Support Healthy Detoxing with These Daily Habits and Help Your Body Naturally Filter Out Toxins
NOTE: Your body has several channels of natural detoxification, and it’s our job to support our body in this effort. Luckily, there are things you can easily do that can help your body in its natural detoxification and filtering functions through the skin, lungs, kidneys, liver, and elimination processes. Read on to find out!
Yay! Spring has nearly sprung! After being cooped up inside all the cold winter, I always feel my body is ready for a good cleaning out. There are many commercial cleansing products on the market, but honestly, I don’t suggest these, the reason being that our bodies do a fine job all on their own.
We just need to give our beautiful body a bit of extra support now and then! Here are some ideas for you…..
I'll be honest: I dread this time of year because I just don't feel ready to show off the parts! So what's a girl (especially on older one) to do? How about taking some action steps to start some easy and fast detoxification habits for spring? These detoxification habits will help you look and feel your best in time for the heat of summer (or any time)!
(You may also be interested in this article: Cellulite: Natural Remedies and Herbs That Support the Liver.)
FTC Disclosure: There are affiliate links scattered throughout this article. If you click through and make any kind of purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Full Disclosure Here.
What IS Detoxing, Anyway?
There's a lot of random information out there about detoxification. What the heck does that mean, anyway? There is also an awful lot of hype that pushes commercial products that promise to "cleanse" your body. These folks want us to believe we need to go buy special (and often expensive) things to detox our body. That's just not the case!
Detoxification happens in our bodies every day, like it or not. When we exercise, we’re helping our body get rid of toxins through our breathing and skin. When we drink lots of healthy fluids, we’re supporting our kidneys. And when we eat healthy, whole and real foods, our liver is supported.
There are other additional things we can do to help our bodies become a lot more efficient at detoxifying, and these things are what we’re talking about in this article. .
Here's a bit about detoxifying you may not know and lots of easy ways to support your body in this natural process:
It's all about the Liver! (As well as supporting organs like the kidneys, lungs, skin, and lymphatic system.)
Yep. Your liver is a special organ. It is responsible for filtering out impurities and poisons from your system. It's a very complicated process, but just know that your liver is the main organ that supports your body in this process. Other organs help support the liver in this important function of detoxification.
This also means that any herb that supports the liver, any food or activity that helps flush toxins from your body (kidneys, lungs, lymph)---will be helping the liver out, and therefore, the natural detoxifying of your body.
According to Dr. Lipman of Be Well, "Detoxification is what your body does naturally to neutralize, transform, or get rid of unwanted materials or toxins. It is a primary function of the body, constantly working and interacting with all other functions of the body."
Essentially, reducing the amount of toxins going into our bodies, while at the same time supporting the body's natural detoxification process, is what detoxification is all about.
Here are my favorite natural ways to stay internally "clean" so to speak.
Click here to get your FREE Herbal Remedy Guide and Cheat Sheet! It’s perfect for your kitchen or home apothecary with 12 beautiful pages covering 10 common and easy-to-find herbs and their essential oils if they have one. Click here and I’ll send yours now!
How to Naturally Detoxify Your Body This Spring
I'm relating these tips to Spring---but don't be fooled. These are things you can be doing all year round to keep your body clean and in tip-top shape!
1) Use Liver Loving Herbs
There are some great herbs God gave us that support our bodies, keeping our liver and blood clean and purified. These include herbs such as Nettle, Dandelion, Burdock, Milk Thistle, and others.
Herbs in this category are often diuretics, which flush excess fluids from the body, taking poisons along too! How great is that? Not only do these herbs support the liver (and therefore the blood), but also the kidneys, which are major helpers for our liver.
Generally, herbs that support liver and kidney function are also highly nutritive, in most cases. Herbs like dandelion and nettle fit this profile.
These herbs are inexpensive, too! It's easy to make your own herbal detox tea to drink every day. It really is! Here is an article for the herbal detox recipe I use and that I've shared with many people over the years.
And you know what? If you don't want to blend up your own herbs, then Starwest Botanicals has a tasty pre-blended Organic Detox Tea. Just search "detox tea" on their website.
These herbs all support the liver and kidneys in filtering the toxins out of your body. You can find out how to make this tea yourself, or you can purchase a great detox tea from Starwest Botanicals or Amazon!
2) Get Your Citrus On
Citrus fruits are GREAT for supporting the kidneys and liver. Especially lemons!
