Look after the physical – diet, detoxification and fasting.
This week’s blog is about Chapter 5 of How to Heal Yourself. This chapter is about diet and includes a discussion of detoxification and fasting practices. What follows are some of the ideas I have around detoxification; which is a process our bodies undertake naturally.
Detoxification occurs all the time and we don’t need special diets to detox our system, or coffee enemas, or laxatives. The system works best when we support it naturally. The best ways to support it naturally are as follows:
- Limit alcohol and other drugs – alcohol and drugs are mostly metabolised by the liver. Too much alcohol can be metabolised to acetaldehyde, which is toxic to the body. If you are stressing your liver with alcohol and drugs then it will not be detoxifying other potential toxins as efficiently.
- Drink enough water – this helps the kidneys eliminate wastes and also helps with loss of toxins through sweating and breathing.
- Get plenty of sleep – we naturally detoxify and restore ourselves while we sleep so getting 8-9 hours a night will help.
- Reduce intake of sugar – high sugar intake can lead to fatty liver and diabetes. Fatty liver can lead to decrease in the natural detoxification pathways.
- Reduce intake of processed foods, artificial colourings and preservatives – most processed food contains chemicals
- Eat more vegetables and fruit – these have natural antioxidants and lots of vitamins and minerals. Antioxidants help clean up free radicals in your body, which can lead to degenerative diseases. Vitamins and minerals are needed for the metabolic pathways in the liver and other organs that help detoxify chemicals.
- Decrease the load of chemicals on the body. Switch to natural cleaning products to decrease your exposure to toxic chemicals. Avoid pesticides and herbicides in the garden and try to eat organic food where possible.
- Switch to natural personal care products – products that you put on your skin should be as natural as possible to decrease the load of chemicals in your body.
- Sweating is a good way to help get rid of many toxins. Exercise is a good way to sweat more or you can choose to use saunas to increase the process
- Fibre in the diet will help bind toxins that are waiting to be excreted in the bowel. Sometimes these toxins can be reabsorbed through the bowel wall but if we have plenty of fibre this will help excrete more of the toxins. Eating plenty of vegetables helps but we can supplement with things such as psyllium husks.
My next blog will be on Chapter 6 – Look after the physical – clean living
If you would like to buy a copy of my book – Holistic Medicine, Beyond the Physical – copies are available on my website for $30 including postage in Australia.
I acknowledge and pay respect to the Elders and Traditional Owners of the land on which I work and live.
