Practiced by cultures around the world for centuries, a health detox, or detoxification, is about resting, cleansing and nourishing your body. When you eliminate your bad habits and eliminate toxins from your body, you can renew your health and energy. A health detox can aid in the body’s cleansing process.
It is important to realize that quick-fix detox diets that claim to flush toxins out of your system have very little evidence to support them. They tout that a liquid-only diet with plenty of water will give your digestive system a break and bring about surprising results to your whole body. Most cleanses claim that there are toxins in your body that lead to all kinds of issues from fatigue, allergies, and bloating, to infections, pain, and irritation.
A Traditional Health Detox
Detox diets can be a pure fruit and vegetable diet, a smoothie cleanse, a juice cleanse or a sugar detox. Specific detox diets vary — but typically a period of fasting is followed by a strict diet of raw vegetables, fruit and fruit juices, and water. Also, some detox diets advocate using herbs and other supplements along with colon cleansing (enemas) to empty the intestines.
A traditional health detox recommends that you do a few of the following after your cleanse to help continue promoting health:
- Eat detoxifying foods like beets, radishes, seaweed, spirulina, cabbage and broccoli
- Cleanse the liver by taking herbs like dandelion root, burdock, and milk thistle
- Drink green tea and take vitamin C
- Breathe deeply to allow oxygen to circulate better through your system
- Sweat in a sauna to eliminate waste through sweat
- Try a detox foot bath or spa
- Practice hydrotherapy: take a hot shower for five minutes followed by cold water for thirty seconds, then repeated three times.
