What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word detox? For most people it is a crazy cayenne pepper, water, and lemon concoction that is your only source of food for a few weeks. If you are thinking about doing one of these crazy treatments to your body I urge you to continue reading this article and find out why you shouldn’t. One of the biggest issues is that so many people think that things like this concoction is a form of detoxing. It is not! Detoxing can be very subtle if you want it to be. The purpose of detoxing is to eliminate and reduce as many toxins from yourself and your environment as possible.
A Detox Vs a Cleanse!
There are so many different things we can do to our bodies. Such as, detoxing, cleansing, dieting, and even fasting all of which serve a different purpose and are often put into the same category. Too often people miss label cleanse as a detox. In fact, it is one of the biggest switch ups when someone is trying to eliminate toxins. Due to the high level of confusion I thought it would be a good idea to distinguish between the different options. Back when your grandmother did a detox it was something similar to the cleanses of today. Cleanses can be very hard on your body! When you cleanse you are eliminating EVERYTHING! It is like a black Friday sale on anything and everything in your digestive system. If you have ever done a flush prior to a colonoscopy, where they make you drink GoLightly which makes you go non stop. Seriously, they need to rethink the name it is very miss leading. This is a perfect example of a cleanse/flush which is designed to be VERY SHORT-TERM and eliminates EVERYTHING!
What Your Detox Should Have!
A detox is much more mild. You are slowly removing as many toxins from your environment as well as your daily nutrition. A detox maybe done regularly as well as over a longer period of time. For example, where a cleanse/flush should only be 1-3 days a detox can be 1-2 months if you really wanted. However, I would suggest sticking to the one month mark and repeating every other month. While it would be ideal to do your best to limit your exposure to as many toxins as possible it is unrealistic to think it is something you can do daily for the rest of time. There are also different foods, herbs, and spices that can help you naturally detox different parts of your body. Given that the liver tends to handle the bulk of the toxins our bodies are exposed to most detox programs will focus the bulk of their attention on this organ in particular. With that said, there are also a variety of detox programs that also branch out to other areas of the body while still contributing the bulk of their focus on the liver. Be sure to read the article My Owed to The Liver to read up on one of the hardest working organs! A detox differs not only in duration of the process, variety of food, but also in the fact that a well designed detox program rebuilds good bacteria while removing toxins from the digestive tract.
The Power in Fasting!
Another commonly miss labeled procedure is fasting. Monks often use fasting as a way to detox their bodies and with the topic of intermittent fasting on the rise it seems to pop up in a number of areas including detoxing. While it is possible for your body to naturally detox during your fast you do not receive the full effects of the detox while using the intermittent fasting method. In most cases of intermittent fasting you go anywhere between 12-16 hours without eating and only consume food within a small window of time. Your body starts to naturally detox around the 12 hour mark dependent on the foods you are consuming the less processed food you eat the quicker your body will begin to detox itself. When you consume high fat or overly processed foods your body takes longer to break them down due to its inability to identify friend from foe. However, when you fast for an entire day you will actually trick your body into burning fat while also naturally detoxing. At 24 hours of fasting your body begins burning fat for fuel and will continue to do so until after the 72 hour mark. That’s right if you are planning on fasting do not exceed the 3 day mark! After 72 hours your body starts to break down muscle, bone, you name it! For anyone out there who is thinking about doing the “dry fasting” think again. Dry fasting is where you do not even consume water! Your body NEEDS water!
Diet Vs Nutrition!
Lastly, one of my biggest pet peeves the term diet. Diet is a term that describes your nutritional content not a weight loss trend! Somewhere along the lines the term diet lost its true meaning. To anyone in the medical profession we still look at the word diet and think nutritional regimen. Which is why when we ask what your diet consists of and you respond that you are currently trying the military diet we have a tendency to get annoyed. Let me explain something to all of you reading this a “diet” that is intended as a quick weight loss hack or trend is NOT good for you! Not only is it not good for you or your body people who use these “diets” tend to gain back all the weight they lost and then some. If you ask me, it is just not worth it. If you want to lose weight the answer is simple: put good food in, exercise daily (nothing crazy just get moving for at least 30 minutes a day), reduce your stress, stay hydrated, and sleep regularly. Because we are all constantly exposed to high levels of toxins I strongly advise you to do a detox regularly, and now you know exactly what to look for when I say detox. If you are interested in trying my safe all natural detox program Detoxify & Rebuild be sure to check out my FaceBook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/DeeDetox/ or contact me directly at DrDeeandMe@gmail.com. The program starts November 4th and is $397, but the promotional price $197 ends on October 30th! The first 20 participants get an additional 2 hours of one-on-one time with me. As always, if you have any questions or concerns or any additional content you would like to see posted leave a comment below or email me directly!
Dr. Dee thank you for this blog, you are so right. Detoxes are not a harsh process that I remember. I actually am a firm believer in ABC of detox… “Always Be Cleansing.” Thank you!
I love that. Most people don’t realize how many toxins we are exposed to daily. It is so important to detox regularly.