Methods for a Fast Body Detox

Posted by – March 30, 2012

If you’re searching for a way to detoxify your body quickly so you can get back to your old diet, there are plenty of methods available—though you may want to rethink your strategy a bit, which we’ll discuss later. Methods for a fast body detox include taking a colon cleanse, going on a juice fast, or taking up a moderate or restrictive diet which eliminates unhealthy foods. There are also quick detox supplements which you can take that include a blend of herbs. These supplements can purge toxins from your body in just days—some even claim to be able to do it in a matter of hours.

Your body is capable of expelling waste on its own—which can’t be stated enough. Any good body detox product will only help your system to do what it already does. Products which make earth-shattering claims are usually making them on the basis that they can help your body to do what it already does well. Does this mean you shouldn’t use those products? On the contrary—it usually means those products make complete sense. If you look up the herbs contained in detox products you’ll quickly find out that there are many natural ingredients which can assist your body in expelling toxins. Fiber is another great dietary supplement which is typically included in colon cleanses and other detox supplements. These products will speed up your natural cleanse process.

Methods for quick detox

What these supplements can’t do is work miracles. While they can assist your body in expelling toxins, they can’t expel all the toxins if you keep putting more in. So one of the key methods to a fast body detox (or any body detox taking any length of time) is simply to not eat unhealthy foods anymore. You also should quit smoking, drinking, and other unhealthy habits while you allow your body to return to healthier, normal functioning. These vices can be challenging to quit, but so can dietary vices like sugar (sugar is actually as addicting as any drug).

Most of the “fast” detox methods you’ll find online state that you should forgo eating most or even all foods. This may clean out your system more quickly than more moderate diets, but it is also unnecessary and may be unsafe, especially if carried out for an extended time period. These diets advise that you stop eating for a week or even two weeks. In reality, if you simply cut out bad habits and eat healthy foods for two weeks, you’ll accomplish the same purpose, with less risk to your health. If you want to jump start the process and you’re really interested in fasting, consider fasting for just a couple of days and then returning to a normal, healthy diet which includes all the nutrition and calories you need to function. Also consider that a couple of weeks are actually pretty fast to begin with—and that lasting change takes more patience and time than that anyway. That’s why you should think about a long-term strategy instead! Toxins you get rid of in two weeks can return within days. Why let them? Try eating a nutritious, moderate diet for life after you detox so your body stays healthy.

When You Should Detoxify Your Body

Posted by – March 30, 2012

You’ve read all about the benefits of detoxifying your body, but how do you know when it’s the right time to do it? Are there signs and symptoms which indicate that your body needs detoxifying, or is this just something you should plan on doing on a regular basis? Is detoxification right for everyone, or is it only intended for people of certain ages or people who are completely healthy overall? Is detoxification right for you?

Some signs or symptoms that you might need to detoxify your body include random aches and pains, fatigue, mental fog, and digestive tract problems. Of course, all of these could be indicative of other health problems, or they may also not be resolvable through detoxification (some of these things just happen due to age, hormones, weather, allergies and other factors—they don’t necessarily indicate anything is “wrong” with you whatsoever).

A century ago, we didn’t have factory farming, and we didn’t have artificial, chemically created compounds to add to food. We don’t know all the side effects of those compounds, though we do know that some are harmful. Artificial sugar is bad for your teeth and gums and digestive system, and may cause diabetes, obesity, and other health conditions. While people have always eaten fried foods, we didn’t always fry them in oils which are as unhealthy as those we use now, and our ancestors didn’t eat them as often as we do now. Transfats in fried foods have been implicated in all sorts of diseases.

So when should you detoxify your body? At any age detoxification can have benefits—and so long as you take a moderate course, you can detoxify your body whether you’re suffering from a health problem or not. Some people choose to detoxify when they are trying to recover from an injury or illness, while others detoxify when they experience small unexplained aches, pains, and fatigue. Other people just decide to detoxify because they finally recognize how unhealthy many of the foods they’ve been eating their whole lives really are.

