Important stuff to know about detoxification…how your body cleans up.
a 4-minute read
Cruciferous vegetables up-regulate your own bodies detoxification genes and enzymes. This is a good thing in our unavoidable toxic environment.
Nutrition plays a vital role in how your body’s natural detoxification processes function. Nutrition provides essential nutrients and messages for your own detoxification (detox) genes and enzymes to clean up and excrete everyday toxins. What you eat can help you optimize your detoxification system or slow it down and in today’s toxic environment you want to give your detoxification system all the help you can.
Commercial detoxes and cleanses have been around for a while now. There are so many variations of them and each one is advertised with many health claims and compelling testimonials. The question is: Do they really improve skin and digestion, boost the immune system, increase energy, reduce inflammation, or cure diseases?
What effect can they really have on your health? How can you use nutrition to support your body’s very own detoxification (and overall health)?
What is detoxification?
Detoxification is your body’s own process for breaking down and eliminating toxins. We are all exposed to toxins every day through food, water, air and the personal care products we put on our skin and hair. Toxins include those naturally found in tiny quantities in foods. There are also synthetic toxins found in medicines, pesticides, herbicides, plastic packaging and preservatives.
In fact, the body makes its own toxins through normal everyday processes like digestion, metabolism, physical activity (e.g., urea which is excreted in the urine) and hormones.
The good news is that your body can do a great job breaking down toxins and eliminating them if you have good detoxification genes and you are not overloading the system.
Because the world is full of toxins that can and do adversely affect our health, we’ve evolved some pretty sophisticated detoxification systems. Unfortunately, the toxins in our environment are produced faster and in greater numbers than our bodies can evolve to keep up.
If you have ever felt sick after spending time in a building with new carpet or by walking near a busy road, you most likely had excess toxins in your system.
Detoxification systems are mainly in the liver, but are also located in the kidneys, gut, etc. They help to make toxins less dangerous and allow them to be excreted mostly through urine, stool, sweat and breathing.
What does this have to do with nutrition?
Our detoxification systems are families of genes that make enzymes which detoxify through complicated biochemical reactions. Part of what makes enzymes work are key essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals and bioactives (ie sulforaphane). So, getting quality nutrition helps your body maintain all aspects of your health—including detoxification.
If you do a Genomic Test with my Ultimate Wellness Package, you will know if the genes that make your detoxification enzymes are up to speed and able to fully do the job or are they slow and unlikely to detoxify toxins in an optimal manner.
What are “detox diets” and “cleanses”?
Detox diets and cleanses often include at least one of the following:
● Eating more nutritious foods
● Reducing processed and fast foods
● Avoiding alcohol and/or caffeine
● Eliminating some common allergens (e.g., wheat or dairy)
● Replacing meals with smoothies, juices, teas, or powders
● Short or long-term fasting
● Only eating/drinking a handful of recommended foods/beverages
● Taking several dietary supplements and/or laxatives
● Getting “colon cleanses” (enemas)
Some of these recommendations are reasonable and healthy. However, some of the more extreme recommendations can pose a risk to people including those with underlying health conditions, children, adolescents, athletes, older adults, or those who are pregnant or breastfeeding. As you can imagine, the more foods you eliminate from your diet, the fewer nutrients you will get. So, one of the risks of extreme diets in the long-term are nutrient deficiencies. As we discussed, it’s counterintuitive to cut out too many foods because there are critical nutrients scientifically proven to be necessary for your body’s natural detoxification genes and their enzymes to work efficiently.
Another risk with certain detox supplements or teas are serious side effects. You may have heard about cases of unsafe ingredients or contamination that have harmed people. I ask my clients to avoid random supplements promoting detoxification and to only take pharmaceutical grade supplements that are needed based on their genetic test or nutrient testing.
Overall, there is a lack of good quality research into detox diets and cleanses, as most studies have been conducted on animals, not people. As Dr. Robert H. Schmerling from Harvard Health says, “It’s not even clear what toxin or toxins a cleanse is supposed to remove, or whether this actually happens.”
There’s no evidence that detoxes or cleanses actually help your body eliminate more toxins than it normally does.
Some people claim to feel better and more energized when they’re on these diets. This may be because they’re eating more nutritious foods and fewer processed and fast foods that are high in salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats.
