Spring Cleaning for Your Body: Top 5 Steps to Detoxify and get Healthy for Spring
Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, the ancient healing system from India, both recommend springtime as the ideal season to detox your body. The rebirth of nature that happens during this time harmonizes with a cleansing and renewing of your body. Plus, some of us tend to get lax about our diets and exercise routines during the cold winter months, which means come spring we’re ready to come out of hibernation.
Why do you need to detox?
Modern living isn’t exactly pure. Every day we’re exposed to chemicals in our food and water, pollution in our air, and emotional stress in our lives. Over time, these toxin accumulate in your body and can manifest as insomnia, fatigue, digestive problems, aches and pains or even chronic disease.
Detoxification gives your body a chance to rest, clear out toxins and become nourished. Generally this is done by first removing and eliminating toxins, then providing your body with healthy nutrients. There are numerous over-the-counter supplements you can take to aid in your detox, and some people even do so by fasting.
During a fast, your body uses up glucose, the body’s main source of energy, and then moves on to its next source of energy, fat. It is therefore said that fasting helps with weight loss and to detoxification of your body, as toxins from pollution, food, water and more that are stored in your body fat being to dissolve and are released by your body.
There are, however, steps you can take right now to help cleanse and renew your body, none of which involve extreme fasting diets. We’ve described the top ones below.
5 ways to detox your body naturally
- Eat fresh, whole organic foods.
Processed foods contain preservatives, artificial colors and flavors and many other additives that are not good for your body. To really give your body a break, cut back on processed food and focus on whole, natural food instead. 
Adding more raw foods to your diet is also a popular way to start a detox, as eating raw foods is said to increase energy while boosting mood, slowing aging an fighting chronic diseases, and as much as possible, choose foods free of pesticides, genetically modified ingredients and other additives.
If you must budget, switch first to organic animal products (meat, eggs, and dairy), as animal proteins to accumulate toxins faster. Next, choose organic versions of the most heavily polluted produce, such as these 15 fruits and vegetables with the most pesticides.
The MOST contaminated fruits and veggies – Buy these organic!!
- Peaches
- Apples
- Sweet Bell Peppers
- Celery
- Nectarines
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Grapes – Imported
- Carrots
- Pears
- Collard greens
- Spinach
- Potatoes
2. Exercise.
It will help you relieve stress and improves your circulation and overall health.
3. Quit smoking.
Cigarettes contain over 4,000 different chemicals.
4. Drink more pure water.
Drinking pure water helps flush toxins from your system while helping your cells function more efficiently, but be careful not to drink just any water. A recent Environmental Working Group study found 141 unregulated chemicals, and 119 regulated ones, in U.S. drinking water supplies, and bottled water, which typically comes in BPA-containing bottles and may in fact be nothing more than bottled tap water, it’s not a safe alternative.
To put your mind at ease and get safe, use superior quality water from your own kitchen. We consider using a kitchen water filter that reduces chlorine, chloramines, cysts, VOCs, pesticides, and herbicides below detectable levels for the life of the filter. The best water filters combines the filtration and enhancement technologies to deliver the purest and most natural tasting water available. It should effectively reduce harmful contaminants.
5. Remove contaminants from your shower.
When you step into your hot shower, you are inadvertently exposing your body to a slew of toxins that can damage your health, inside and out. These toxins stem from a chemical that is added to the water supply on purpose, ironically to kill bacteria. The chemical is chlorine, and it’s added to all public water supplies to kill disease-causing bacteria in the transport pipes and the water itself.
By taking a hot shower you end up absorbing over 600 percent more chlorine and other chemicals than you would from drinking the same un-filtered water all day!
For more information about how to detoxify your body and other nutrition tips check out http://www.healthrealizations.com/SunshineMedicalPC/Home.aspx.
Jeannine Andre-Burns is a Nutritionist at the Sunshine Medical, P.C. helping people with weight management and overall wellness. She previously was affiliated with the New You Aerobics & Fitness Gym as their in-house Nutritionist. You can contact her at nutritionist@mindbodspirit.info.