While you are thinking about when to detoxify, you might also be asking yourself how long to do it. This depends on your personal intuition and needs, and also on the method you’ve decided upon. If you’ve chosen to go on a very strict diet, you probably want to limit that diet to a very short time period, perhaps a few days or a week, depending on how severely you’re restricting yourself. If however all you’re doing is staying away from unhealthy temptations and eating nutritious food, there’s no reason that you couldn’t go on with that kind of detoxifying diet permanently.

While it’s very beneficial to purge toxins from your body, what you need to realize is that after you do so and start eating toxins once again, all you’re going to do is accumulate them all over again, along with their adverse effects. So think about cutting unhealthy foods out of your diet or reducing the quantity you consume permanently—that’s how you’ll keep your body functioning at its best for the long term!

Tips for the Safest Body Detoxification

Posted by – March 30, 2012

Detoxification is an alternative health practice in which you attempt to rid your body of unhealthy toxins. The theory is that over time, unhealthy toxins can accumulate and stress your body, resulting in aches and pains, digestive problems and other unhealthy side effects. In reality, the accumulation of toxins is not quite as severe as many people believe, but what is just as bad is the continuous consumption of those toxins. If you eat foods or “food-like substances” which contain artificial preservatives and additives, or you consume a lot of sugar, you are putting unhealthy substances into your body. Detoxification gives you a chance to give your body a break to recover.

There are many different theories as to the best ways to go about detoxifying your system. Some proponents of body detoxification take the extreme point of view that what you need to do to rid your body of toxins is to stop eating altogether and go on a juice fast. This is not the safest way to detoxify your body. It’s dangerous to fast without the assistance of an experienced professional, and for people with certain health conditions, fasting can be even more hazardous.

The safest method for body detoxification is to simply eat a healthy diet! Ask yourself how your ancestors ate before artificial sugars and additives were invented, and before factory farming became such a widespread practice. Purchase organic fruits and vegetables, meats and dairy products which haven’t been treated with hormones, and healthy whole grains. Don’t purchase pre-packaged foods which contain unusual ingredients or snack foods with unrecognizable additives. Stay away from large amounts of fried foods, and avoid sugary desserts. While your ancestors ate sugar and fried foods, they ate a lot less of both. Your ancestors probably had less sugar in a year than you do in a week.

Whole body detox

There are no hazards associated with simply eating a healthy diet, so it is the safest way to detoxify your body. Your body will naturally expel waste and toxins, and since you aren’t consuming any more waste or toxins, you will soon be detoxified. If you want to give the process a little nudge in the right direction, you can invest in a healthy herbal supplement for detoxification or an oral colon cleanse (do not use an enema to cleanse your colon—enemas are not safe). Before taking any supplement, however innocuous, make sure that you are not allergic to its ingredients and check that the supplement will not have an adverse reaction with any medications you may already be using.

Moderation is usually the safest approach to any task, and detoxification is no exception. Simply by removing your unhealthy habits and taking extra steps to include healthy foods and supplements in your diet, you will be detoxifying your body. There’s really nothing else you need to do. You only need to do this for a couple of weeks in order to complete the process, but why stop there? A safe and healthy diet can be maintained for life.

 

Detoxify your Body with Acai Berry

Posted by – March 30, 2012

Looking for the best supplements to detoxify your body? One of the most popular supplements for detoxification right now is acai berry. The acai berry craze may only be a few years old, but acai berry has been in use for much longer than that. In Brazil, acai berry has been harvested and eaten for its nutritional content and detoxifying properties for centuries. It’s hard to ship acai berry, however—the berry rots very quickly and rarely survives transit in its original form. That’s one of the reasons it’s taken so long for this healthy berry to come to the attention of the global health community. It’s possible now, however, to buy acai berry in a powdered or pill form—or you can purchase it as a juice beverage. However you choose to acquire it, acai berry can provide your body with many benefits.