Nutrition plays a vital role in your body’s ability to naturally detoxify and eliminate toxins. (And you don’t need to follow an overly restrictive or extreme detox diet or cleanse to support them.)
How to use nutrition to support your body’s natural detoxification
Here are a few simple things you can do every day to “detox” yourself:
● Don’t unnecessarily expose yourself to toxins in the first place. Avoid things like tobacco and alcohol. Make sure personal care and house cleaning products are verified as safe by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Eliminate processed food, preservatives, conventional produce, conventional feedlot meat, and sugar. Avoid drinking water out of plastic bottles and plastics in general to store and heat food.
● Stay hydrated by drinking enough filtered water (this promotes excretion via urine and sweat by literally washing it out of your body). Your weight divided by 2 = the number of ounces of water you should drink each day.
● If you have access to a sauna, use it often to sweat out toxins.
● Eat at least five servings of organic fruits and vegetables every day. These are great sources of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and dietary fiber and bioactives. Getting enough of your daily nutrients helps ensure your detoxification genes and enzymes have what they need to keep up their ongoing very important clean up work.
● Include a lightly steamed or raw 3/4 cup serving cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, brussels sprouts or cauliflower at least once a day. These contain bio-active compounds that help support detoxification pathways and turn up slow detoxification genes. The most popular and well-studied is sulforaphane. See a 12 minute TED Talk, Broccoli the DNA Whisperer on the benefits of sulforaphane, Click here. Embrace and learn to enjoy broccoli sprouts since they have very high concentrations of sulforaphane.
● Get enough dietary fiber (35 - 50 grams/day) by eating fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds. By promoting bowel regularity, these help to eliminate toxins from the body via the feces. I am talking about avoiding constipation here. Aim for 2 bowl movements each day.
● Enjoy some naturally fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, and sauerkraut daily. These promote digestive health and support your gut microbiome.
● Consume lean protein. Protein is needed for many things including maintaining optimal levels of a “master” detoxification enzyme called glutathione.
● Consult with me to run a simple affordable genomic test…lets find out if your detoxification genes are working for you or against you. I can then suggest actionable nutrients and foods that will maximize your body’s ability to detoxify itself. My Ultimate Wellness Package uses your genomic report as a framework for specific individualized recommendations. Click here.
● Curious about what toxins you have inside your body? We can also test for that as well with a simple urine test.
Final thoughts
Nutrition is a key aspect of detoxification. Your body’s own natural detoxification pathways in the liver, kidneys, etc. include many genes and enzymes that require vitamins, minerals, and bio-actives to function optimally.
Random detoxification diets or cleanses that you see advertised online are usually different and best avoided. They often oversell their abilities to improve health. There are almost no quality human studies showing benefits and there are no long-term studies.
If you have questions about diets, nutrition, detoxification, and the genes responsible, book a free discovery call with me here. I can provide personalized research-based nutrition advice for your health, lifestyle goals based on your own genetic weaknesses and strengths.
References
British Dietetics Association. (2019, May). Detox Diets: Food Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/detox-diets.html
Cleveland Clinic. (2020, Jan 3). Are You Planning a Cleanse or Detox? Read This First. Retrieved from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/are-you-planning-a-cleanse-or-detox-read-this-first/
Harvard Health. (2020, March 25). Harvard Health Ad Watch: What’s being cleansed in a detox cleanse? Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/harvard-health-ad-watch-whats-being-cleansed-in-a-detox-cleanse-2020032519294
Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Detoxing Your Liver: Fact Versus Fiction. Retrieved from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/detoxing-your-liver-fact-versus-fiction
Kesavarapu, K., Kang, M., Shin, J. J., & Rothstein, K. (2017). Yogi Detox Tea: A Potential Cause of Acute Liver Failure. Case reports in gastrointestinal medicine, 2017, 3540756. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3540756
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5674495/
Mayo Clinic Healthy Lifestyle. (2020, April 18). Do detox diets offer any health benefits? Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/detox-diets/faq-20058040
Medical News Today. (2019, March 11). What to know about the lemon detox diet. Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324670
NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. (2019, September). “Detoxes” and “Cleanses”: What You Need To Know. Retrieved from https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/detoxes-and-cleanses-what-you-need-to-know
