5 Natural Ways to Detox the Body l How to Heal the Body l Foods That Heal

Detoxing is an effective way to get rid of toxins that are invading your body and is a practice that can be traced back to Ayurveda in India, the Native American traditions, Chinese medicine and used in Biblical times. Today we still need to detox our bodies because of the environment and the process foods we intake. Dr. B.J. Hardick is the co-author of Maximized Living Nutrition Plan and explained the entire goal of detoxing is to free the body of any disturbances "while feeding it with good, balancing habits, foods and secondary items (supplements food and a low-stress lifestyle). Taking these pages from the book of history, the less invasive we can be when avoiding and removing toxins, the better off we’ll be." What does detoxification really do for us? It cleans the body by removing the impurities from the blood and from our organs where toxins are processed from what we eat or what we absorb through the environment. Here are 5 ways that you can naturally detox the body.

Reduce Your Sugar Intake

Don't freak out too much but you need to get a baseline. With this, we mean you need to start reducing the amount of sugar that you are taking in and this includes sugars from fruit and natural sugars like honey. "If you eat more sugar, you ask your body for more insulin, straining your pancreas and wearing yourself out," Matt Dower of the Mirbeau Inn & Spa in Skaneateles, NY explained to shape.com. "In the long term, this kind of habit can cause you to become chronically fatigued, diabetic, develop cancer and pack on excess weight." Reducing the amount of sugar is no easy achievement. In the last few decades, there has been an epidemic of children becoming grossly overweight. Adults are not too far behind as there are 78.6 million adults who are obese in the United States. Start cutting back on sugar a little each week and keep a food journal to keep track of your progress.

Start a Smoothie Regimen

Start making smoothies to replace one of your meals daily to give your body a break. Turning to a smoothie for one of your meals will also give you more energy throughout the day. We recommend that you can do a fresh ginger and banana smoothie. All you need is 1 medium banana, 1 ½ cups fresh pineapple, 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, ½ cup Greek yogurt and water and throw it in a blender. You can add kale, parsley and spinach, which detoxes the blood and also promotes digestion. You can do a variation of smoothies with beets, alfalfa, lemons, barley, wheatgrass, kale, spinach, spirulina, alfalfa, chard, arugula and other organic leafy greens for a nice boost of chlorophyll. Play around with it as not all ingredients may work for you. Having a smoothie will give you more stamina during the day and will help you lose weight as a bonus.

Start Juicing

Many people try to juice in addition to a meal replacement and it is a great way to find out was is ailing you. Sometimes we are allergic to wheat and other foods and this could bring fatigue and muscle soreness. Juice cleanses eliminate dairy, wheat and all sugar from your diet to help you figure out what is going on. Then you start "reintroducing them can help define which foods are causing problems for your body,” said Woodson Merrell, M.D., and author of The Detox Prescription shared with eatthisnotthat.com. Some vegetables to juice are carrots, cabbage, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, garlic, beets and basil. The goal here is to help your organs purge all chemicals and to support the body.

Fast From Food

Dr. Hardick added that since the body is working in analyzing, cleaning and clearing cells from head to toe: "You have detoxification pathways in all parts of your body, and the liver is so integral in the dirty work of detoxing that it will regenerate fully countless times throughout your life." By fasting, you are aiding all systems to do their job without the added burden of dealing with food. Fasting is an essential part for people of faith to draw closer to their spirituality. But fasting also includes juicing throughout the day, drinking water instead of eating to cleanse the body. Another benefit of fasting is that it increases the levels of a brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Neurotrophic factors are best known for their roles in both development and continued maintenance of the nervous system. A lack of this hormone may cause depression.

Choose Organic

If you are trying to detox, you want to refrain from eating foods with chemicals. You can't avoid chemicals 100 percent, but eating organic will reduce the probability of ingesting them. Organic produce is not just a fad, but is important to your health.The reason is that there are contaminations in your food from pesticides and from the antibiotics used in animals that can make you sick. "Antibiotics are injected indiscriminately into any meat or dairy producing animals in order to reduce their susceptibility to viruses," Ashley Munroe shared. Actress and health advocate Suzanne Somers said even the smallest amounts of poison in our food, water, the air, carpeting and furniture can harm you. "Believe me, we should all worry, a lot. Renowned brain surgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock told me that the average person is ingesting what he describes as a half to full teaspoon of rat poison every day." There are other hidden dangers in your foods as well. Monosodium glutamate (MSG), synthetic trans fats, artificial colors and flavoring. If you can go organic, do so.