Acai Berry Detox

Acai berry contains antioxidants, fiber, and amino acids. It’s the combination of these three which makes acai berry such an effective detoxifying agent! The antioxidants help your body to replenish itself. When you detoxify your body, it’s important not only to remove toxins but also renew yourself. The fiber is what will help your digestive system to push out waste. Can your body do this on its own? It can, but a little boost can really help you to get things moving, and most people don’t get nearly enough fiber in their diets. With a good dose of fiber, your digestive system can be relieved of some of its daily stress.

What are the amino acids good for? You’ll only get to enjoy the benefits of acai amino acids if you exercise. Those amino acids are the building blocks for proteins, which in turn are the building blocks for muscles. If you do strength training while you’re taking acai berry supplement, you’ll get a boost to your workout since the amino acids can help you to grow new muscle tissue. Naturally it is impossible for you to grow new muscle tissue without doing the hard work yourself, but acai berry is a great workout supplement which can help you to get more out of the hard work you put in.

It’s important to make sure that you’re getting an acai berry product which contains real acai berry. Unfortunately, a lot of fraudulent manufacturers have taken advantage of the acai berry crazy to introduce products onto the market which are overpriced and contain little or no actual acai berry. You can avoid being taken in by these scammers by reading up on the product you are thinking of buying, checking out the ingredients, and looking up customer reviews. Most of the best acai berry supplements are available for purchase online. These products are usually less expensive than others and also higher in quality. Enjoy detoxifying your body with the help of acai berry—and remember to eat a healthy diet while you’re taking acai so that you don’t undo the benefits of this amazing Brazilian fruit.

Total Body Detox vs. Colon Cleanse

Posted by – March 30, 2012

Body DetoxWhen you’re planning to embark on a journey of detoxification, one of the decisions you’ll need to make early on is whether to go with a total body detox or just a colon cleanse (or some other method of detoxification). Should you take a holistic approach, or should you try and save some money by just purchasing a single product? Do you even need a colon cleanse, or can you detoxify your body using diet alone? Is the body capable of naturally expelling toxins without your help?

There is no one “right” way to detoxify your body. The benefits of removing toxins are obvious—your body functions better without them in all respects. Our modern lifestyles put our bodies under more stress than they should have to deal with. Detoxifying gives your body a break so that it can refresh and renew itself. This can be useful if you’re trying to recover from illness or injury or if you just want to feel more energetic and healthy.

The bottom line is that the body is perfectly capable of expelling toxins and waste on its own. So why would you invest in detox methods? You can help your body along. There are many different ways you can do this. A colon cleanse which contains an herbal blend of organic, healthy ingredients is one way to encourage your body to expel waste and regenerate digestive cells. A healthy detoxifying diet which includes nutritious foods and herbal supplements for digestive health can also assist your body in replenishing itself. A fasting diet is an extreme approach and will generally deprive you of nutrition, so go with a moderate diet of your choice. Dieting or using a colon cleanse works just fine—or you can get double the effect by combining total body detox with a colon cleanse. If you do decide to do a colon cleanse, go with the type which you take orally in a tablet form, not an enema (enemas can cause negative complications).

One thing to make sure you do regardless of the method you take is to eliminate toxins from your diet for a time. Stop taking in new toxins through junk foods, fried foods, or sugary foods while you’re cleansing your body. Otherwise all you’ll do is undo all the positive benefits of a colon cleanse, a detox supplement, or healthy detoxifying foods in your diet. If you work against yourself, you’ll only need to invest more time and money in trying to cleanse your system.

Total body detox, if done properly, should be complete within just a few weeks. After that time, you can go back to eating some unhealthy foods—if you want. What’s best, though, is to try to make some of the changes permanent. Keep on eating the healthy foods you’ve introduced yourself to during the cleanse, and try and curb your intake of artificial additives and sugars. Creating long term healthy habits which you can maintain for life will help you to build lasting health.

