 | how to get the most out of your detox
By Sarah Best
Many of the symptoms associated with aging are really signs of toxicity. As such, any successful detox programme will have a noticeable rejuvenating effect, with a leaner physique, more youthful skin, brighter eyes, increased energy and heightened mental clarity as just a few of the likely benefits. But what is detox? It has come to be a much misused word and misunderstood concept. To the gullible consumer it is something you can find in a box on the shelf of your local health store: a magical powder capable of undoing months or years of dietary transgressions in just a day.
In reality, of course, detox is much less about anything you can put into your body than about what you choose to stop putting into it. At the other end of the scale are the scientists and doctors who slam such products but also rubbish the notion that we need to take any steps to aid the body in processing its toxic load. This was the gist of a recently published UK report on the subject, with one leading hospital dietician even going as far as to dub detox a "scientifically worthless term", and further stating that: "The concept of 'detox' is a marketing myth rather than a physiological entity."
Then there are those who think that they can eat and drink whatever they want as long as they detox with a short, sharp period of abstinence every few months. A friend of mine - I'll call her Amanda - is such a person. In her everyday life no dietary peccadillo is off limits and she consumes liberal quantities of wine, fizzy drinks, takeaways and sugary desserts alongside her 'healthy' low-fat sandwiches and ready meals. She believes this is not harming her because every few months she 'detoxes' (read: heads to a fasting spa and shocks her system with the strictest of regimes).
She is better off, of course, than the many who abuse their bodies in this way year in, year out without ever taking the break that a detox provides. But ultimately, health is determined by the habits you adopt on a daily basis, not by the extreme measures you crowbar into your life every now and again. The optimal approach is to commit to a consistently clean and healthy diet and lifestyle and to regular periods of detox.
Toxic shock
Your body is, of course, naturally detoxifying every single day whether you take any action to help it or not. It must deal not only with the toxins that enter it via your digestive system, your skin and your lungs, but also with the waste products that are naturally produced through cellular respiration. The last one is unavoidable, while the first three are dependent on your environment and what you choose to put into and onto your body.
Humans were biologically designed to live in a tropical or sub-tropical climate, eating freshly-picked raw plant foods, drinking pure water, undertaking vigorous daily exercise, breathing fresh air, and rising and sleeping according to the dictates of the sun and moon. Unless this is a description of your life, chances are your body needs your help in getting and staying detoxified.
As Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D writes in his book The 20-Day Rejuvenation Diet Program: "Toxicology textbooks list the first symptoms of chronic poisoning as low energy, fatigue, muscle weakness, inability to concentrate and intestinal complaints." Sound familiar? We only have to look around us to see that the majority of people are not exactly enjoying radiant health once they get past childhood. Modern life is toxic, and short of shunning western civilisation and moving to that remote rainforest we cannot change that fact.
However, there is a great deal each of us can do. We alone are in control of what we eat, what we drink, whether we take drugs of any kind, what toiletries and cosmetics are absorbed through our skin, and what cleaning products we inhale in our homes. If you haven't already done this, it is worth making an inventory of your toxic load and identifying the things you can do to lighten it. Making these changes part of everyday life is the single most important step any of us can take in detoxifying, but on top of this we all need periods of more intense detox. You must decide not only how you will detox, how often and for how long; but also when. This latter can affect the results greatly - more about that later...
Which detox is right for you?
This is a very individual matter, as one person's cleanse is another person's sinful binge. For example, if a person on the average western diet were to cut out meat, processed food, caffeine and alcohol, it would have a dramatic detoxifying effect on their body, even if they were still consuming cheese, rice, beans and many other heavy cooked foods. However, this same diet would substantially increase the toxic load of the person who is 100% raw. Each of us is at a different place on the path, and it pays to progress along it gradually rather than making drastic changes, as the side effects of too many toxins being released too quickly can be severe and unpleasant. Take a look at the descriptions below and find the one that most closely matches your current diet.
* Standard western diet: meat, dairy, processed carbs and trans fats
* Whole food omnivorous diet; minimal junk food but minimal raw
* Whole food vegetarian diet, around 25% raw
* Whole food vegan diet, around 25% raw
* Whole food vegan diet, around 50% raw
* 80-100% raw, high-fat vegan diet (i.e. nuts, oils and/or avocadoes in excess)
* 80%-100% raw, low-fat vegan diet
* 100% raw fruit
* Mono fruit (i.e. eating just one kind of fruit)
* Raw juice fasting
* Water fasting
Of course, most of these bullet-points could be further sub-divided several times. Nonetheless, you'll be able to establish where you fall on the chart, which may be in between two points. When evaluating this, don't get hung up on any bad (or good!) habits you indulge in only rarely. Go by the way you eat most of the time. And remember that no matter how healthy your diet, if you are consistently overeating, that can be the equivalent of - or worse than - getting the right number of calories from less healthy foods. If you are higher than you would like to be on the chart, move down one step at a time in your everyday diet for gentle long-term detoxification.
When you want to detox more intensely for a period of a few days to a few weeks you can happily move two or three levels down. No matter where you are on the chart, any lightening of your diet will have a detoxifying effect. The bottom four items - the fruit cleanses and liquid fasts - are of course detox programmes rather than diets. These must be approached with a little more caution and should not be attempted by the following people (unless under the supervision of a qualified professional): pregnant women, nursing mothers, children, the elderly or anyone suffering from a serious illness.
