How To Detox With The Ten Best Body Detox Diet Foods
August 20th, 2008There’s lots of different detox diets and programs available today, but if you’re getting confused and just want some simple tips on how to detox your body, here’s a list of the top foods that you can use to create many recipes for a detox diet plan. You can eat them as-they-come as part of a raw food detox diet, or why not juice them and create your own detox drinks recipes.
Organic is always better if you find them and afford them, but if not don’t worry about it - non-organic fruits and veg are always a lot better than no fruit and veg at all. All these foods are a great way to build your own natural detox diet program. If you’re just getting and looking for a total body detox, they can provide everything you need to create a healthy and tasty 7 day detox program.
1. An Apple A Day Keeps the Doc Away.
Did you know that scientists in the Ukraine used apples to help clean and purify the area of Chernobyl when they had that catastrophic disaster back in 1986? That says something about the detox power of apples. Their power comes from high levels of vitamin C and quercetin, which is an antioxidant that helps reduce levels of bad cholesterol.
They also contain pectin - a fiber that is also found in citrus fruits, beets and berries. Pectin binds to heavy metals (like lead and mercury) in the colon and helps eliminate them from your body. It also helps your body excrete food additives and toxins, including tartrazine, which has been linked to conditions such as hyperactivity, migraine and asthma, particularly in children.
2. Avocados
Avocados are a personal favourite of mine - they’re great eaten straight from the skin. Avos contain something called glutathione, which is a very powerful antioxidant. Its main benefit is that it binds with fat-soluble toxins like alcohol rendering them water-soluble and therefore easier for the body to excrete them.
The natural levels of gluthathione in our bodies decrease as we get older, which is one reason why hangovers get worse as we age. Studies of “older people” have shown that those who had higher levels of glutathione were healthier than those with lower levels. The higher level group were also less likely to suffer from arthritis, which many experts believe is a condition aggravated by excess toxicity in our bodies.
3. A Liver Detox with Artichokes
Artichokes are known to increase bile production. One of the roles of bile is to transport toxins to the bowel where they can be excreted. Recent studies have shown that eating artichokes can increase bile production by up to 127% (100% is the same as doubling) within 30 minutes of eating it.
Two of the phytochemical compounds present in artichokes are cynarin and silymarin - these have powerful antioxidant powers and are believed to help regenerate tissue growth in the liver.
4. Beetroot
Beetroot is another fat-free vegetable, with very low calorific content and very high fiber content. Throughout Europe, beetroot is seen as a powerful anti-carcinogen, and can help increase the amount of oxygen our bodies can absorb by up to 400%.
You can eat beetroot as part of a raw food detox diet, though personally I prefer to juice them with carrots, apples and oranges. It has a low GL so it is digested and converted into “useable energy” very slowly which helps to stabilize your blood sugar levels.
5. Cruciferous Vegetables
Cruciferous vegetables include cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, spinach and cauliflower. All these vegetables are very powerful detox foods. Brussels sprouts have been shown to inhibit the uptake of a toxin called aflatoxin, which is linked to liver cancer. Cruciferous vegetables have also neutralised nitrosamines, which are produced by cigarette smoke.
A perfect example is broccoli, which contains sulforaphane - a phytochemical that stimulates our body to produce specific enzymes which attack and destroy carcinogenic substances. Many of the cruciferous veggies also contain a substance known as indole-3-carbinal. This is believed to reduce the risk of specific hormone dependent cancers like ovarian, breast and prostate cancer.