3 Homemade Detox Recipes for Cleansing

Posted by – March 30, 2012

Want to detox your body by consuming a healthy, nutritious diet of organic foods and avoiding unhealthy additives and sugars? If so, you’re probably wondering what you can actually eat—and not just a list of foods, but some actual tasty recipes. You don’t have to starve yourself to detox your body, and it’s best that you don’t. Here are three homemade detox recipes for cleansing your digestive system and your entire body of toxins. These recipes are designed to be delicious, easy to prepare, and nutritious.

Detox recipes

  • Goat cheese, spinach, and mushroom omelet. Eggs are very good for you and provide your body with protein—and so does goat cheese. Goat cheese may taste strong, but it’s easier on many peoples’ digestive systems than cheese produced from cow’s milk. Green leafy vegetables like spinach can provide your body with iron, and mushrooms add a bit of meatiness and some additional nutrition. This is a tasty, gourmet treat which only provides your body with benefits and is easy to digest. Consider serving it as a main course for dinnertime, not just for breakfast! Eggs are great anytime.
  • Greens with garlic and lemon. As mentioned already, leafy green veggies are great for you. They can boost your liver function as well as provide you with healthy vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Garlic can improve your circulation, and lemon includes vitamin C and is a strong alkaline, which makes it soothing for your digestion. This is a simple recipe which is best enjoyed fresh and raw. If you decide to cook your greens, that’s okay too if you retain the juice from the cooking and drink it separately. That way you still get all the nutrition which has leached into the water. Otherwise you’ll miss out on all the benefits, and you wouldn’t want that!
  • Fresh salsa. Another delicious detox recipe is fresh salsa. You may think salsa is unhealthy, but that’s only if you load it with sugar! Skip the sugar and prepare a raw salsa dish with tomatoes, onions, peppers, cilantro, and healthy spices. The fruits and vegetables in salsa are full of vitamin C and other healthy vitamins and antioxidants, and the spices add even more healthy pizzazz. You might want to skip out on the chips if you are trying to detox, but you can enjoy your salsa mixed in with some beans and avocado. Add eggs for even more protein.

These are just a few tasty detox recipes you can use to start improving your health—without starving yourself. You don’t have to go on a juice fast to purge your body of toxins; you just have to stop putting the toxins in and let your body do the work of expelling the toxins naturally. Eating healthy fruits, vegetables, carbs, and proteins will help your body to stay strong, push the waste out faster, and renew itself. You should start feeling better soon! You may even discover you enjoy healthy eating and decide to stick with it!

Detox Foot Pads: How Do They Work?

Posted by – March 27, 2012

Detox foot pads is the latest detox craze to hit the market; these products are supposedly used all over Asia to detoxify the body. You stick the pads on your feet when you go to bed at night, and then you take them off in the morning once they’ve done their job. Usually the pads change color, often contracting a grayish tinge. This is the evidence presented by their manufacturers that they work. According to them, the grayish tinge is the residue of the toxins pulled from the body through the foot pads. The manufacturers also point toward the foul-smelling odor which emanates from many foot pads when they are removed. As you’ll discover however, there may be other explanations for both the color and the odor.

How do these foot pads pull toxins from the body? Do they actually work, or is this yet another form of snake oil? According to the manufacturers, the toxins are drawn out through the skin—including heavy metals. In reality, there is no scientific basis for the claim that large molecules such as heavy metals can be drawn out through the skin. Most foot pads supposedly work by emitting negative ions or by drawing toxins through the skin using wood vinegar or bamboo vinegar. Why are the pads used on the feet and not on another part of the body? The manufacturers say that the process is based on reflexology, an alternative medicinal practice which says that different parts of the feet correspond to various organs and systems in the body. Thus the foot pads supposedly are able to cleanse those organs through the feet.

Detox Foot Pads

The wood vinegar may actually account for the grayish tinge on the foot pads in the morning, considering that the pads cannot actually be withdrawing heavy metals through the skin. You may also notice an unpleasant odor on the pads, which is most likely the result of sweat. Is this to say that detoxifying foot pads have no beneficial effects? There are many customers who say that they work, so perhaps they do—but in scientific studies, no positive effects have been soundly demonstrated, so it is hard to put faith in foot pads.

