A few years back, I was having some unexplained health issues.
After seeing doctor after doctor with no answers, I changed up my diet to a detox food plan, and I have never looked back.
Many nutritionists and health experts believe in the old saying, “you are what you eat.” Detox foods act as a detoxification system for your body, replacing processed food with vitamin-dense foods.
How Do You Detox Your Body After Eating Junk Food?
Detox diets are often combined with diuretics or laxatives as a way to “flush out” toxins.
This is not the type of detox food plan that we recommend, as there is no evidence supporting consuming laxatives that contribute to body detoxification.
Instead, detox your body after a junk food binge by committing to change by eating the best foods for your health. Making the decision to eat only whole, natural foods will boost the vitamins that your body needs.
A crucial yet simple way to detoxify is to drink plenty of water and integrate a fiber-rich diet.
Foods to eat while cleansing
Instead of focusing on what you cannot eat when on a detox, focus on all the delicious things you can eat!
Avoiding all processed foods during this time is key. Foods that are grown from the Earth, unprocessed, and are whole would all classify as detox foods.
a) Avocado
Avocado displays 20 different vitamins and minerals in its oblong fruit. It has become a very popular addition to breakfasts due to its high content of fatty acids, fiber, and potassium.
b) Beets
Beets are intensely colored root vegetables that often have a bad reputation with kids. They have almost every essential nutrient that humans need and have been found to lower blood pressure.
c) Grapefruit
This delicious citrus fruit has an impressive amount of different health benefits, including lowering cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, improving insulin resistance, promoting appetite control, and boosting your immune system.
d) Leafy Greens
Kale, microgreens, collard greens, spinach, cabbage, arugula, and swiss chard are all members of the leafy green family. They are rich in vitamin C, A, K, and some B varieties and can help cognitive function, digestion, and cell turnover.
e) Turmeric
Turmeric has been used as a healing agent for centuries and now has science to back up those claims. It contains curcumin, which is the active ingredient responsible for major anti-inflammatory effects.
f) Green Tea
Green tea is one of the healthiest drinks on Earth, aiding in fat management and weight loss. It contains antioxidants and can even help to prevent types of cancer in humans from environmental causes. It can also help to draw out heavy metals in the body’s detox process.
g) Wild Salmon
Wild-caught salmon is the healthiest fish on your monger’s menu. It is dense in essential omega-3 fatty acids, which your body needs but does not produce on its own. These vitamins help eliminate toxins, decrease inflammation, and improve heart cell function.
h) Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes, namely the orange and purple varieties, are high in antioxidants that protect your body from free radicals, which are unstable molecules that contribute to aging, cancer, and heart disease.
How Do I Detox My Body From Food?
To start a detox diet at the bare minimum, the best way is to be sure you are drinking enough water.
Some experts recommend making a detox water drink by adding healthy flavorings such as cucumber, cayenne pepper, lemon, ginger, cinnamon, orange, or strawberries.
Packaged and processed foods from the grocery store have little to no nutrients in them. When eating foods without much nutritional value, your digestive system burns through the digestion process without receiving essential nutrients. These are often referred to as “empty calories.”
They provide nothing of value, aside from adding calories that can add up to excess pounds on the scale. There is no time like the present; any day can be your first day of detox. Once you take the first leap, incorporating nutrient-dense, high fiber foods and eliminating processed foods gets easier every day.
Cleansing the Liver
The organ most responsible for detoxifying our body is the liver. The liver function produces bile to help break down fats, while toxins and waste are removed through bile or urine.
The healthiest thing to do to ensure this organ is detoxing at its full potential is to boost its own natural detoxifying enzymes, most notably sulforaphane, or the most potent detox enzyme found in the liver.
Broccoli is the food with the most naturally occurring amount of sulforaphane, followed by kohlrabi and cauliflower.
Sulforaphane is only released upon chewing and is retained in its highest numbers when eaten raw.
Integrating lots of raw broccoli into your diet helps boost your liver’s detox properties and is proven to aid in your detox diet.
What foods to avoid while cleansing?
This is of utmost importance; if you follow a strict detox diet, you need to avoid these foods.
Avoid dairy, meat, wheat, alcohol, and caffeine. If eating foods such as rice, swap to brown rice for added vitamins and minerals. And, of course, if you have food allergies or intolerances, then avoid those.
If your body does not process certain foods, eating them essentially creates a toxin that your liver is forced to process, adding to your body’s overall load.
Naturally, this is a concern that is fairly unique to me, but the principles for how to address food allergies and intolerances are the same.
Also, if your body requires some caffeine in the morning, green tea will be your best delicious drink of choice.
A Clean Conclusion
And there you have it!
Our list proves that clean eating is not just eating raw vegetables all day; it can be delicious and fun! Begin simply by changing out your white rice to brown rice or switching to oat milk over dairy milk.
Integrating nuts and seeds, cruciferous vegetables, and high fiber produce are different ways of natural detoxification in the body.
Consuming all of these things helps aid in natural health and maintaining weight.
Consuming a clean diet based mostly on fruits and vegetables gives your body the essential nutrients, including antioxidants, anti-inflammatory elements, vitamin C, vitamin B varieties, among many others.
There is no time like the present to begin detoxification if you are looking to make a change in your diet. The body’s natural response is to feel healthier and live easier when you take good care of your diet.
