Fruits and vegetables contain a wide variety of antioxidants, flavonoids, vitamins, minerals and fiber -- all necessary ingredients for good health and a healthy bowel. Consuming your daily intake of various fruits and vegetables may help speed digestion, reduce constipation, normalize bowel function, provide your body with vital nutrients, and help your system to work optimally. If you want to cleanse your system, check with your health practitioner first to determine what method is safest for you, in particular.
Raw Foods
Eating fruits and vegetables raw provides you with the highest amount of fiber, which helps to clear toxins and waste from your system by bulking up stool and reducing constipation, according to Maurice Shils in his book titled, "Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease." Foods that help lubricate your intestines that you can eat raw include carrots, apples, pears, peaches, apricots, alfalfa sprouts, figs, peas, plums, papaya, mung beans, radishes, cabbage, coconut, and certain types of seaweed.
Cooked Foods
Several fruits and vegetables also provide high amounts of fiber even when cooked, adds Shils, and are an excellent addition to your diet for cleansing your system. These include prunes, raisins, beets, legumes, soy beans, okra, figs, peas, cabbage, sweet potatoes, onions, broccoli, turnips, garlic, tomato, Brussels sprouts and shiitake mushrooms.
Cardiovascular Disease
Fruits and vegetables are not only necessary for a well-tuned bowel and digestive tract. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, eating lots of fruits and vegetables each day helps cleanse your circulatory system, strengthening your heart and blood vessels and preventing heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and even protecting against certain cancers. They recommend following the latest dietary guidelines, calling for five to 13 servings of fresh vegetables and fruits daily, depending on your weight, age and size.
Fasting
Various cultures and healing systems, like Ayurveda, are strong proponents of fasting to cleanse toxins and waste material from the system. Fasting can take many forms, according to the Columbia University health internet service Go Ask Alice. Many people choose to fast by eliminating solid foods and only drinking water, tea or fruit juices. The belief is that these liquids stimulate the body into utilizing its own detoxification process, adds Go Ask Alice. The primary form of cleansing waste from the body is through the intestines and urinary tract; however, for those toxins that get past the intestines and are reabsorbed into the blood, the liver is the next stop. Fasting stimulates the liver to produce various enzymes, which cleanse the system. Although you may feel good after a fast, believing that you have cleansed your system of noxious materials, in reality, the fast deprives your system of proper nutrition; however, if you drink liberal amounts of fruit and vegetable juices during a fast, you can provide some nutrition for your body while it undergoes the fast. Although fasting may provide a short-term clean out, repeated fasting is not a long-term solution.
Juicing
Drinking freshly made fruit and vegetable juices may promote better health and cleansing for the body, according to "Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Juices." By juicing these foods, you will be able to consume far greater amounts of the healthful nutrients supplied than you would by eating the whole fruit or vegetable. Juicing removes the bulk and fiber in the food, offering pure nutrients in liquid form. Many juices help stimulate digestion, and promote better bowel and urinary tract function, adding to their ability to better cleanse the system.
References
- "Ayurvedic Medicine: The Principles of Traditional Practice"; Sebastian Pole: 2006
- "Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Juices"; John Heinerman; April 1994
- "Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease"; Maurice Shils; 2005
- Harvard School of Public Health: Vegetables and Fruits -- Get Plenty Every Day
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