Detoxification is still a valuable process, however; and even though you probably don’t want to spend a lot of money on foot pads, you may want to look for a more effective means to detoxify your body. You’ll find plenty of herbal supplements geared toward helping your body to expel toxins and fortify the digestive system. These supplements will do a better job than the foot pads. You can’t remove toxins from the body through the skin—only through the digestive tract. The body can do it naturally, but herbs can help the process along. You can also try a detox diet which eliminates toxins from your diet while encouraging you to partake of healthy nutrition by consuming wholesome organic foods. Just giving your body a break from unhealthy additives can work wonders when it comes to cleansing your system!

Best Herbal Detox Tips

Posted by – March 27, 2012

Thinking of purchasing some herbal supplements to detox your body? There are many different beneficial herbal ingredients you could consider adding to your diet. Here is an introduction to a few of them and the specific benefits they can confer on your body. You don’t need to buy all of them, nor is this an exhaustive list, but it should give you a starting point for herbal detoxification.

  • Fennel Seed. Fennel is a natural diuretic which is beneficial for your kidneys and stomach. It can assist your organs in flushing out toxins and improve the performance of the liver and kidneys. You can purchase it as a powder, capsule, or tea.
  • Marigold. Marigold flower can soothe inflammation in your digestive tract and also help your body to renew itself by adding in cell regeneration in the digestive tract and elsewhere in the body. Marigold is also used to treat skin inflammation and varicose veins.
  • Echinacea. Echinacea is recognizable to most people as purple coneflower and can assist with cell regeneration. While it has not been scientifically shown to directly impact detoxification, it is commonly included in detoxification supplements since it can support cellular restoration.
  • Milk thistle. Milk thistle has the power to strengthen the external membranes of the liver. This helps to protect the liver against toxicity, and can also help the liver to eliminate free radicals. Milk thistle is challenging to extract at home, and is best purchased in capsule form or another pre-prepared form.
  • White sage. White sage has been used for detoxification for thousands of years. In traditional medicine, it is believed to be useful in cleansing dormant energy. If you are interested in holistic medicine, you may find white sage beneficial to burn as part of your whole-body detox plan.
  • Ginger. Ginger root is very healthy for the digestive tract and can also soothe indigestion while it is occurring. You can take ginger in a capsule, or you can chop some fresh ginger and make a tea out of it.

Natural Herbal Detox

You may want to obtain some of these ingredients fresh and steep a tea out of them—or you can go to the store and purchase a tea which is made out of one or more of these ingredients. You can even find teas specifically formulated for herbal detoxification. If you prefer, however, you can also get these same benefits from an herbal formula in capsule or powder form. While each ingredient may be purchased individually, you may also find formulas which contain a blend of the herbs above along with other helpful natural ingredients.

In our modern era, we eat a lot of things we shouldn’t and don’t need to consume (artificial additives, sugars, and so forth), but we don’t get the benefit of all the herbs which used to play such an important role in traditional medicines around the world. Fortunately, more and more people are learning to take a holistic approach to their health and well being, so these herbs are becoming more readily available, especially online.

Detox Drinks: Do They Really Help?

Posted by – March 27, 2012

One of the most popular detox diets on the internet is the lemon detox diet. While the lemon detox diet is in vogue right now, it’s nothing new—this diet was introduced to the world decades ago. The original diet involved fasting while drinking the lemon detox beverage. This is a fairly extreme diet if done for more than a few days and could cause you to experience malnutrition. That being said, the drink does offer some nutritional benefits—but not all your body needs.

The lemon detox drink involves mixing 4 ounces of fresh spring water with lemon juice from a freshly squeezed lemon. You then add in two tablespoons of pure organic maple syrup. Add in a little cayenne pepper and ground ginger root for flavor, and then add four more ounces of spring water. Stir the drink with a spoon and you’re all set. The lemon detox diet recommends you drink the eight ounce detox drink six to eight times a day for a week to two weeks.

