New Leaf Online - Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Detox – Give Your Body a Spring Clean

Even living in the cleanest environment, our body can suffer from a build up of toxins & waste products simply through everyday body processes.

Toxins & wastes can build up compromising your wellbeing & overall health displaying as symptoms such as tiredness, headaches, muscle aches & pains, susceptibility to infections, skin blemishes, body odour & digestive disorders. Reducing the level of toxins in your body & restoring your body’s natural equilibrium, commonly referred to as “detoxing”, can leave you feeling healthier & happier.

If everything is working well in your body, toxins & wastes are naturally deactivated & disposed of via the functions of your liver, kidneys & digestive system. However, these organs can be overloaded through poor diet, excess consumption of alcohol, smoking, stress or heavy exercise.

You can simply improve our overall wellbeing by providing support for your liver, kidneys & digestive system to do their job. Some tips to help your body perform better day-in-day-out are as following:

· Eat lots of healthy fresh foods - poor nutrition leads to poor body performance, not just for athletes, but for everyone. Avoid eating processed foods, sugary foods & foods loaded with fat & instead try to eat a wide variety of fresh unprocessed foods.

· Eat at least 5 serves of quality lean protein a week to encourage complete liver detoxification.

· Don’t over eat - over eating overloads your digestive system forcing it to battle coping with a build up of partly digested food rotting & fermenting away in your digestive system.

· Avoid eating have or rich food late at night before you go to bed - your sleeping time should be the opportunity for the body to rejuvenate itself. While you sleep your metabolism slows down & therefore digestion of a heavy meal is an unneeded burden on your body.

· Keep yourself hydrated - drink 1 to 3 litres of fresh water every day.

· Reduce your stress levels through lifestyle changes & relaxation exercises. When you are stressed, digestion can slowdown & your immunity can be lowered. Read more about Stress.

· Exercise regularly to strengthen your body & get the circulation going. It provides a boost to your heart, lungs, glands, and nervous & lymphatic systems.

An example diet that can help your body function more effectively includes:

· Starting your day with a glass of fresh water with the juice of ½ to 1 lemon to get your digestive system going.

· Breakfast: try fruits such as apples, bananas, pears, watermelon, pineapple, paw paw & stone fruits generally (avoid oranges); and raw natural or bircher muesli with soy, rice or oat milk; or porridge topped with dried fruits.

· Lunch: wholegrain or sourdough bread filled with a wholesome salad, mixed sprouts, avocado or tahini as the spread (rather than butter or margarine); and a piece of fresh fruit.

· Mid-afternoon: select from fruit, celery, carrots, dried figs, prunes, almonds, walnuts, raw sunflower seeds.

· Dinner: brown (unprocessed) rice, spelt pasta, steamed vegetables of various colours, small portions of steamed or grilled fish or free range chicken every other day.

Additionally, a selection of herbs can support your digestive system including peppermint, ginger, fennel, artichoke, cat’s claw, cloves, St Mary’s thistle, Dong Quai, black walnut, sage & dandelion root. Supplements such as zinc, vitamin C (non-acidic), inositol & amino acids such as Taurine can also help. The consumption of fibre (eg. fruit, bran or powder supplement) in your diet is also important as it helps to mop up harmful impurities in your digestive system. Fibre also helps with the function of the liver by feeding your own probiotic levels, providing bulk for bowell clearance and regulating cholesterol levels. The herbs & fibre will cleanse & support your digestive system & reduce the volume of toxins in your body. The herbs can be taken separately, but are often taken as a detox programme to help get your body back on track & can be purchased as a complete kit.

Tips on sticking to a detox programme:

· Detox with a friend or try to include everyone in your house. Not only does this help motivate you but makes meal times simple when everyone has the same intentions & avoids the feeling that you are ‘missing out’.

· ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ - clear your fridge & cupboards of food unsuited for detoxing including dairy & highly processed foods.

· Meal planning - have ingredients for suitable meals at home ready & waiting so you don’t have to think too much after a day of work. Cook extra & take it for lunch the next day.

· Map restaurants, cafés and lunch bars that have appropriate meals in advance. You can still eat out if you know where to go.

· Make long term goals to retain some of the dietary and lifestyle changes to maintain
better health.

· Feel like a coffee or tea? Try green tea instead - a healthy alternative because of high levels of anti-oxidants and catechins, great for your skin and natural metabolism. For extra zing in the morning grate some fresh ginger into your cup!

· Sweet tooth? I love pitted dates and they go perfectly with almonds.

· Quinoa (kin-wah) - a high altitude grain from Peru is one of only three plant sources of complete protein, the others being soy beans and amaranth seeds. Gluten free, versatile and delicious! Cook and consume like rice, stuff veggies with it, make a pilaf or toss into a salad and dowse with lemon juice.

· Don’t give up - if you have a few little aberrations along the way don’t let it discourage the whole programme - keep going!

Finally the support of a “detox” programme (eg. Totally Natural Products 15 Day Quick Cleanse combined with Quick Cleanse Fibre) can help boost your healthy eating
programme. The programme is not an answer in itself & the best thing you can do is stick to a healthy balanced diet, have a balanced lifestyle & exercise regularly – with few exceptions you will feel better.

After a period of detoxing you can also try restoring the good bacteria in your digestive system by eating good quality yoghurt with live cultures or a Probiotics supplement such as Inner Health Plus.

For further advice about diet and detoxification contact your healthcare practitioner.

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Here’s a quick quiz:

· Have you overindulged through the cold & inactive months of Winter?

· Would you like to feel more healthy & have more energy?

· Have you caught a cold multiple times in the last season?

· Would you like to have less indigestion, heartburn, bloating or flatulence?

· Do you want improved concentration& focus?

If you answered yes to two or more of these questions then spending some time to “detox” your body can greatly improve your overall wellbeing & happiness.

Note: New Leaf does not endorse any form of treatment, nor does it encourage you to undertake any such treatment on your own. We urge you to see your family practitioner before undertaking any kind of medical treatment. Supplements are to be taken with an appropriate diet, exercise program and advice from a qualified practitioner.

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