If simply tweaking your eating habits isn’t adequate for your detoxing needs, you may want to use one of the various detoxing programs designed to facilitate and maximize the effects of the body’s cleansing. Some are more rigorous than others, providing a more intensive, and often times more thorough, detoxification of the body.
Fasting
This regime is the abstaining from food to allow the body time to focus on its own cleansing without introducing further toxins that slow down the process. All fasts allow and encourage the consumption of water that is necessary for the purification process and to keeping the body well hydrated. Depending on the fast and its intensity, they can last 24 hours or up to several weeks.
Water Fasting is no doubt the most difficult of fasts, as nothing but water is permitted to be consumed.
Juice Fasting is abstaining from solid foods, but freshly blended fruit and vegetable juices are still ingested.
Lemonade Fasting is the solo consumption of a lemon based drink (and of course water) throughout the duration of this fast. Lemons are said to have antioxidants that aid in the detoxification process.
Specific Diets
The detox diet programs are perhaps the most overwhelming of all the detoxing rituals, as there is just so much variety. Deciding which detox diet is best for you is a choice that only you (and your physician) can make. Most of these programs, however, do have similar building blocks that vary only slightly from diet to diet.
Most detox diets contain:
- Organic food and drink
- Whole, unprocessed foods (grains, nuts, seeds, etc)
- Lots of fresh vegetables and fruit
- 2 liters of water per day
- Certain herbs to aid the detoxifying process.
Most detox diets avoid:
- Dairy, Red Meat, Sugar
- Processed and refined foods
- Alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, and drugs
Many detox diets incorporate herbal supplements to aid in the cleansing process. These detox diets vary in length from one week to one month. It is recommended, however, that if this is your first detox that you choose a gentler, shorter program, as your body will be shocked at the drastic changes necessary for its success.
Vitamin Therapy
These programs use special vitamins and supplements that are proven antioxidants to help the body purge itself of toxins. Some of these vitamins are familiar to us such as Vitamin C and E and are quite likely already part of your health regime. But there are also varieties that cleanse one specific organ at a time, such as the liver, kidneys or colon and are labelled accordingly.
Colon Therapy
This detox regime uses colonics to cleanse the colon, ridding the colon and intestinal area of toxic build up. This is a somewhat intrusive procedure consisting of 5-25 gallons of water pumped into the colon through the rectum; flushing out waste and toxins.
