Your body has its own detox system in place. Your organs filter out the toxins in your blood, ensuring everything runs smoothly and you remain as healthy as possible. But over time, your organs grow wary, becoming overloaded with the waste from your metabolism and chemicals in the environment, requiring some outside help to cleanse the inside of your body. The Ayurveda Detox Diet may be the answer. Consult your doctor before starting this diet.
Significance
As your natural detoxification system slows down, toxins begin circulating through your bloodstream, making themselves at home in your fat cells. They can also lower your body's immune system, making you more susceptible to sickness and disease. Stress only adds to this process. John Douillard, DC, Ph.D, author of "The Yoga Body Diet," says that detoxing four days twice a year may be the solution.
Panchakarma
This detox, known as panchakarma, stems from Ayurveda, a 5,000 year-old holistic treatment still practiced in the Eastern world. Although new to those in the Western hemisphere, Ayurveda believes you can prevent and treat disease by purifying the body, mind and soul, especially your digestive system. Panchakarma is a comprehensive detox program. Patients retreat for a week or longer to various centers or institutes, participating in programs that help rejuvenate their bodies, minds, spirits and emotions. Two to three hours a day is spent with therapists who provide massage therapy and herbal skin treatment and who pour warm oil over your head. This balances the body. Individualized yoga plans are devised, and you spend up to 5 hours a day breathing and meditating. In combination with diet, 13 major cancer-causing fat-soluble chemical toxins are removed from the body during this treatment.
When to Detox
Although retreating for Panchakarma is appealing, it may not be realistic for everyone. You can still reap the rewards of the Ayurveda Detox Diet at home. Douillard, a practitioner of Panchakarmer since 1987, recommends detoxification in the spring and fall, before the onset of seasonal symptoms such as allergies or winter depression. In the spring, the earth is turning over new life, and in the winter it's releasing the fruits of its labors. The detox diet represents the same.
The Diet
The diet lasts for four days, and includes either 2 tsp. of ghee -- clarified butter -- or flaxseed oil. These cleanse your body, removing fat cells that contain toxins. Meals are completely fat-free and include foods such as steel-cut oatmeal, cream of wheat, egg whites, veggies and fresh fruit in season. Brown rice, black beans, nonfat vegetable soup and salads with nonfat dressing are also allowed. Foods not allowed include bread, crackers and baked goods. Meats, oily food such as yogurt, nuts, butter and cheese are also prohibited. Sprouts, pickles or vinegar, and cold drinks, cold food and caffeine are off limits as well. Douillard recommends warm water as the drink of choice; it flushes fat cells and toxins from your body.
References
- The Ayurvedic Institute: Your Panchakarma Guide
- "The Yoga Body Diet"; John Douillard, DC, Ph.D, et al.; 2010
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