To me, it means supporting our body’s daily efforts to maintain balance and remove toxins such as exposure to heavy metals, pollution, environmental chemicals, waste, hormones and vitamins or minerals that we no longer need. Think: city air pollution, smoking or second hand smoke, weekly happy hours, daily caffeine hits, poor sleep, high stress…These are all fairly regular occurances in our modern lives and our body does it’s best to remove that stress each day. By supporting the body in removing these stressors, we can help alleviate some of the negative effects of our modern lives, allowing the body to focus on its many other important functions.
All of our body systems have some hand in detoxification and we’re going to focus specifically on the liver and lymphatic system here.
Think of it this way: imagine your liver has a road running through it leading to your intestinal tract and the intestinal tract is the freeway exit out of Body City (aka what we’ll call your body in this example). This road is used daily and each day, as cars pass through, they give off exhaust and sometimes even excess garbage that they no longer want in the car.
The body does its best to clear the road each night to be ready for the next day. But some days, we have an extra heavy load of traffic and the pile of garbage on the road is larger than usual. The body does its best to clear this out of the way but does not finish by the time morning hits. The next day, the same thing happens and adds to the pile of garbage which eventually starts to slow down the cars, causing slow transit time.
This continues on each day and the pile continues to grow and grow until the cars can no longer drive through the road towards the exit. Now the body must place all of its focus on clearing the road and other body functions such as production of mood boosting hormones, fighting off infections or colds or balancing blood sugars all become a secondary priority. We then become sluggish, have poor mood, extra weight, cravings and create an environment for disease and pathogens to proliferate.
Detoxing doesn’t always have to be a full out juice cleanse or fasting!
Daily wear and tear of Body City is bound to happen. But along with our natural body detoxification processes, we can support this with detox supportive foods and daily practices. It doesn’t always have to be a full out juice cleanse or fasting! Detoxing can take many forms. Some of my favourite ways to detox daily for a smooth functioning Body City include:
I prefer the above mentioned items as they are much gentler on the body and can be incorporated in smaller doses rather than a full detox or boxed cleanse as these latter options can lead to a release of too many toxins at once resulting in potentially feeling ill. Therefore, these are best done after doing your research or when working with a professional!
So remember, a detox is not just something for “health freaks” or green juice lovers. We could all benefit from a little boost. Your mood and overall health will thank you!
Collagen. Have you heard of it? It seems to be cropping up everywhere with claims around skin health, joint health, hair and nail growth and
Are you struggling with the daily discomfort and frustration of perioral dermatitis? If you’re anything like me, then you know that perioral dermatitis is one
Perioral (periorificial) dermatitis is a red rash that circles your mouth. Your skin can be scaly, dry and flaky with swollen, inflamed bumps called papules…Perioral