Raw juice fasting
I single this one out because it is undoubtedly the most effective detoxification programme of all. Water fasting may be a more powerful cleanse, but it can also be dangerous and is inadvisable unless you are either very experienced or under supervision. Juice fasting has most of the benefits of water fasting - the break from solid food enables your body to process a great deal of stored toxic matter - but is a lot safer as your body is being nourished with easily-absorbable vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, enzymes and electrolytes.
However, juice fasting is a detox that takes a certain amount of time and commitment as for optimal results all juice should be freshly made and consumed within minutes. This means that unless you have a juicer at work, or a juice bar within easy reach, you may need to save this detox for weekends or holidays. One habit that would dramatically improve most people's energy and vitality would be to fast on juices for one day each week. Do this and your body will love you for it, as it will help clear any backlog before it has the chance to build.
Once you are comfortable doing a one-day juice fast you can experiment with longer periods. Deep cellular cleansing begins around the three-day mark, which also tends to be the point at which hunger leaves and energy surges. If you are in good health and generally eat well, you can happily stay on juices for a week or more if you wish, as long as it is compatible with your lifestyle and you are feeling good. However, unless your body is already very clean you will benefit from doing enemas at least every other day while juice fasting.
The most cleansing juices of all are fruit juices, but they are less than optimal from a blood sugar perspective. Having experimented with juicing and juice fasting extensively over the last ten years, I now find fruit ones too sugary and favour green juices (a base of cucumber and celery, with spinach, broccoli, kale, parsley and/or other fresh herbs). We are all different, so experiment and find out which juices work best for you.
Most people start with fruit juices, move to carrot and combinations of carrot and other vegetables, and only after this do they feel ready to get into pure green vegetable juices. It is up to you how much juice you drink, but generally five to eight 12-ounce glasses is a good daily amount, together with as much water as you desire. If you are an experienced juice faster and wish to ramp things up a notch further, do a mono juice fast by selecting just one fruit or vegetable: the simpler the digestive task, the more energy the body has available for cleaning house.
When to detox
As well as deciding which detox programme is right for you, you must also establish when and how often you will detox. It is best to choose times when and you are able to rest and unwind in a natural environment. As such, weekends and holidays are ideal. If your system is stressed and contracted this will slow down the rate at which it is able to process and let go of toxins.
Conversely, if you are relaxed and able to spend hours every day resting in bed, your body will have more energy at its disposal for detoxification and as such the results will be greater. As long as you are feeling well and energetic, take some exercise each day, preferably in fresh air. Most importantly, be sure to stay hydrated; your body needs plenty of fluid to flush all those baddies out and you may find you are a lot thirstier than usual, even on a juice fast.
All of us would benefit from at least two longer detoxes every year; more if we are dealing with health challenges. If we can also set aside a weekend every month that is even better. When it comes to scheduling all this, it is wise to look not only at your own calendar, but also at a lunar calendar, as certain phases of the moon favour detoxification while others do not. A complete circuit from one full moon to the next takes a month and is divided into two roughly 14-day phases: waxing moon and waning moon, the latter being the best time for detoxing.
If this sounds bizarre to you, consider that the gravitational pull of the moon governs the tides of the planet's oceans and has done since the beginning of time. When we remember this, it is not such a leap to accept that this same force exerts a powerful influence on the flow of fluids into and out of our cells.
In the words of Johanna Paungger and Thomas Poppe in their book Moon Time: "The waning moon detoxifies and washes out, sweats out and breathes out, dries, consolidates, prompts to action and the expenditure of energy." During the waxing moon, conversely, the body is better at taking in than it is at letting go. Whenever you have any choice in the matter - i.e. unless a health crisis means you must start immediately - always schedule your longer detoxes to happen when the moon is waning. You will get much better results.
The body's capacity for detoxification is at its highest each month on the day of the new moon. Choosing to consume only juices or light meals of raw fruit and vegetables every new moon is a great health habit to get into. It is also advantageous to do this, or at least eat a very clean diet, on the day of the full moon, for the opposite reason: this is the day on which the body's capacity for absorption is at its highest.
Lunar calendar
Your two opportunities for super-powered detox
Each year there are two periods when your body's capacity for detoxification is greatest of all: the two equinoxes, spring and autumn. This knowledge has existed in all civilizations since ancient times, but it is largely lost in the modern world where it's possible - and not unusual - to live as if seasons did not exist. If we are living in tune with nature, our bodies will always go into intense detox mode during the transition between seasons, especially winter to spring and summer to autumn.
If you want to help this process, at the very least make the equinoxes themselves - March 20 and October 22 - detox days. And if you are feeling extra motivated, remember that according to Chinese medicine, the window of opportunity extends ten days before and after each equinox. Can you schedule a 20-day period of extra-light eating and living during these two periods each year? For many people this (coupled, of course, with a consistently healthy lifestyle) is all that is needed for year-round well-being, radiance, energy and vitality.
Finally, if you are dealing with serious health issues, or you have tried to detox before but haven't been satisfied with the results, you may benefit from seeing a good naturopath, natural nutritionist or other appropriate professional. It is very common to feel great for a few days and then to feel terrible, and it is not always wise to dismiss this as 'detox symptoms' and soldier on. Especially if you find that it happens every time and is only relieved by stopping the detox.
It may be a sign that toxins are becoming backed up in the lymphatic system, blood, liver or colon - all of which they must pass through before they leave your body for good. In such circumstances, continuing the detox without clearing the blockage will only be counterproductive. However, various treatments such as lymphatic massage, castor oil packing, colonics, hot tubbing and cold wraps can be very effective in getting things moving again.
This article appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of Get Fresh! magazine.
Sarah Best is the editor of Get Fresh! magazine.
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