Detoxification

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Detoxification

by Jonathan Moore

One of the things I like the most about how naturopaths deal with allergies is their shotgun approach. You can’t heal someone without treating the whole person. Natural healers understand that, and so they focus on the mental, spiritual, and physical.


When it comes to the physical, your body must be free of toxins in order to operate efficiently. From a nutritional standpoint, we are at a unique place in the history because we now consume more processed, synthetic, and unnatural foods than ever before. Many of these foods contain poisonous artificial chemicals that remain clogged in the body. A lifetime of drugs, bacterial overgrowth, sugars, and alcohol also remain stored inside us—often in the liver. These factors are often thought to either cause or contribute to allergies.


“Ok,” you might be saying, “How do I begin?” There are a few places to start. Check out the article on enzyme therapy (Allergy Treatment Alternatives - Part 2) for a quick reference. Also, it would be helpful to begin looking at foods which purify and cleanse the body.


Here is a sample of a 7-day cleansing diet. Rather than giving specific instructions for each meal, you can work within these guidelines to create the meals that you wish. The important thing is that for seven days you eat a diet that essentially consists purely of fruits and vegetables. Fruits have a natural detoxifying effect, and vegetables build up and strengthen the body.


These are the guidelines:


1.) For each meal, consume only raw, uncooked vegetables. If you are eating a good deal of chopped vegetables, it is good to take them with some kind of oil. Pumpkin seed oil, for instance, works as a great dipping sauce for vegetables. This aids in digestion. Whether by itself or in a salad, this will be the mainstay of your detox diet.


2.) You may consume as many fruits as you wish during this time. Apples are especially beneficial.


3.) Every day drink a glass of hot lemon water at some point. It is very simple to make, and it also is a powerful cleanser.


4.) After a few days of eating purely vegetables and fruits, you will start to feel hungry. A lot of this is mental; however, it is ok to eat cooked vegetables as needed. You won’t lose the effect of the detox. If you do cook or sauté vegetables, it is good to cook them in coconut oil, as it does not putrefy in the body.


5.) Juicing - If you don’t have a fruit or vegetable juicer, buy one. Juicing has a number of great health benefits, and they are mainstay of detox programs. If you are interested in more reading, check out Norman Walker’s books on juicing. It is especially good to start your day with a glass of fresh carrot juice with perhaps one small apple for sweetener. While detoxing, have at least 2-3 glasses of fresh carrot juice daily. Consume within 30 minutes of juicing.


As a side note, many people even go on juice fasts, which are perhaps a more extreme version of what is suggested here.


6.) If possible, make all your fruits and veggies organic. (See Best Farm Fresh Vegetables article.)


7.) If you’re still hungry, you may make yourself a protein shake as needed. I recommend soy protein dissolved in lactose-free milk. However, if you are soy intolerant, you make use rice protein. Check with health food stores for more options.


Do this for 7 days and you will be well on your way to detoxification. You may be shocked to see what this does for your body and the changes it makes. When combined with other natural methods, it may go far in helping you to deal with allergies and illness