Will Learning To Detox Your Body Promote Your Health
I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy good health for pretty much all my life. I’ve hardly ever been ill, and can’t remember the last time I had a cold or virus of any kind – or at least not that lasted longer than about 12 hours. So it was completely out of the blue when I began feeling constantly tired and lethargic, and getting out of bed in the morning was becoming quite a chore. I’d visited the doctor several times and had quite a few blood tests, but they all came back negatve.
A friend of mine, who also happened to be a physiotherapist, intimated that I would likely benefit from a 3 day detox, and put some effort into learning to detox your body and how my eating habits may be affecting my health. It sounded like a good idea, so I spent a few weeks doing some research to learn all about it, and try to understand why alternative health therapists say it’s so popular and advocate regular detox dieting and in particular the 7 day detox diet so avidly.
She also hinted to me to try a relaxing foot detox. I now treat myself to a foot massage at least once a week, but if you don’t have one of those, the foot detox can do just as good a job – but with the patches you don’t get a relaxing foot massage at the same time
This is what I learnt about detoxing your body.
Make sure you drink plenty of water
Making sure you take in plenty of fluids is very important while you are following a detox diet because it will help purge excessive toxins from your body. It also helps to prevent constipation, helps your internal organs function more efficiently, and helps reduce the signs of aging by plumping up your skin. You should aim for about 2 to 3 liters a day, although you will need more in hot weather or on days when you are exercising.
As a guideline, 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. Keep your water at room temperature as it’s more refreshing that way. Herbal teas are a great alternative in helping your reach your daily quote – loose leaf is better than tea bags as it hasn’t been processed as much. Peppermint, camomile, dandelion root, horsetail and yarrow are especially great in a detox as their additional properties naturally support the detox process. Green tea and redbush has extra punch as it is very high in OPC antioxidants.
Do You Need To Go Organic
You do not need to switch to a totally organic diet on a detox diet, especially as the cost can be very high, 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 regardless of them being organic or not, rather than not get enough of them. However, there are some good reasons for going organic on a healthy detox diet.
Organic foods are produced without the use of artificial pesticides and fertilizers, and therefore they are much healthier being free from toxins and man made chemicals. It’s also a very controversial subject as there is mounting evidence that the build up of toxins from man made chemicals and bug sprays are linked to some of the serious health conditions of today.
By comparison, organic foods are processed much less than non-organic. The big benefits of this are that they have no genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and free from artificial preservatives. The taste and flavor of organic food is usually much better as well.