Is now really the best time to detox?
So the festive season is over, you are feeling slightly fatigued, chubby and generally not on top form, but is now the best time to start a detox diet?
In January newspapers and magazines are full of detox plans to help you get the spring back in your step. So it seems the obvious thing to do doesn’t it? Well now is not necessarily the best time.
What is your liver doing?
Every day of your life your liver is working hard to detoxify all the toxins that you are putting in to your body – it is a hugely important part of the digestive system and works as a kind of processing plant – receiving and processing foods that you eat, repackaging them and either shipping them out to other parts of the body for use, or eliminating those bits that are not required. There is no system in the body that does not depend on the liver – it processes foods to make energy, repackages fat and delivers much needed cholesterol to nerve and brain cells, arranges amino acids from protein into other proteins, boosts vitamin and glucose levels for the cells, or repackages iron to be delivered to the bone marrow to form new red blood cells.
Toxic overload
Dealing with toxins, your liver will break them down into safer components, to be eliminated, or store them, to protect the rest of the body. This of course can lead to liver damage in the long term.
A healthy liver deals with thousands of types of toxins every day, not only those that you consume through food and drink, but also airbourne pollutants, car fumes, cigarette smoke, household and cosmetic chemicals, toxins from the water supply, plus toxins that are made within your body through the metabolic process.
So to enable your liver to function well depends on the quality of food you consume, and the amount of toxins it has to deal with. Improving one and reducing the other is the first step to a healthy functioning liver.
But you do need also to be aware that the liver is only part of the digestive system – if you are suffering with indigestion, diarrhoea, constipation, bloating or acid reflux, this could mean you have other digestive issues that also need to be dealt with.
Getting back on track
Through the next month your body is working hard at staying warm, warding off colds and generally recovering from the over-indulgence of the Christmas party season. Starting a severe fasting detox at this time may put your body under more stress, when what your body needs is a real boost.
If you want to help your body to get back on track take a simple approach of eating healthy simple foods the liver can easily deal with, and cutting out those things that need more ‘processing’, therefore making the liver work harder.
This is a classic lovefood article
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