Detoxification… it’s not what you think

Have you seen on social media the latest detox diet? Three days to detox your body? Unfortunately, it is not that simple. We want to take into consideration our toxic burden, our total toxic load, and how this affects our overall health. 

Rather watch or listen? 

What you need to know about toxins

We are exposed to so many toxins on a day-to-day basis.

For example, before a woman leaves the house in the morning, she puts on an average of 168 different chemicals on her body. When it comes to men, it’s 86, according to the Environmental Working Group. For female teenagers, it’s even greater because of all the extra products that they might be using. Not to mention the glyphosate that is in many of our crops, GMOs, pesticides, cleaning chemicals, and all of our personal care products.

We are exposed to many toxins in and around our environment. Let’s not forget things that we’re putting in our bodies. The foods that we’re eating can have processed ingredients, chemicals, heavy metals, etc. Rice, for example, has very high amounts of arsenic. Although not all of it is within our control, some of it is.

A toxin, by definition, is a poison made by a human organism. A toxicant, on the other hand, is synthetic and manmade. Our total toxic load equals our total toxic exposure minus the ability to bio-transform and excrete toxins or toxicants.

In essence, if you have an increased toxic burden, and you are constipated, you’re not able to excrete. If you are not drinking enough water, you’re not excreting through your urine, and therefore will have an increased total toxic load on your body. 

How toxins affect each individual

Everyone’s ability to detoxify is unique. This is very important because that is why certain people can be exposed to things their whole lives, smoke, drink, and not have anything happen to them. Then other people make all the right choices and unfortunately they may end up with chronic health conditions.

We have to factor that into our equation of how toxins will affect each person. This means that when you are not able to excrete and biotransform and have high toxic exposure, this could lead to chronic illness.

Who can be susceptible?

This could be anyone who has nutrient deficiencies, increased exposure to toxicants, and/or has some type of intestinal dysbiosis, imbalance of beneficial and bad bacteria. Also, someone who is undergoing a tremendous amount of stress, getting inadequate protein, eating a lot of highly refined carbohydrates, and genetics can be at risk.

The other thing that we want to mention as it relates to detoxification is that our liver is our major detoxification organ. We have two phases of our detoxification, phase one and phase two.

Sometimes when people try to detoxify, they may upregulate phase one detoxification, but if they are not supporting phase two with specific nutrients, managing stress and sleep, and so on, then they could feel much worse. 

We want to remember that there are different phases of detoxification and there are specific nutrients that support phase one and phase two. So, if you are not supporting those detoxification pathways, you can become much worse and feel very sick. Whether you are trying to detox from heavy metals or from foods, doing this with a qualified health practitioner is recommended.  

So, what are some things that you can do to promote healthy detoxification? 

1. Reducing Toxic Burden

Start with going to the Environmental Working Group and begin to evaluate some of the products that you use such as your cleaning chemicals and personal care products.  Determine the rating and if they are rated high, begin to search for how you can replace those maybe one by one. Keep it slow and steady, so it doesn’t seem overwhelming. You can’t detoxify if you still have a high toxic load. 

2. Choose Organic

You can use the clean 15 Dirty Dozen guide that is also on the EWG website to use as a reference to determine what foods are more important to get organic than ones that aren’t.

3. Addressing Constipation

If you are constipated, meaning you are not going to the bathroom at least once a day, and t looks like a snake, address this immediately! You want to make sure that you have healthy bowel movements consistently because that is one of our main ways to detoxify. 

4. Drinking Water

Is this the only thing that you should do? No, but I do want to emphasize the importance of this because we also excrete through our urine. If you’re well-hydrated, you’re going to be urinating more frequently, which is going to contribute to healthy detoxification. 

5. Eating a Rainbow

This is perhaps one of the most important things and the reason for this is that eating the rainbow is actually an art and a science. Each specific color of the rainbow is contributing to very specific phytonutrients. These phytonutrients are supporting the phase one and two detoxification pathways.

If you are just consuming a multivitamin, you are getting some of it possibly, but not to the extent that you will be getting if you’re eating whole foods. The detoxification program that I use for patients offers many therapeutic foods and colors. Eat a rainbow every day

6. Cooking Preparation

High heat cooking can contribute to AGE’s, advanced glycolytic end products. This can contribute to oxidative stress and inflammation. Cooking with olive oil, for example, is not the best for high heat cooking oil. Therefore, it can contribute to inflammation. Olive oil has so many health benefits so consider putting that on a salad and using avocado oil for high heat cooking.

In summary, you may need to be toxify for various things. My advice is to seek out a professional that can help guide you and support you.

Need help? Reach out for a 15-minute FREE discovery session to see how we can help you on your journey.

Other things that may interest you:

Vagus nerve hack: visceral sympathetic release | celiac plexus, superior/inferior mesenteric plexus

Are you suffering from food intolerances?

Muscle is the organ of longevity