What is detox and how could it impact me?
Detoxification is a bodily process that is continually carried out in the body through actions of enzymes, hormones, blood, kidneys, lymph, the lungs, elimination channels, in short the body is involved in cleaning itself regularly. Yet sometimes there’s an incredible build-up of toxic material that doesn’t get wiped out by normal means.
Detox diets are trending these days, and there’s an interesting reason. If we look back only 20 years to the 1990s, we’d see that detoxification was similarly treated in alternative and internal (conventional) medicine. In “A Dictionary of Alternative Medicine” by Joseph C. Segen, 1998, the definition of “detoxification therapy” lists environmental toxins and pollutants being released by using enemas… colon therapy, mineral therapy and heat stress, etc. Or, with internal medicine by vomiting, dialysis, and the like. (See Segen, p. 110).
But the most recent trends in methods of detoxification are usually called “detox diets”, and these programs generally approach the goal of detoxification by gentle means. By adding in rather than taking out, we can achieve detoxification and therefore become radiantly healthy.
Yet a detox diet can, on paper, look like it would cause screaming munchies with the first swallow—enough to make you run to the fridge, cupboard or fast food emporium to quickly stuff the hunger and make up for lost time. Even for diets that say, suspiciously, “you don’t have to starve to reap the benefits…”, there is a glaring caveat, and it’s not food related. It’s Time. How long will the detox take? This diet that begins with “Breakfast” as one smoothie. Period. “Lunch” as one salad. That’s it. “Dinner as one entree.” Pure detox? Maybe, but pure torture for sure.
(Of course “detox” in these cases refers specifically to diet-influences, environmentally engendered, or endogenous toxicities, and not to those caused by alcohol abuse.)
My personal response, at first…
I hadn’t paid much attention to detox diets, and I have my reasons. One, being stubbornly against “dieting”; another, being (again stubbornly) sure that I am doing right in the first place, and need not detox. I seriously maintain that a diet that claims to detoxify is one that was authored to be trendy, to give notoriety to features in magazines and social media, and similar situations I don’t really see myself in, normally.
A long-time vegetarian, I suffer no regret that my diet is poor or inadequate. In fact, my belief is that vegetarians live and eat better than any other group, such as paleo, pescatarian, even omnivore. So why should I worry about toxic build-up when known and much maligned toxins emanating from meat, eggs, even fish could never touch my plate? Besides, I’ve eaten cleanly: I’ve been vegetarian and vegan at times for over 20 years, so how could such things as toxins be lurking inside me?
I knew that detoxification is really an ancient practice, known as purging in Ayuvedic medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and herbalism worldwide. Purging releases accumulated toxins, and the result is a clean bill of health, but stringent methods causing discomfort and sometimes extreme discomfort would not be popular, or always necessary, and might likely make us run from them in horror.
However these days, reading about the concept of detoxification by additive methods, I wondered what kind of changes or modifications could be effective, in my case, as well as yours, for example. Appending my present diet with more and more healthy foods until the old diet disappears and the new diet replaces old (bad) habits of eating is a relatively painless way to modify my food plan. Even vegetarians can use some shoring up on healthy ways of eating!
What I hadn’t realized as the key to any detox process, is that it begins at the level of the whole being, including intentions and emotions, and not just the digestive system, or with any single system that seems to be causing all the trouble. For my trouble, I could expect excellent health, excellent elimination, lots of energy, better sleep, a diamond-clear mind, beautiful skin and hair, nails; in short, me, as a more appealing version of me … I say, how long will the “new me” last?
So I ask the question, is “detox” a biological possibility? Or is it something more than just the physical body? Deanna Minich’s research into the nature and psychology of the human body and its processes shows that detoxification is a process that requires not just your mouth and gut, but the whole of you, from your body to mind and spirit. Her book is honest and simple, offering a way out…
Read about Deanna Minich’s book, “Whole Detox : a 21-day personalized program to break through barriers in every area of your life”by clicking here.
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