Lemons are known as an "anionic" fruit, which basically means that they have more negative ions than positive ones. What this means for us in the detoxing process is that they support the anionic fluids in our own bodies, such as bile, saliva, and stomach acid, by mirroring their actions.
This helps the entire digestive process!
The best way to use citrus is to squeeze fresh lemon juice into your water. Or eat a grapefruit every day.
Or, to make it even easier if cutting up and squeezing lemon isn't something you have time for (and I know how that is), just use a great quality organic lemon juice! (The link for that lemon juice is to Amazon, and I like it because it is NOT from concentrate--which means it's been far less processed.)
NOTE: Citrus fruits also help break down heavy fats and support healthy digestion.
The citric acid, along with the fact that lemon is an anionic fruit, means it's a great way to help your body clean up!
3) You're HOT: Get Sweaty!
Perspiration helps get rid of toxins, as well. So, learn to love that sweat! I’m not talking about a little "mist," but a really good sweat. Try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day that produces a good sweat if you can. If this isn't possible, then sitting in a sauna if you have one available can help.
Did you know that any toxins your liver and kidneys can't flush out will get stored in your fat cells? (Cellulite, anyone?)
That's where exercise and perspiration can really help the body stay clean in a healthy and natural way.
The sweat carries out excess toxins that your liver and kidneys can't deal with because there's just too much of a toxic load from eating processed foods, drinking alcohol, pollution, and chemicals in our environment.
4) Eat Dark Leafy Greens
What a simple thing to do every day, right? Dark, leafy greens are filled with great minerals and nutrients, such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, and certain vitamins that are an integral part of the detoxification process.
The chlorophyll in the green leaves (what causes the green color) also helps remove chemical toxins from our bodies. These include heavy metals and other disturbing chemical poisons our body absorbs through the skin, drinking water, and physical items such as plastics.
Cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, bok choy, spinach and kale, are especially powerful in supporting the detoxification process.
If you have trouble getting enough of these leafy greens into your daily food and meals, then consider adding a green smoothie to your daily regimen? There are lots of recipes out there!
Eat your greens! Don't like veggies? Try a green smoothie every day.
5) Spice It Up
You can add spices such as ginger and turmeric to your foods and drinks every day! There are clinical studies that indicate that spices such as these not only have anti-inflammatory properties, but they can also help support detoxification.
In fact, toxins cause inflammation. If you get rid of the toxins---well, then you help your body get rid of inflammation too. See how this all goes hand in hand?
You can also get your organic culinary spices from Starwest Botanicals. They carry a lot more than medicinal herbs, my friend! Explore their impressive website!
Get your FREE Herbal Remedy Guide + Cheat Sheet! It’s 12 pages of great information on 10 common and easy to find herbs. The Herbal Remedy Guide is perfect for your home apothecary or kitchen, too!
6) Hydrate Yourself
You knew this was coming, right? Yep. Drink more water. Drinking more water helps flush out your system like nothing else.
Water is the best thing you can drink. But if you are not into "plain" water, then try adding some juice or herbs that don't have caffeine to enhance the taste. I love to add lemons or cucumbers (or both) to my water and let it naturally infuse during the day.
7) Try Fasting
Mr. V. is big on this one. As for me, not so much. I like to eat. Also, there is no scientific evidence that fasting helps the body detoxify.
But. With that said, I will occasionally fast, and I especially like Intermittent Fasting. There are many ways to fast, and I suggest doing some research if you think this may be a good thing for your body.
I am including it here because there is a large group of people who believe fasting does help support the body in its detoxification efforts. The way this may work is because of the fact that the body's energies can be turned toward other important functions (such as detoxification) rather than the hard work of digestion.
Here are a couple of books I've read about Intermittent Fasting that I've enjoyed and have helped me understand it better: The IF Diet by Robert Skinner (IF = Intermittent Fasting) and What, When, Wine by Melanie Avalon (a fun read, too).
There are several culinary spices that can support your body in detoxing and inflammation. Turmeric is one of them! You can buy high quality bulk spices at Starwest Botanicals for great prices. Organic, too.
8) Stay Away from Toxins in Your Diet and Environment
If we don't put the toxins in or on our bodies in the first place....well, then there's going to be a lot less garbage for our poor livers to handle, right?
Some toxins we just can't avoid. Environmental pollution, packaging on products, chemicals in commercial items, flooring, paint, the list goes on and on and on.
