Six organs are responsible for eliminating toxins from your body.
If you give your body what it needs to eliminate toxic substances from your body it can reduce the need for harsh colon cleanses and restrictive diets.
You can improve your body’s detoxification system by using natural things like food, herbs, and organic products. This helps get rid of the waste that comes from eating processed foods and being around heavy metals in the environment.
Without proper elimination of harmful substances, they can build up causing bioaccumulation in human tissue or more simply put, create toxic overload and possible weight gain.
Reducing your toxic load is key to health and vitality and to help you lose excess weight.
Toxins can come from the environment, food, water, personal care products and household chemicals. We’ll discuss cleaning up your environment and personal care products in the next blog.
For now, we will focus on your elimination organs and some easy ways to support their natural ability to remove toxins and function at their peak.
Lungs – Turnips, radishes and other cruciferous veggies help maintain the healthy barrier of the lungs, cayenne pepper helps break up mucous and cardiovascular exercise removes waste through the respiratory system.
Skin – Break a sweat, take Epsom salts baths, stay hydrated and eat vitamin E rich foods like sunflower seeds and sun butter.
Liver – Cruciferous vegetables, lemon juice, green tea, dandelion greens and tea, green apples and taking a good quality multivitamin can fill in gaps for this main detox organ.
Lymph – Lymphatic system requires movement to function well, so exercise and dry brushing can help stimulate lymph flow.
Kidneys – Drink plenty of filtered water, cranberry juice and nettle tea. Also add parsley and cilantro to your salads.
Colon – Soluble and insoluble fiber to bulk up waste to touch the sides of the bowels to stimulate movement of solid waste out so bacteria does not circulate through the bloodstream from unremoved waste. Lentils, chia seeds, onions and garlic are all great to have daily if you can tolerate them.
The list is not complete and there are many options to support your natural detoxification organs. It serves to encourage you to learn about your elimination organs. Understanding their importance is crucial for providing them with proper functioning.
Cleanses usually involve a quick flush of the bowels, for a few days, and have you stay close to home. By incorporating foods, botanicals and natural health products into your daily living you may find it’s much gentler and allows you to live your life without fear of a bathroom emergency or becoming dehydrated, which is generally where the “weight loss” cleanses come from.
By making some simple changes to your diet and lifestyle you can see benefits in hormones, digestive, skin and various other health issues just by giving your body the building blocks to perform best for you and give you a full body detox.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4488002/
Panda C, Komarnytsky S, Fleming MN, Marsh C, Barron K, Le Brun-Blashka S, Metzger B. Guided Metabolic Detoxification Program Supports Phase II Detoxification Enzymes and Antioxidant Balance in Healthy Participants. Nutrients. 2023; 15(9):2209. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15092209
*Statements are not evaluated by Health Canada and are not intended to provide or replace medical advice to individuals. Consult with a qualified health care provider if you have any health concerns, before initiating any new diet, exercise, supplement or other lifestyle changes.