What are the best foods for detoxifying your body? It’s possible to detoxify in a healthy way by incorporating certain foods into your food routine that cleanse the body from toxic agents.
When it comes to detoxification, we are looking for consistent inputs that will keep us ahead of the toxic world we reside in. We want to actually be detoxifying, as in minimizing our body’s toxic burden and not just recycling toxins or enjoying a bunch of so called “Detox reaction” symptoms for no health accumulating reason.
As always, I refuse to promote the detox and cleanse gimmicks, that in the end are likely making people sicker. Please don’t fall for their impressive marketing tactics. Detoxification is a 24/7, 365 days a year process until we die.
However, through small food adjustments, we can build massive health margin.
I say this often, but it bears repeating.
A nourished body can heal.
A malnourished body cannot.
Your first step in utilizing food to promote the avenues of detoxification is to ensure you are consuming a plethora of whole, nutrient dense, minimally processed foods.
Add in ginger tea to a fast food lifestyle is better than nothing, but it’s not going to overcome the disease onslaught that is fried vegetables oils and forever chemicals in those greasy paper bags.
Nourishment is crucial because without sufficient vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and amino acids, every system in your body will underperform no matter how many special food concentrates and bright polyphenol loaded food items you present the body. Check out this post for recommended superfoods.
Now that we are nourished, let’s look at a few particular foods you’ll want to use on the regular.
Best Foods for Detoxifying Your Body
Garlic
I am mostly speaking of fresh garlic, rather than the powdered type, as fresh garlic has much higher levels of the enzyme alliinase which activates alliin to allicin. Allicin is the component of garlic that has been shown to have potent antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects.
Fresh garlic also contains sulfur compounds that are often degraded in the drying process. The sulfur containing compounds activate liver enzymes responsible for mobilizing and removing toxins as the blood is filtered through the liver, but also converting toxins into forms that are more easily removed from the body. What meal could you add some extra garlic to?
Apples
Apples contain pectin which is a type of soluble fiber that binds to bile acids and promotes their excretion from the body. This is high value for the gallbladder because if too much bile acid is reabsorbed, it can lead to gallstones.
Clearing out excess bile acids also helps lower cholesterol because the liver then will mobilize more cholesterol to be utilized to synthesize bile acids. This is just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to the advantages of clearing excess bile acids, as excess bile acids tend to make secondary bile acids that increase the risk of colon cancer.
Make sure your apples are organic, otherwise I would pass on the apples as no amount of pectin will make up for the negative effect of pesticide residues on produce.
Dandelion leaves, Ginger, Cucumbers
These three food items all work to support lymphatic flow mostly because they help with circulation, are loaded with antioxidants and have natural diuretic properties.
Cucumbers are hydrating and loaded with potassium as well as being an alkaline forming food, making it easy for the body to maintain a balanced pH, this makes life so much easier for the kidneys.
I use cucumbers as part of most every elimination food routine with patients, as even the sickest patients can tolerate them.
Dandelion leaves are an amazing natural diuretic, helping the kidneys to clear excess fluid, which is especially necessary for those who have a lot of inflammation and puffiness due to the body not being able to efficiently clear waste products.
Ginger has a warming effect leading to blood vessel dilation and improved blood flow. Enhanced blood flow is one of the hallmarks of improved detoxification.
It also has blood cleansing effects in it that can act as a natural blood thinner which also promotes enhance circulation.
If you have cold hands and feet, adding ginger to your daily routine could help with blood flow to your extremities which is a sign of general vitality.
Cilantro.
I know many people have a love/hate relationship with cilantro, but if you can tolerate the taste, it is loaded with powerful metal chelating properties. The most common metals affecting mental health and degrading the nervous system like lead, mercury, aluminum, cadmium can all be bound by chemicals in cilantro.
Not only that, but these powerful agents in the cilantro leaf can also package these metals in such a way that it makes it much more efficient and safe for the body to eliminate them.
Putting fresh or juiced cilantro on your eggs, in smoothies, soups, meat dishes, salads or creating dressings with it, is a great way to use food as medicine and promote toxin removal that can have devastating effects on the nervous system
