The word detox (also known as detoxification) is more commonly used than earlier.
Your body is constantly being bombarded by toxins. These can come from the environment, your diet, and even your own body. It’s essential to detoxify your body on a regular basis in order to stay healthy.
But what does it mean to you? Detox is simply getting rid of toxins from your body by using a specific product or diet. This helps to improve your health, delay ageing, and lose weight.
What is the natural detox process means to you?
It is the detoxification mechanism available in our body. The natural detox system comprises the human liver, kidney, lungs, gut, and skin. These can remove many harmful chemicals from the body. When these organs function very well, we don’t usually require to spend bugs on an expensive diet or specialized product for detox.
But before that, what are these toxins? There is a wide range of toxic materials available. These are free radicles (generated from bodily functions), pollutants, chemicals, heavy metals, and sometimes processed foods. All these affect your health and bring negative results.
So you need to avoid taking these toxins first-hand. Second, your body needs to ensure these toxins are neutralized and eliminated by the body if they enter the body.
The most important thing is you need to support the natural detox system to enhance their actions.
How can you do it? If you are interested in learning these natural ways to augment your bodily function, spare a few minutes to read the below five points.
1. Limit intake of harmful substances
We take many items that are not good for our health. First on the list is alcohol. Second, processed foods. Vegetables produced using sub-stranded fertilizers, and meat fed using poor quality feeds are potential sources of heavy metals and other toxic substances.
Limiting alcohol intake is of utmost importance because excess and prolonged use of alcohol damage the liver. It ceases all its functions when irreversible damages occur, including breaking down and removing toxins. This condition is known as cirrhosis.
Moderate intake of alcohol within the safe limits is considered beneficial for the heart’s health. But now, the latest scientific evidence on alcohol intake by US health authorities suggests even a small intake of alcohol is not good for your health. and it is a perfect way to augment the detox of your whole body.
2. Drink about 3 litres of water per day
Did you ever think about why you are drinking water? Simply it is to quench your thirst, isn’t it? But it has many roles. For example, water helps to regulate the body temperature, smoothens, and lubricates join. In addition, it aids digestion and absorption of nutrients from the gut.
Several metabolites, such as urea and carbon dioxide, are formed when there is a cellular function. These need to be removed from the body promptly. Water helps to carries these and eliminates them from the kidney, lungs, and skin. So water is an essential component of your detox regime.
The recommended daily water intake is 3.7 litres for men and 2.7 litres for women. You need to ensure that you are taking an adequate amount of liquids, and the best one is pure water.
3. Good Sleep for 7 hours is essential
You need to focus on adequate and quality sleep to support your well-being and detoxification. Therefore, you must aim for at least 7 hours of sleep daily.
When you go to sleep, your body starts to recharge and refresh. It starts to remove toxins accumulated in the body. A chemical (Abeta) responsible for developing Alzheimer’s disease will be washed off during sleep.
However, poor sleep leads to toxins in the body, hence responsible for a wide array of diseases such as stress, anxiety, high blood pressure, heart diseases, obesity, and diabetes mellitus type 2.
If you experience poor sleep every night, you must adjust your life cycle and try methods that promote good sleep.
4. Cut down the bad 3S: Sugar, Salt, and Saturated fats
The 3 S: sugar, salt, and saturated fats are the main reasons for non-communicable diseases. These non-communicable diseases are now a serious issue.
Obesity and metabolic syndrome result due to poor lifestyles. The main reasons are the intake of high amounts of sugary and processed foods (rich in saturated fats) and a sedentary lifestyle. The metabolic syndrome must be taken very seriously because it leads to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, and certain cancers.
These chronic diseases weaken your immunity and the ability to detox. In addition, intake of a high amount of processed foods and simple sugars (cake, ice cream, sugary drinks) causes fatty liver, affecting the liver’s natural detox processes.
Removal of excess water is also considered a method of detoxification. Salt (sodium) is responsible for fluid retention in the body. Therefore intake of extra added salt is not a good thing. Taking 5 grams of salt per day for an adult is recommended.
So to enhance the detox process, you need to say goodbye to junk foods and focus on healthy food habits.
5. Eat foods that are rich in antioxidants
When cellular processes occur in the cells, they produce a substance called free radicals. The excess production of these free radicals is responsible for oxidative damage in the body. The detox process removes these free radicals from the body, thus protecting our organs.
Eating a diet rich in antioxidants helps prevent this oxidative damage. What are these antioxidants? Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin are a few. Many foods are rich in these antioxidants and are effective natural detox agents. Foods rich in antioxidants are berries, fruits, nuts, cocoa, vegetables, spices, coffee, and green tea.
Gut health is also an essential factor in the detox process. The intestine has its detoxification process to protect the body from harmful toxins and chemicals. Gut health is determined by gut flora. Prebiotics helps to promote gut flora and eventual gut health. Eating foods rich in prebiotics can improve your immune and detoxification systems. Good food sources of prebiotics include tomatoes, artichokes, bananas, asparagus, onions, garlic, and oats.
6. Active lifestyle promotes a whole-body detox process
Regular physical exercise is good for longer life and a reduced risk of many conditions and diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain cancers. The association between physical activity and health has been proven very well.
Exercise reduces the inflammation of the body. This reduction of inflammation helps the detox process and promotes immunity in the body.
The current recommendation is to do moderate-intensity exercise for at least 150 minutes of intense physical activity for 75 minutes per week. You can follow this 10 minutes low-impact cardio workout.
The Bottom Line
A detox is a period of time to clean your body from toxins. Toxins are chemicals that are found in the environment, foods, and water that can build up in your body over time.
When you detoxify your body, you are removing these harmful substances and allowing your body to function at its best.
There are natural ways to detox your body. These include: Eating healthy foods, drinking enough water every day, exercising regularly and getting good sleep at night
