Detox diet: what is it and what foods does it include?

Detox diets have become a very popular and widespread proposal to lose weight, eliminate toxins and avoid fluid retention more or less in a short period. And with summer just around the corner, it doesn’t sound bad, does it?

Broadly speaking, the detox meal plan enhances liver detoxification and removes persistent organic pollutants from the body, and although there is an insufficient scientific review, there is proven evidence that certain foods such as nori, coriander, and olestra, to name a few, contain detoxifying properties.

What is the detox diet and what does it consist of?

The detox diet is a more or less quick way to cleanse the body of food that has been made up of fast food, sugars, and bad processed foods.

Detox diets or detox diets have become as popular as they are followed, and consist of eliminating the overload of toxins in the body and an unhealthy lifestyle such as the continuous intake of fast food, caffeine, alcohol, sugar, as well as smoking or toxins derived from pollution itself.

There are various ways of doing a detox diet but all include some form of fasting or partial starvation or variation in diet and regular intake of teas, vegetables, fruits, shakes, supplements, etc…

In the case of fruit fasts, for example, these eliminate entire food groups and consist of eating only fruit, but other more restricted short-term diet plans only focus on eliminating alcohol, caffeine, sugar, salt, and processed foods. This type of plan is most likely to lose weight, but most of it will be stored in glycogen, water, and waste products.

While it is true, as reported in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (JHND), that some clinical studies have shown that commercial detox diets do improve liver detoxification and remove persistent organic pollutants from the body, the scientific evidence is not yet sufficient.

Other detox diets can be quite extreme, so it is always best to consult a nutritionist or doctor if you want to follow a calorie restriction for a long period, as this can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies, as well as trigger other behaviors and eating patterns that are not very good in the long run.

What types of detox diets are there?

As reported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH), a detox diet can be taken or done in many ways, but most of them include:

• The fasts
• Eating only some foods
• Drinking only liquids, juices, or similar beverages
• Use of herbal teas
• The use of dietary supplements
• Use of sauna
• Reduction of environmental exposure
• Cleansing of the colon (lower intestinal tract) with laxatives, enemas, or colon hydrotherapy (also called “colonic irrigation” or “colonics”)

How to do a detox diet

We are going to give an example of a detox diet that can be followed for three days to help eliminate toxins from the body and replenish the beneficial bacteria in the gut.

In the morning, when you get up, take a probiotic supplement on an empty stomach with a glass of water. Water is best with lemon juice as it is very alkalizing and aids digestion.

Breakfast

Green smoothie or vegetable juice. In this case, the chlorophyll in the vegetables oxygenates the body, allowing you to release stored toxins. It is best to juice only vegetables and greens, without any fruit.

Lunch

At lunchtime, you can chop some raw vegetables such as celery, peppers, carrots, or cucumber and half an avocado with lemon and sea salt. In addition, you can always accompany the vegetables with another nutrient-rich green smoothie.

Dinner

You can start every dinner with a big green salad. This is as simple as it is healthy. You can mix mixed greens with raw vegetables and herbs. To each salad, you can add a quarter or half an avocado to give it a little more density. Toss the salad with lemon juice and liquid stevia, so you don’t need oil.

In the end, we expose our bodies to harmful and toxic substances daily, which we can help not only naturally, but also by restricting certain foods and incorporating others in a controlled and supervised manner.