We need to change the way we think about detoxing. Many cleanses can actually do more harm than good, and picking one or two weeks per year to detox just won’t cut it. Everyone should be concerned about detoxing their body, not just for a few weeks a year, but everyday. Embrace the 365-day detox program and your body will thank you.
Why We Need To Detox Everyday
Our environment bombards us with harmful toxins everyday, accumulating over time and putting immense stress on our body. Air pollution, chemicals in our drinking water, cosmetic products, pharmaceuticals, radiation and poor dietary choices all contribute to our overall toxicity level.
When our cells are exposed to high levels of oxidative stress, heavy metals and other toxins they are either damaged or destroyed altogether. This inhibits the ability for our cells to perform a myriad of vital functions such as producing energy, metabolize fat and fend off disease.
Our body is under a constant state of repair, therefore we need to support detoxifying our cells and promoting healthy cell-turnover on a daily basis in order to meaningfully impact our health and life. One or two weeks per year just doesn’t cut it.
Roster of Toxic Super-villains
Endogenous Toxins
Commonly known as free radical species, endogenous toxins are a natural byproduct of our metabolism. When our antioxidant intake is slower than the production of free radicals, cellular damage ensues. Intense exercise, emotional stress, or poor lifestyle choices can all contribute to higher levels of free radical species.
Exogenous Toxins
Ingested or absorbed from outside sources, exogenous toxins are found virtually everywhere. Personal hygiene and cosmetic products are major culprits, but things like alcohol consumption, tobacco use and drug use all impact our body’s health and well-being. Loading it with toxins that it cannot readily neutralize and purge, leaving them to accumulate and cause severe health problems.
Environmental Toxins
These could also be classified as exogenous toxins, as they are ingested or absorbed from outside sources. Environmental toxins are generally unavoidable, found in the air we breathe, foods we eat and water we drink. These toxins are brought about by air pollution, pesticides, genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), chlorine and heavy metals found in drinking water as well as engine exhaust.
365-Day Detox Program Methods
Supporting antioxidant activity is the name of the game. The more antioxidants we consume / produce, the better our body can deal with toxins and prevent cellular damage. Some of the best ways we can promote antioxidant activity are eating well, living an active lifestyle, supplementing smart and staying in good spirits.
[quote]Focus on eating real, whole, natural foods. As I love to say, if you can pick it, pluck it, milk it, or shoot it, you can eat it!” – Suzanne Somers[/quote]
Diet
Avoid heavily processed foods, pre-packaged meals, fast-food, simple carbohydrates, sugar, and anything that isn’t completely natural from farm to plate. Feed your cells what they need in order to function optimally and you will be rewarded with great health and a long-life.
Meeting our entire nutritional demand through food alone is extremely difficult to do, this means supplementing is vital to our health.
Supplement
Antioxidant supplements are readily available in-store and online, the key is looking beyond the veil of marketing and finding a truly quality supplement. Supplements that contain proprietary blends of ingredients, filler ingredients and dye’s should be avoided whenever possible. Proprietary blends make it difficult to know how much and of what you are getting per dose, this makes it impossible to supplement smart. Filler ingredients are generally a red-flag, you are probably getting a microdose of the desired ingredient in a sea of rice-flour. Any supplement that uses dye’s or any artificial flavor should be avoided completely. These dyes and flavors are themselves toxins, meaning you are taking one-step forwards and two steps back.
We heavily promote L-glutathione supplements because glutathione is our body’s most powerful antioxidant. Supporting glutathione levels directly influences our body’s overall toxicity levels, making it the ultimate detox supplement. There are other important supplements as well, such as: Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, Vitamin K2, Curcumin, Selenium, Magnesium, Alpha Lipoic Acid, L-Carnitine, Green Tea Extract, CoQ10, Probiotics, Milk Thistle Extract, and Iodine, just to name a few.
Lifestyle
It is no secret that staying active is important for our health and well-being. This doesn’t mean you need to kill yourself at the gym everyday, but it does mean you should be getting a minimum of 20 minutes of moderate exercise per day. Avoid sitting for prolonged periods of time, get up and walk around for a few minutes every hour.
Getting active goes a long way to promote heart health and prevent excess fat build-up, but it can also help promote antioxidant activity. While strenuous exercise significantly ramps up the production of free radical species through increased metabolic activity, it also increases antioxidant levels to help combat these free radicals.
Mood
Our mood plays a major role in our health and well-being. People who are chronically stressed or depressed have a severely weakened immune system and are in overall poorer health.
Learning to manage stress and maintain a positive attitude can do wonders for your health. Avoiding stressful situations entirely may not be possible, but learning to manage the stress and prevent it from taking over your day is possible. Meditation is a great way to both relieve daily stress and to better deal with it in the future.
Problems With Cleanses
Planning on going on a juice cleanse? You may want to think twice about that.
Not only are many cleanses potentially harmful to individuals with health conditions, those on medication, the young, old and pregnant, they are relatively ineffective.
If you eat poorly for 358 days per year, a 7-day juice cleanse won’t magically release all the toxins in your body, nor will it fix the body’s natural waste removal process. By promoting the body’s natural ability to remove toxins on a daily basis, you are helping cleanse it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Colon cleanses have become quite popular in recent years, even though they have been found to be ineffective and potentially dangerous. Colon cleansing was once common practice, this was about 100 years ago, until it was condemned by the medical community in 1919. Found to be unnecessary, it has since been found to be harmful.
Flushing the colon doesn’t just flush out toxins, it flushes out everything, including beneficial bacteria required to digest and absorb nutrients.
Bottom Line
Living on this planet means you are absorbing and ingesting toxins on a daily basis. These toxins must be dealt with on a constant basis in order to prevent damage to our body and ensure optimal growth and function. Supporting antioxidant activity through a healthy diet, lifestyle and supplement routine is the best way to actively deal with the toxic burden placed on our body.
The best detox program lasts 365 days a year and persists throughout your whole life. This doesn’t mean you cannot indulge your cravings from time to time, so long as you are tipping the scales in your favor the majority of the time.
Live healthy, live happy, live the life you deserve.
