Summer is the perfect time for a detox. The warmth and longer sunnier days make it so much easier than during winter when it's cold and dark and all you crave are heavy starchy foods. Focus on what’s going into your body at this time and what it’s doing to you.
Everyday toxins
Toxins are poisons produced by your body’s own processes, processes occurring in nature, or they can be created by everyday objects and the technology and engineering that makes our lives easier.
Manmade sources come from pesticides in your food, gas given off by your new carpet, chemicals in your water, that lovely new car smell, tobacco smoke, toxic minerals used by industry and tons of other sources including prescription drugs and chemotherapy.
Stress, alcohol, caffeine, salt and refined sugar are also toxic to the body.
The body is designed to detoxify itself, however, when external sources of toxicity are added to the mix our normal detoxification processes become overwhelmed. The liver is the body’s main organ of detoxification.
A fully functional liver supports immune system function. The immune system is part of your body’s detoxification arsenal. Toxins cause free radicals that destroy cells in the body and bind to cytokines (immune system information pathways) damaging those immune system pathways resulting in reduced immune system function.
How to detox your body
Fill your body with antioxidants to block the process of oxidation by neutralizing free radicals. This is easier than it might sound. Firstly, reduce your exposure to the toxins as best you can and secondly, eat foods that contain high levels of antioxidants.
The best way to get a variety of antioxidants in your diet is to eat foods that represent all the colours of the rainbow.
Each colour provides its own unique antioxidant effects.
Bright orange, deep yellow fruits and vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and apricots provide one type of antioxidant.
Red foods like tomatoes provide another.
Green vegetables, such as broccoli and cabbage, and blue or purple foods, like blueberries and aubergine, each have their own antioxidant packages.
Curcumin, the substance that makes turmeric yellow, is also believed to offer benefits.
Rainbow checklist
Use the chart below to ensure you get a range of colours, vitamins and minerals into your diet.
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