Lemon Detox Diet

What health benefits does this drink confer? The lemon juice is replete with vitamin C, a powerful vitamin which has a host of health benefits. The ginger root and the lemon juice are both good for your digestion and can help to settle your stomach. If you’re not eating, the alkaline in the lemon juice can help to balance the acid in your stomach, which may otherwise cause heartburn. Cayenne pepper is full of vitamin A, and is said to be good for patients with asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Maple syrup is high in manganese and zinc. Water, of course, is necessary for survival. The body is 70% water, and without proper hydration it cannot function.

All of that said, the lemon detox drink certainly doesn’t provide all the body needs, and a week to fourteen days consuming nothing but lemon detox drink is going to result in nutritional deprivation. You’ll certainly lose weight, but you’ll put it all back on very quickly once you start eating again—and you may also have adverse health effects resulting from malnutrition and weakness. It also is not a good idea to do any type of fasting without professional supervision. Fasting is not appropriate for everyone, and if you have any sort of health condition, it could worsen your symptoms.

There is no reason you can’t benefit from the lemon detox drink while still eating a fully balanced diet. Think about pursuing a more moderate dietary course—such as eliminating additives and artificial sugars from your diet, and then drinking the lemon detox beverage for some extra vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc, and magnesium. The extra nutrition will do your body good, and you won’t starve yourself and have to deal with adverse consequences. Any detox diet can be tailored to your body and your needs, and you are free to benefit from the lemon detox drink without conforming to the totality of the lemon detox diet. By splicing together different features of different plans, you can maximize your benefits.

Detox Foods: What You Should Be Eating

Posted by – March 27, 2012

When putting together a detox diet which includes foods (not a fasting detox diet which doesn’t), you should focus as much on what you shouldn’t be eating as what you should. Your goal will be to remove artificial foods from your diet and replace them with healthy, organic foods which provide all of the nutrition you need.

Good foods to include in your detox diet would be whole grains, fruits, vegetables, select dairy products and meats. Some detox diets which are more restrictive remove specific fruits or grains because they have sugars in them. These diets are only followed for a short time period however, and any long-term detox diet will need to include all of the major food groups. Whole grains, fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products provide you with carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, antioxidants and other nutritional essentials which you need to survive. Not everyone can eat dairy, so if you can’t, then you’ll need to get your protein from meats and legumes. Beans have a host of nutritional benefits and are a great choice regardless of whether you’re eating dairy or not. Likewise, you can go without meat if you’re a vegetarian, but you’ll need to make sure you’re getting protein and iron from somewhere else. Iron can be found in leafy green vegetables.

Detox Foods

What should you avoid eating? Stay away from junk foods and prepackaged foods in the grocery store. These “foods” often contain artificial ingredients which aren’t really food at all and have no nutritional value. Furthermore, some artificial additives are known to have negative health effects. Also eliminate fried foods and foods which are high in transfats from your diet. Stay away from foods and drinks with added sugars (be extra careful while purchasing juice drinks). Some dieters avoid natural sugars for a time (these can be found in breads and fruits), but over the longer term you just want to avoid foods which include manufactured sugar. You can replace sugar in your cooking with stevia, a natural herbal extract. This extract has been used for more than half a century in Japan with no adverse side effects. Sugar on the other hand is known to cause gum disease, digestive distress, and other health problems.

The benefit of eating healthy food and avoiding unhealthy food is that your body has a chance to naturally get rid of toxins. The body is able to get rid of toxins on its own, but only if it’s given a chance. If you’re constantly putting new toxins into your body through your diet, then your body can get rid of toxins all day long and never clear them out completely. On the other hand, if you avoid nutritious food and starve yourself, then your body will become weak and you will be susceptible to malnutrition and sickness. When you’re planning a long term detox diet, just think of what you’re doing as returning to a natural, healthy diet which your ancestors would have enjoyed. You are doing nothing more and nothing less than eating properly and nutritiously.