Cleansing your body

It should be called Detoxing our Diets! Let’s be clear about the meaning of detoxing or cleansing. Our bodies are equipped with their own detoxing system, the essential organs, liver, kidneys, skin, and lungs rid our body of anything we may encounter from our food and environment. If they didn’t, we would be dead. What we mean by cleansing your body is helping those organs to work more efficiently by eliminating the things in our diets that make them sluggish or cause them to be overworked which can lead to failure. These foods can also cause chronic inflammation in the body leading to higher risks of disease.

We believe it is essential at least once a year, depending on your current health status, to do a cleanse to ensure the proper function of the aforementioned organs. Making small adjustments to our diets to eliminate unhealthy foods can help us to avoid future risks of chronic illness.

A cleanse or detox is NOT for weight loss, but once you complete one it will be much easier to lose weight without even trying. Our main goal is to eliminate poor food choices so we can lower inflammation that can cause hormonal imbalances, sluggish metabolism, chronic pain, and fatigue. Lowering inflammation and removing the foods that tax our detoxing system will help it to run more efficiently.

Increased inflammation can trigger reactions such as flu-like symptoms, migraines, insomnia, digestive issues, menstruation issues, infertility, increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, skin issues, allergies and so much more, (These symptoms arise from overtaxed organs). Inflammation affects recovery from surgeries, broken bones, muscle tears, skin wounds, etc.

Chronic inflammation is one of the top reasons for chronic illnesses such as heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Inflammation increases the workload for our detoxing organs and puts them at risk for failure if we stay in a highly inflammatory state for long periods of time.

Chronic illness happens when the immune system is constantly fighting and never resting. Examples of the immune response are having hay fever, having a cut on your finger, and having a cold/flu which triggers the immune fighting cells to respond to the attacker. It brings inflammation to an area of concern, such as your finger and the cut, it swells and turns red. In hay fever you sneeze, your eyes run you cough, and your eyes get puffy. Having an infection somewhere in the body increases inflammation. Some responses are not as evident when your immune system is launched, such as food intolerances or allergies, skin rashes, and acne.

Some of the foods we eat that can increase health risks and increase inflammation are added sugars and foods high in trans-fat such as fast food or fried foods and alcohol.

Sugar, I’m sure you have heard is the silent killer. Overconsumption of sugars causes inflammation, it also increases your risk for heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. John Hopkins recently released an article on how sugar crystals from eating too much sugar attach themselves to the nerve endings in brain tissue which may be a cause of Alzheimer’s disease. If you have a habit of consuming a lot of sugar via, drinks, desserts, snacks, etc then it is a good idea to do a cleanse of the sugars a few times a year which will help decrease the cravings and lower your risk for chronic disease. Try switching at least one thing in your daily routine such as iced tea instead of soda to help lower added sugars in your diet.

Tran-fats are liquid oils that solidify in the body such as shortening found in commercial baked goods, margarine, and fried foods. These partially hydrogenated oils, PHOs, lower the good HDL cholesterol and increase the bad LDL cholesterols which can cause an imbalance leading to fat in the bloodstream and causing it to build up in the arteries. It is important to keep this balance of HDL: LDL. HDL is needed to shuttle out the bad cholesterol into the lymphatic system and get rid of it. Eating foods that are high in trans-fat can cause a build-up of cholesterol in the arteries leading to heart disease. Foods that can increase your HDL are high in omega-3 fatty acids like fish, nuts, and seeds.

Making small changes to your diet and doing a cleanse of toxic foods will help our bodies fight to stay healthy. You can start with a 3-day cleanse but to further help lower your risk of chronic disease, it is a good idea to do 2 weeks or 30 days to eliminate these cravings for the unhealthy foods in your diet. It helps us to reset and help our detoxing organs to run more efficiently and leads us to live longer healthier lives.

Other areas that you may not think about that can affect your health are your cleaning products, cosmetics, personal hygiene products, and even your drinking water. We will do another ebook and blog on this topic if you want to learn how to lead a healthier lifestyle.

We have put together a 3-day kickstart cleanse to guide you on properly detoxing your diet and making small lifestyle changes. The guide gives you detailed 3-day instructions, a reintroduction plan, recipes, remedies, medicinal teas, and further information to continue to a 2-week or full 30-day diet cleanse for whole-body wellness.

If you have never cleansed your diet before this would be a good time to try, especially during dry January!

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