Guess what? You don’t need to sign up for that spring detox. Your body is detoxifying right now—this very minute! Yes, even if you haven’t been chugging organic cold-pressed green juices all week or adding special powders to your morning smoothies. Don’t believe me? I get it. That’s because you probably hear the word “detox” used in a lot of different ways, and few are correct.
We create “messes” every day for detoxification—a.k.a. clean-up work in the body. When you make a mess and don’t clean up, there’s a good chance you’ll get sick more often, feel kind of “meh” all the time, not get the health benefits you’re going after, and more. Detoxing has to happen every day. Yep, you read that right. Ideally, you should be detoxing Every. Single. Day.
The body has two detoxification pathways:
Phase 1 — Your body marks all of the toxins for elimination—think of it like putting all of the stuff that needs cleaning up in your car or your house into boxes and marking it for “trash,” “donation,” or “bring back to the kitchen.” Whole, unprocessed plant foods are best for this phase.
Phase 2 — This is when your body starts moving out those toxins marked for removal. Get in your broccoli (the florets or tree parts)! Or, consider a glucoraphanin supplement. And, of course, choose plant foods like chia seeds, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, and seaweed. Add shallots, leeks, garlic, and radishes, more often, too.
Try this simple chia lemon water to help your body naturally detox. Mix together in a small glass or mason jar – 2 cups water, 1 Tbsp chia seeds, and 1/4 of a lemon (juiced). Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the chia seeds swell. Enjoy!
Your body is a well-designed machine that knows how to detox (read: clean up those messes) on its own. There are plenty of ways you can support this genius mechanism!
Alisa Bloom, MPH, RDN, LDN, CHWC, DipACLM
