Our world today is toxic and daily, the human body is exposed to over two million toxic substances. What is more, 25,000 new toxins are added to our environment each year. So, even with a balanced, healthy diet, we simply can’t avoid being bombarded with a myriad of toxic chemicals every single day through food and drinks, but also our lungs and skin. These accumulate over time and can cause harm to our metabolism and lead to allergies, mood changes, and various health issues.
Intermittent detoxing, or cleansing, is one of the best ways to reboot and recharge your body. Detoxing can be done as a mild one-day program, a week or even 28 days, depending on your objectives and circumstance. Find out more about the detoxification process below:
Why Detox?
About eight hours after your last meal, the processes of digestion and absorption are finished and the body begins detoxification. In a healthy person that commonly consumes natural, unprocessed foods, it takes about four hours to detoxify from the waste products of normal metabolism.
For this reason, it’s beneficial to fast every day for 12 hours after the last meal. If your last meal was at 8 pm, you shouldn’t eat anything before 8 am. This makes your breakfast exactly that – a meal that breaks the fast. This is a great scenario in a toxin-free world, since that is not the case, you need to make extra effort periodically to do deeper cleansing.
Drink More Water
Water is an essential ingredient that not only quenches our thirst, but it also regulates the body temperature, aids digestion and nutrient absorption, lubricates joints, and detoxifies the body by eliminating waste products. The latter is formed naturally after our cells break down the nutrients from food to use it as energy. All the carbon dioxide and urea that build up will be transported by water and efficiently removed through urination, sweating and breathing. This is why staying hydrated is crucial in detoxification.
Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough quality sleep each night supports your body’s health and natural detoxification process. Sleeping enables the brain to recharge itself and eliminate toxic waste by-products that had accumulated throughout the day. Sleep deprivation shortens this time so toxins build up and cause short- and long-term health consequences, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stress, anxiety, and obesity.
Aid Toxin Elimination
Research indicates that one in five adults over the age of 30 experience constipation at some point, and it’s the regular bowel movements that enable the process of detoxification. When the colon doesn’t move regularly, the body isn’t getting rid of toxins enabling them to leak back into the blood and cause the liver to overwork ultimately leading to leaky gut and other health issues. Doing one-day colon cleanse can aid your body’s toxin elimination from the digestive tract using its wide selection of enzymes produced from all-natural organic vegetables and fruits.
Reduce Your Intake Of Sugar And Processed Foods
Research has established a link between high consumption of sugary and processed foods and obesity and other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. All these conditions hinder the body’s natural detoxifying processes by harming the liver and kidneys that do much of the work. Avoiding junk food and making healthier food choices is the simplest way of boosting your body’s overall health.
Eat Food Rich In Antioxidants And Prebiotics
Antioxidants protect cells against damage caused by free radicals. These molecules are a natural by-product of cellular processes, but certain low-nutrient foods, alcohol and tobacco smoke can produce excessive free radicals. These molecules damage a range of cells which plays a role in heart disease, dementia, asthma, liver disease and some types of cancer. Adopting a diet rich in antioxidants can help your body fight oxidative stress caused by free radicals and other toxins.
Stay Active
Regardless of your body weight, regular exercise can prolong your life and reduce the risks of various diseases, including heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. Inflammation weakens the body’s immune system, but regular exercise of moderate intensity for 1.5 to 3 hours a week, and an hour to hour and a half a week of vigorous-intensity physical activity can reduce it and help the body’s natural system of detoxification to function properly.
While detox diets are popular in promoting weight loss, they are not necessary. Our bodies have their own highly efficient detoxification system. With that in mind, you can boost your body’s natural detoxification process and enhance your overall health by staying hydrated, sleeping enough, using detox procedures as aid, consuming less salt and more antioxidant-rich foods, and staying active.