A Safe And Healthy Detox Diet

Oils, pills, teas, juices, diets and cleanses advertised to detox your body have not been proven to work scientifically, explains Rania Batayneh, a registered dietician and owner of Essential Nutrition For You in San Francisco, California. When you detox your body with these substances, you often place yourself at risk for nutritional deficiencies and other health problems. To detox your body safely and naturally, consume a diet loaded with fruits, vegetables, whole grains and water.

Misconception

People often believe that detox diets, detox plans or cleansing plans detoxify the body and help cleanse the colon of toxic buildup, increase energy, boost the ability to focus and amplify weight loss efforts. Unfortunately, any detox diet that forces you to fast from food groups or greatly reduce your calorie intake limits your intake of proteins, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals your body needs to function properly, warns Batayneh. She continues to caution people against detox diets, especially if they bring nausea, dizziness, weakness, fatigue or diarrhea.

Natural Detox

Your body has the ability to detoxify itself naturally. The immune tissues in your intestinal tract and the enzymes in your liver eliminate harmful toxins from your body, according to the University of Columbia. The antibodies in your intestines attach to harmful bacteria, viruses and toxins that you consume and inactivate them, which helps prevent illnesses and absorption. The liver deactivates any harmful substances that get past your intestinal tract. You then excrete the deactivated or broken down harmful substances through your urine and feces.

Healthy Detox Diet

A safe and healthy detox diet emphasizes the consumption of foods that enhance the functioning of your liver and intestines, while limiting foods that contain few nutrients, toxins or inhibit your body's natural processes. Foods that enhance the functioning of your body's natural detoxification process include most fruits and vegetables, garlic, shallots, onions and water, explains Batayneh. Further enhance your detoxification diet through increasing your intake of foods that have whole grains, such as oats, wheat or barley listed as the first ingredient. Limit your intake of saturated fats through replacing fatty foods such as beef, fried foods, baked goods and other fatty meats with healthy fats such as seeds, nuts, olive oil and fish. A diet that helps detox your body naturally eliminates as many processed and prepackaged foods as possible.

Considerations

While a natural diet that enhances your body's ability to detoxify itself is not harmful to most people, some medical conditions require a specialized diet or the avoidance of certain foods, warns Dr. David Caruso, a family physician at Elk Regional Health Center in St. Marys, Pennsylvania. Contact your primary healthcare provider before making any major changes to the way you eat. Do not use a detox diet that requires special herbs, fasting, restrictions of whole food groups, extreme calorie restrictions, medications or colon cleansers without first speaking to your medical provider.