But some toxins we CAN avoid. Here's a short list:
Sugars:
Sugar is toxic to our bodies. ANY kind of sugar. Yes, one can argue that there are "healthy" sugars, such as raw honey, but the research is in. The fact of the matter is that sugar is a toxin. Period.
I will say, for myself, if I am going to eat sugars, then I will choose raw honey or molasses over any other kind. Or organic cane sugar (non-GMO).
Processed Foods:
I could write a book about this! The S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) is one of the most heinous and crippling debacles ever shoved down the citizens of America's collective throats.
And that's all I'm going to say about that here, except PLEASE click through to read How to Clean Up Your Diet (Bad to Best Foods in Nine Food Categories).
You'll get a succinct way to start cleaning up your diet to improve your health---and reduce the kinds of toxins going into your body at the same time.
Alcohol, Tobacco, Drugs:
Some of the worst offenders for harming our livers include the things many of us enjoy for recreation. But did you know that the VERY worst offenders are your over-the-counter medications? In our country we pop ibuprofen and acetaminophen like candy. Friend, this is BAD. Acetaminophen is actually the number one cause of deaths from liver dysfunction.
NOTE: You’re probably interested in my Ditch the Drugstore course, where I take you through my step-by-step process for building a personalized home apothecary for your own family. You can get on the Wait List for more information about when I’m opening for the next round here.
These things above are all toxic to our bodies, and our liver has to work extra hard to clean your innards up when you partake of these items.
There are other toxins out there---Things like gluten, GMO's, and foods that are not organic (meaning they may be sprayed with pesticides or have been grown with chemical fertilizers) are all examples of many things we need to watch out for.
So what CAN you eat? Try to stick with real whole foods.
I love this book by Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. There are many others, and Wheat Belly, by William Davis, is another eye-opener.
Final Thoughts About Detoxing Your Body Naturally
A clean inside is just as important as a clean outside.
As a mid-lifer with a few extra pounds to lose, the typical "meno-pot" going on, and no extra time for exercise or self-care----I KNOW how hard it is to pay attention to All. The. Things.
BUT: I think these eight ways to detoxify yourself, or at least give your special liver the support it needs and could use, are pretty easy to start implementing.
What I'm going to do is to start doing one or two per week until I get them all fit in. Some of these things I already do anyway, but I would like to be a little more well-rounded. Wouldn't you?
Make these items a daily habit in your life, and enjoy a cleaner, more functional body and mind!
Here are some other articles you may enjoy, too:
How to Ferment Lemons in Nine Easy Steps (and Two Recipes)
How to Sprout Seeds at Home and Have Fresh Greens All Year Long!
Cold Sore Salve Recipe with Lemon Balm and L-Lysine —-It really works!!!
How to Stop a Cold or Flu in Their Tracks and Feel Better FAST
Totally Relaxing Herbal Tea Recipe
Videos:
Nerve-Soothing Herbal Tea for Migraines and Tension Headaches
Best Essential Oils for Supporting Weight Loss
DIY Thieves Room Spray for Fighting Germs and Supporting Immune System Health
Ten BEST Essential Oils for Seasonal Allergy Relief
How to Make a Relaxing Herbal Tea
Be sure to explore my website! I’ve written hundreds of articles for you there; and if you love videos instead, please subscribe to my YouTube channel!
Hugs, Health, & Self-Reliance,
Heidi
Resources:
https://www.bewell.com/blog/what-do-you-mean-by-detox/
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12713/10-easy-ways-to-detox-your-body-today.html
https://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/how-does-lemon-juice-assist-detoxification/
https://www.wellandgood.com/good-sweat/science-backed-detox/
https://thedetoxspecialist.com/blog/the-detoxing-health-benefits-of-leafy-greens/
http://www.sixstepstobetterhealth.com/cleansebody.html
What is detoxification? What does it mean to “detox” your body? Answers to these questions plus eight easy and NATURAL ways you can start cleaning up your body and getting rid of toxins are right here! Get yourself fit, clean, and healthy this Spring! Just click through and find out how to detoxify your body naturally! #detoxify #howtodetox #detoxification #natural
Cover image credit: Sarah Cervera via Unsplash on SquareSpace.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a medical doctor. I’m an herbalist and aromatherapist. In no manner is any content created by me meant or implied to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose any disease. These statements haven’t been evaluated by the FDA.