The Best Natural Cleanse Diet

The best natural cleanse diet is not a short term fix for a long term problem. Cleansing your body of toxins can’t be accomplished by drinking only lemon water or green smoothies for 2 weeks. 

Because there is NO scientific evidence that these types of cleanse diets work. You know the saying "if it sounds to good to be true it probably is"? Well think about the claims made by many detox diet plans.

What a wonderful utopian world it would be if you could expose yourself 50 weeks a year to a constant barrage of toxic chemicals in your food, water and the products you use. Then in just 2 short weeks cleanse your body of all its accumulated toxins.

Sorry. I know this is not what you want to hear. But, it doesn't work that way.

Ya just can't juice your way out of toxin exposure.

There's only one natural cleanse diet that works. And here are 3 reasons why it requires a life style change.

1. Detox Diets Don't Cleanse Your Body

You are exposed to multiple kinds of toxins every day that can make you sick. Inflammation, metabolic disorders like hypothyroidism, obesity and diabetes, and cancer and heart disease are linked to chemical toxins that are in products that you use all the time.

These toxins enter your body through the food and water you drink, the air you breath and the products that you put on your skin.  And for several reasons, these toxins can be stored in your body.

The idea behind cleansing diets is that certain foods and combinations of foods will stimulate your body to release stored toxins. But, according to a 2014 review of the scientific literature by Klein and Kiat "At present there is no compelling evidence to support the use of detox diets for weight management or toxin elimination."

And  “Despite the popularity of detox diets, there’s little scientific evidence that they actually remove toxins, improve health, or induce permanent weight loss.” Kavanagh 2017.

2. Most Cleansing Diets Are Dangerous

It’s bad enough that you’re wasting your time and money on short term cleansing diets. But they can also be dangerous to your health.

The severe calorie and food restrictions required of many detox diets will take the pounds off quickly. But rapid weight loss is not healthy. It messes with your metabolism and you usually end up gaining back the weight.

Also, losing body fat is one way your body releases the toxins stored in body fat. But rapid weight loss floods your body with toxic chemicals that overwhelms your detox system. 

Several studies have looked at the levels of toxins in people before and after drastic weight loss. These studies found that as body fat decreases, the toxins in your body recirculate through your body and are eventually redeposited.

Only a small percentage (15%) is broken down and excreted from your body. Some of the released toxins enter other body fat and some get circulated through your blood and end up in other organs.

Increased toxins in the blood have also been found in people after only moderate calorie restriction and weight loss and in people who have undergone gastroplasty.

This flood of released toxins can also change your energy and lipid balance and contribute to liver dysfunction.

3. Your Body Can Cleanse Itself

Once you inhale, absorb and ingest toxins they are distributed throughout your body. Your body’s detoxification machine, the liver, then starts the process of breaking down these harmful substances by a complex series of chemical reactions. Your kidneys, lungs, GI tract and skin also play a role in getting rid of toxins.

This is a two-step process. In the first step, the chemical make-up of the toxin is changed using many different enzymes. Enzymes are proteins made by your body to start or speed up chemical reactions.

If the toxin is changed to a form that easily dissolves in water, it is excreted by the kidneys. In the second step, fat-soluble (dissolve in fat) products made during the first step are further processed into new water-soluble substances. These substances are then excreted.

Each person's ability to detoxify varies and is influenced by the amount and kinds of chemicals you’re exposed to every day, your age, diet, lifestyle, health status and genetic factors. 

If the amount of toxins you’re exposed to exceeds your body's ability to break down and excrete them, the toxins may be stored in your fat cells, soft tissue and bone, negatively affecting your health.

The key take away here is that supporting your detox system by reducing your exposure to toxins and providing what it needs to function properly can help you avoid this toxic overload.

So, even though there is no scientific evidence that any of the quick-fix natural cleansing diets on the market actually work, there are long-term strategies to cleanse your body of toxins.

The Best Natural Cleanse Diet

The best natural cleanse diet involves cleaning up your food and supporting your body's ability to cleanse itself. It's not a short term approach but a long term commitment.

And while it won't remove all the toxins in your body, it will reduce your toxic body burden. This will give your detox system a fighting chance to protect your health.

Clean Up Your Diet

One of the most important things you can do to clean up your diet is to eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies every day. You've probably heard this a million times. But what you haven't heard is, to truly clean up your diet the produce you eat should be organic.

New data released recently by the FDA shows the occurrence of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables are on the rise. In their testing of thousands of food samples, about 50 percent of domestic food and 43 percent of imported foods sampled showed pesticide residues.

This is up from about 37 percent of domestic and 28 percent of imported foods found with residues in 2010. And the latest USDA residue report found about 85 percent of samples contained pesticide residues, including 97 percent of the apples, 83 percent of the grapes and 60 percent of the tomatoes tested.

It makes NO sense to increase your fruit and veggie intake if it also means increasing your toxin exposure. The idea behind this natural cleanse diet approach is to avoid foods loaded with toxins. 

Reducing the volume of toxins that enter your body through food gives your liver a chance to detox your body. And this approach works.

Studies have found that if you eat organic produce, you have fewer pesticides floating around in your body. The same holds true if you avoid using toxic pesticides for pest control. Several studies have also shown that the level of BPA in your blood is dramatically reduced when you stop eating canned soups and veggies. 

Other steps you can take to clean up your diet include:

Eat Clean Sources of Protein

This means cutting processed meats from your diet and reducing how much red meat you eat. Fish known to have high levels of mercury or POPs (persistent organic pollutants) should also be avoided.

Reduce Animal Fat In Your Diet

When you eat animals (meat and dairy), the fat loving POPs stored in their body fat become your POPs. 

Cut Out Canned Foods

Canned foods are lined with BPA or BPA substitutes. These endocrine disrupting chemicals leach into the food, especially acidic food.

Cut Back Or Eliminate Rice Products

Rice, especially brown rice, often contains high levels of arsenic, a carcinogen that is also very toxic to your liver.

For more ways to clean up your food check out The Proactive Diet Detox.

Give Your Detox System What It Needs

The tips above will support your detox system by reducing the toxins your body has to deal with. You can also provide support by making sure your detox system has what it needs to function properly.

In fact, many of the herbs and supplements that claim to cleanse your body or specific organs like your liver and kidneys, really work by supporting your detox system. For example, dandelion is considered a detox herb because it contains nutrients that support your liver function and it increases urine output. Urine is one way toxins are removed from your body.

Providing support becomes more important as you age because, like so many other things, your detox system becomes less efficient. A key way to support your aging detox system is by boosting your glutathione levels.

Glutathione is a protein produced by your body and found in all your cells. It’s a powerful antioxidant, a key player in the function of your immune system and a master detoxifier. Unfortunately, levels of glutathione decrease as you get older, especially after age 60.

Because glutathione is a protein you can't just take it in pill form. Your digestive system would break it down just like it does with other proteins so it wouldn't get where it needs to go.

But there are proven ways to boost your body's glutathione levels. These approaches include providing your body with the building blocks it needs to make glutathione and supporting the enzymes that help it do its job.

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