Do you ever see or hear the following phrases?
“You need to cleanse your body of all the toxins!”
“You should go on a cleanse.”
“Your body is just detoxing from all the toxins…”
“No no, you’re not breaking out, your body is just detoxing.”
“Crap gets stuck in your intestine for years!”
I have too many times, and they annoy the crap out of me, pun super intended.
What Is Detoxing?
Marketing companies will have you believe that your body stores toxins, waste… According to them, you even literally hold on to poo for YEARS — it gets stuck in your intestine.
They want you to think that your body is in danger from all the toxins it accumulates and that you need extra detoxing and should go on a cleanse to release these toxins. They never name the actual toxins though…
But what’s amazing about your body is that it’s ALWAYS detoxing in a continuous process. And, breathe a sigh of relief before shoving an irrigation hose up your butt, because you don’t actually hold onto poo!
According to this article by Harvard Health Publication, “When fecal matter accumulates, it compacts into firm masses in the open interior of the colon; it does not adhere to the intestinal walls as the ‘sludge’ depicted in the advertisements.”
Luckily, the gut is much smarter than detox-selling companies… It’s strong against pathogens and protects you from absorbing things that can harm you.
Detoxing is your body getting rid of… all the stuff it doesn’t need and that can potentially harm you. Your body eliminates garbage through your liver, your kidneys, and your intestines on the toilet with poo and pee (also bile), to put it scientifically.
Keeping your liver and kidneys healthy by eating a healthy whole food diet definitely helps your body detox efficiently because you need specific nutrients for things to work properly, but you don’t need to do any more than that (like go on a crazy 7-day juice cleanse).
A 7-day cleanse will not save you if you’re constantly eating processed junk. There’s no shortcut.
If you want to be healthy, then you don’t need a “detox” or a “cleanse”, you need a lifestyle overhaul that includes plenty of vegetables.
The fact of the matter is that if you starve yourself by “detoxing” on a cleanse, then you actually lower your metabolism and hold on to MORE toxins.
Your body becomes so starved that at some point it starts holding on to toxins instead of releasing them as it normally does. Why do this to yourself?
According to Harvard Medical Publication, “Many studies have shown that fasts and extremely low-calorie diets invariably lower the body’s basal metabolic rate as it struggles to conserve energy. Once the dieter resumes normal eating, rapid weight gain follows.”
Your Face Is Not Your Butt
Literally, 99% of all detoxing happens on the toilet. Remember that the next time somebody tells you that you’re just “detoxing on your face”.
According to Harvard Health Publication, the skin’s main function “is to provide a barrier against harmful substances, from bacteria and viruses to heavy metals and chemical toxins. The skin is a one-way defense system; toxins are not eliminated in perspiration.”
It’s a huge misconception that the skin works like your butt. It’s totally true that your butt literally gets rid of crap, but your face does not.
The comedones and pimples on your face are not your body releasing toxins through the pores — this is not how they are formed.
Your face doesn’t excrete gunk or toxins, it secretes beneficial sebum, a natural skin oil that keeps the skin supple, hydrated, and protected from the elements and excess water loss.
Pimples are just some sebum getting blocked by dead skin cells and/or bacteria that’s attacked by your immune system to clear the area.
Pimples are an inflammatory response on the surface of your face — pimples are not crap that is getting out through your skin…So gross, I’m sorry for my choice of words.
How To Help Your Body Detox
As I said, the one thing your body needs very little help doing is detoxing — it does this naturally and efficiently.
If you eat a lot of processed foods, baked goods, basically food lacking nutrition… Then a simple switch to whole foods and lots of veggies is essentially a “detox”. Your body will be better able to get rid of the stuff it was holding onto.
It’s kind of like when an alcoholic stops drinking. The liver can then function more efficiently at detoxing regular food stuffs and other potentially toxic substances like pesticides instead of always needing to detoxify alcohol.
However, issues do arise with your body’s ability to detoxify if you surround yourself with constant pollution, cigarette smoke, heavy metals, alcohol — all factors that deplete your antioxidants.
Your liver, for instance, benefits from high levels of antioxidants (and so does your skin!) — so the one thing you can do to help your liver detox most efficiently is to raise your antioxidant levels, especially that of glutathione — the master antioxidant.
Read this article about how to raise glutathione for clear skin.
Avoid taking pills like acetaminophen (Tylenol) because high doses of it do affect the liver… (Harvard Health Publication)
Also avoiding alcohol helps your body detox more efficiently because instead of detoxing alcohol and ridding your body of the poison, it can be detoxing you from a normal food load.
Processed food will also slow down digestion and potentially block up the works, if you know what I mean — so opt for huge servings of vegetables and forget the cookies, candy, cakes, fries, pasta and such.
Final Thoughts
Quite simply, you don’t need fancy juice cleanses or detox teas to help your body detox — it does it on its own.
The companies marketing these methods are preying on your ignorance and insecurities to sell their products, and that’s just whack — you deserve better.
If you eat a whole food diet, with a lot of veggies, and take all the necessary supplements for optimal health, sleep enough, manage stress, then your body will detox without you needing to work on this function.
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I wonder where you’re reading this article…
You are loved,
