As the word suggests, detoxification is a process by which you eliminate the toxins from your body. These harmful substances usually result from environmental pollutants, and eating unhealthy, highly-processed foods. Detoxing is a way for the body to rid itself of all unnecessary and potentially harmful toxins and improve health.

In order to detoxify their bodies, people usually follow certain detox programs. Also, some may start eating healthy foods or add detox supplements to their diets. But regardless of which way you choose to detoxify, make sure that you do it safely.

Why Do You Need to Detoxify Your Body?

The short answer to this question is because you need to get rid of all the toxins in your body. In general, the liver, kidneys, intestines, skin, lymphatic system, and lungs handle the detox processes in the body. A healthy body is self-cleaning, but during times of stress and illness these organs may become sluggish and unable to work at peak efficiency. On these occasions, people may start to experience bloating, irritated skin, fatigue, allergic reactions, mental fog, and other unpleasant conditions.

Health Benefits of Detoxification

According to many holistic experts, detoxification process supports your body’s natural cleansing process by stimulating the liver’s function to expel toxins from the body, improving blood circulation, refreshing the organs and the entire body and replenishing the nutrients your body lacks that’s needed for proper function.

food with high fiber content for a healthy diet with fruit, vegetables, whole wheat bread, pasta, nuts, legumes, grains and cereals

Istock

Eat healthy foods. This is the first and most obvious way to detoxify your body. By changing your eating habits and focusing on natural foods, such as fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, as well as using organic and minimally-processed products, this will help your body to cleanse itself of impurities. Processed foods, such as chips, fast food, bacon, granola bars and ketchup should be avoided or infrequently consumed. Instead, replace these foods with healthy substitutes, such as the following snacks and ingredients:

  • Swap out store-bought chips with home-made potato or cauliflower chips
  • Eat avocado not bacon
  • Opt for unsweetened or less-sweetened granola bars
  • Prepare do-it-yourself ketchup with a natural tomato sauce

Istock

Drink a lot of water. Water is the purest and most essential liquid the body requires. Remember that 75% of our body consists of water, so it’s normal to drink plenty of water in order to replenish the liquid you lose through sweat and urine. In order to stay hydrated, you should drink around 3 liters of water each day.

As the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggested, the daily recommended fluid intake is 2.7 liters for women and 3.7 liters for men. This includes water, juices and other drinks, as well as the fluid from food (fruits and vegetables mostly). Although you can drink different beverages to stay hydrated, for detoxification, choose to drink water, unsweetened tea (especially green and black tea), and natural, home-made juices and smoothies.

By silviarita on Pixabay

Drink detox smoothies. One of the first things that may come to mind when speaking of detoxification are popular detox smoothies. Almost always visualized

as green smoothies, these health drinks can also be yellow, pink, or have another color, depending on the ingredients they contain. Drinking a smoothie is recognized as being an easy, delicious and highly-efficient way to detox and nourish the body.

In most recipes for detox smoothies, the ingredients usually include fresh produce, such as green apples, bananas, spinach, cucumber, ginger, lemons, limes and kale, as well as plant-based milk, water, some seeds, and a variety of other healthy foods. Because of the nutrients each of these foods contain, when combined, they can help to support the body’s natural ability to detoxify itself.

alarm clock on plate with fork and knife fastting diet

Istock

Fast. You may or may not have heard that fasting is a way to cleanse your body of unhealthy fats, undigestedcarbs, and other toxins. While fasting, you may eat mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as some other unprocessed or minimally-processed foods. Currently, fasting is actually being studied as a way to promote health, prevent disease, age more successfully and stimulate weight loss. Proponents of intermittent fasting and periodic fasting say that this regimen can help to refresh and rejuvenate the body. But these programs should only be undertaken with your doctor’s approval and guidance as fasting can trigger headaches, weakness, fainting and dehydration.

Istock

Be active. Exercising, practicing yoga, and just being physically active isn’t something you should do only for the purpose of losing weight. These activities cause individuals to sweat and get rid of toxins in that way. Also, losing water by sweating stimulates thirst and leads to drinking more water, which can help your body detoxify itself even more. But the best part of being active is that

you don’t need to engage in high-intensity exercises. You can perform crunches, jog for five minutes or more, walk up or down the stairs instead of using the elevator and engage in other similar types of low-intensity exercises.