to the third week of your detox program, you’re advised to stop consuming all solid vegetables and fruits and drink only freshly prepared fruit juices and vegetable smoothies to help reduce the burden to your digestive system while speeding up your bodily recovery. While completing the three-week-detox program, you should eat organic foods and filtered water (preferably alkaline water) to help eliminate as much toxicological substances as possible out of your body.

What are the Best Detox Foods?

The best detox program should include eating plenty of fresh organic vegetables and fruits but replacing sugary and refined grain-based rich foods with flakes, pastas and crackers. It’s also a good option to start eating low glycemic grains, including millet, quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth.

In any successful detox plan, high fiber foods play a crucial role, so you can include split peas and/or lentils in your meal and nut butters or any unsalted nuts. In this case, you should limit the intake of peanut butters and peanuts. As for the intake of phyto-nutrients, you should consider adding flax seeds, pumpkin seeds and other seeds, and undoubtedly, these seeds also have a hunger-satisfying property.

Even though you can eat raw vegetables, it is recommended that you slightly cook your vegetables in cold-pressed, organic virgin oils to help avoid eating any germs and allowing them access into your stomach. Next, you should keep yourself away from hydrogenated or saturated fats, dairy products (such as milk, cheese), nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, refined sugary and refined grain-based foods, canned and processed foods, or any foods that contain artificial coloring, chemical substance, flavors and preservatives that have been proved to harm your health.

To help determine which foods aid with your detox plan, kindly have an Ayurvedic physician to help you by consulting an Ayurvedic chart. From here he or she can help you determine appropriate foods for your body type before proceeding into a detox program.

While following a detox program, don’t forget to replenish your body with at least eight-ounce glasses of purified filtered water (preferably alkaline water), herbal teas, freshly squeezed organic veggie or fruit juice each day.

Who Shouldn’t Go On a Detox Program?

A detox program, of course, is a good choice to flush out all those built-up toxins and toxicological substance from your cells, tissues and organs as well, so that your health can be restored and rejuvenated enhancing the bodily functions. Nevertheless, not all of us should go on a detox diet due to existing health conditions or other underlying medical conditions. Therefore, it’s particularly important to have a physical checkup prior to a detox program.

No matter how good a detox program is, it’s not an acceptable option for those who suffer from chronic diseases. The reason is that they may not have strong physical resources to withstand the so-called detox diet option. That’s why a detox diet is strictly prohibited for people who suffer from disorders related to the liver, heart or kidneys. In a similar fashion, people who have low blood pressure, diabetes, iron deficiency, gastric ulcers, stomach ulcers; or those who suffer from an eating disorder (such as bulimia, anorexia), hypothyroidism or even people who are substance abusers, are discouraged to go on a detox program without receiving prior approval from a medical professional.

Sometimes, people who suffer from accumulated toxins are not always a candidate for a detox program; like chronic disease patients, expectant and nursing moms too, must avoid a detox diet for the sake of their baby’s and their health. It’s feared that certain detox programs may cause either temporary or unpleasant side effects which have been a great threat to both parties.

Specifically, people suffering from adrenal disorders need to clear up their health issues before they can be accepted as an appropriate candidate for a detox program.