By Heather Nicholds
The first time I had spirulina was years ago, in Shanghai. I was there for my brother’s wedding a few years ago. My mom and I were having lunch in a rooftop restaurant in the middle of the city.
We were debating which smoothies we were going to get, and I saw that they gave an option to add certain superfoods. I had been looking forward to getting on a detox diet plan when we got back home, so I thought I’d try something out.
As I read their description of spirulina (cleanses the body of toxins) and looked out at a blimp that I could hardly see through the pollution-induced haze, I thought, ‘yeah, that sounds good right about now.’
I thoroughly enjoyed my first spirulina smoothie, as well as my time in Shanghai, but when I stepped off the plane into the relatively clear air of Canada I think my body was in much better shape for the overall toxin balance. I’m not sure that the teaspoon of spirulina quite made up for the two weeks of air pollution.
By Heather Nicholds
Before worrying about starting my detox diet plan to detox the body from accumulated toxins, I knew I had to eliminate toxins coming into my body as much as possible. There are some over which we have little or no control, like air pollution and electromagnetic frequencies, but reducing the incoming load of toxicity where you can has just as much positive effect as increasing the outflow.
Dietary toxins to eliminate are:
- sugar
- caffeine (chocolate, coffee, tea, sodas)
- drugs
- alcohol
- nicotine
- salt
- artificial sweeteners
- preservatives
- processed foods, i.e. ones that come in a box or a bag
- refined grains, like white rice and white flour
- refined oils, like canola and sunflower
- non-organic foods
- reduce or eliminate meat, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs
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If you’re thinking about embarking on a detox diet plan, don’t stress about eliminating these things forever (yet). Just focus on eliminating them for the duration of your cleanse.
Getting a good water filtration system is really important to eliminate a huge amount of toxins coming into us from tap or even bottled water. The pitcher systems are fairly inexpensive, especially compared to bottled water, and do a pretty good job.
There are more expensive faucet-mounted systems that are better, and can be more economical long-term than pitchers, but the pitchers are an easy way to start and filter a lot of the major toxins. Whatever system you use, it’s important to change the filters regularly since they will accumulate bacteria and toxins themselves.
Stress causes a toxic load to our bodies. Wherever possible, reduce the causes of your stress or your reaction to those triggers. Easier said than done, but keep in mind that continual stress will work against your best efforts to create health.
We can never totally eliminate incoming toxins. That’s a fact we just have to learn to accept. There are the factors like air pollution over which we have no control, but there are also toxins created within our own bodies. Our normal metabolism, and almost every process going on inside our bodies, creates waste products that need to be eliminated.
A healthy body can handle a certain level of toxins, but it runs into trouble when it gets overwhelmed by an excess of toxins. Taking some time to lighten the load will help your body catch up and get back to its normal health.
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