We look after our car and home as well as other aspects of our life on a regular basis, sometimes we forget that we also needs some care and attention. Whether you know it or not, every day, without fail, we are exposed to a huge amount of chemicals/bacteria/parasites and other nasties. The food we eat, objects we touch, the air we breathe, the things we drink all contain substances that can potentially build up in our bodies to a toxic level.
Most often when our bodies become over burdened with these environmental toxins, they present us with symptoms to warn us that ‘something isn’t quiet right’ or out of balance. Most can usually pin point a cause for the symptoms “I’m tired because I didn’t have my morning coffee” or “I’m always bloated in the afternoon, it’s just my body”, or “It’s normal for me to feel nauseous first thing in the morning”. The fact is, these symptoms aren’t ‘normal’, you shouldn’t have to rely on a coffee every day to ‘get-you- going’, nor be consistently bloated or feel nauseous amongst other things.
Our body is smart it doesn’t just stop working one day and refuse to move until you look after it, as we still need to function. However, our body will give us signs that there is room for improvement, symptoms including lethargy, fatigue, bloating, sluggish bowels, bad breath (halitosis) and poor skin/dull complexion.
Some key contributors to a poor overall body function are poor diet i.e. low in a colourful variety of fruit and vegetables, low water intake, eating take away 3 times a week or more, high alcohol consumption (often binge drink) as well as taking multiple pharmaceutical medications.
How?
If you don’t have a good understanding of the body its best to consult someone who does. They will recommend a detox program that is not only individualised to suit you, but also focuses on the most important areas for your body and what is causing symptoms.
What makes you toxic?
-Chemicals and fertilisers used to grow fresh produce
-Contaminated water
-Poor food choices
-Heating plastics (food packaging)
-Hair dyes/make up/other ‘beauty’ products
-Paint/petrol/car fumes
-Your own microbiome (good and bad bacteria living in your gut). Some bacteria will even make compounds that upset our immune system leading to other more significant issues.
-Environmental toxins – accidents (oil spills nuclear explosions, etc, some of these cannot be avoided)
-Herbicide/pestacides – extremely common in the Goulburn Valley (always look for glyphosate [the active in round up] that when combined is 125 times more toxic)
-Endocrine disruptors – Some companies are using a BPS now instead of BPA and this is said to be safer but still has negative effect overall. Plastics and net overall reduction in plastic foods will reduce you BPS by 66% in 3 days. (canned foods, packaged foods, bottles, sauces, milk processing has a really high amount of plastics involved).
-Heavy metals
The pro’s of detoxing
Increased energy!
Great sense of wellbeing and accomplishment
Removal of harmful parasites/bacteria/yeasts/fungi
Less desire for stimulants or generally ‘bad’ foods
and con’s of detoxing...
withdrawal symptoms from addictive substances e.g. caffeine, sugar, dairy, wheat
temporary digestive upset
often feel worse before you feel better
big change from usual dietary choices
Improved elimination from organs e.g. skin might break out, may begin to move phlegm, running nose if sinuses begin to clear
Understand that detox is more than just ‘giving up drinking on the weekend’ or ‘not having that much takeaway for a few weeks’. Functional detox that works on all complete metabolism of toxins from your body so that you can clear them out of your body. Please make sure that if you are going to undertake a detox program that you do it under the care of a health care professional.
Nowadays, its not just a case of ‘you are what you eat’, it is what you breathe, drink and touch.