The modern world is full of toxic stress. As they accumulate these environmental, mental, and physical stressors have a negative influence on our bodies and health. Although toxins are often invisible to the eye, they have a very real impact on the body.

Detoxification doesn’t have to be complicated! By following the simple steps of a natural body cleanse you can help decrease your toxic loads and reclaim your health. This article will focus on eliminating the dietary and home toxins from your life, and replacing them with natural alternatives. This first step will propel you towards vibrant health!

What Are Toxins?

Toxins are essentially substances that are harmful to our living bodies. Technically anything can become toxic given the wrong dosage, and this becomes more complicated when we factor in the short term vs. long term implications of the toxins that we are exposed to.

It’s easy to label something like nitric acid as toxic, because even a microdose will burn the skin on contact. Other toxins like mercury or fluoride can interact with the body in microdoses without causing any immediate harm. The problem with those toxins, however, is that they accumulate in the body over decades and can eventually lead to serious disease.

Whether the harm is experienced in the short term or long term, it’s important to be mindful of our exposure to these substances.

Toxins come in many forms, some more insidious than others. In the efforts to make life easier and more affordable, many products we use in our everyday lives are filled with chemicals that can cause harm to the body. These products have infiltrated every aspect of our modern lives, and can be found in the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air that we breathe.

Common toxins found in our daily lives includes metals, artificial food ingredients, chemicals, pollution, pesticides, and poisons. Some of these toxins are artificial (like BPAs) while others are natural (like arsenic).

Common everyday home and body products we use that can be highly toxic include:

• Body lotions
• Soaps
• Shampoo/ conditioners
• Shaving gels
• Deodorants
• Perfumes
• Air fresheners
• Laundry detergent
• Laundry softener
• Baby wipes
• Cleaning products
• Window spray
• Dishwashing detergent
• Make up
• Hairspray
• Hair gels

Although these products do not necessarily cause instant harm, their toxins accumulate in our bodies over time and can lead to a wide range of problems in the long run. Other common sources of toxins that trigger problems in the long run include mold and amalgam fillings that contain mercury.

Many toxins slide under the radar for a long time before they are publicly accepted as toxic. Lead paint is an example of something that was used religiously and caused irreversible damage to people’s health. More recently, amalgam fillings are starting to be accepted as toxic by the mainstream community, as are genetically modified foods. Other toxins like mould are still facing a lot of resistance by mainstream healthcare system, and so many people are suffering in silence.

How do Toxins Affect Your Body?

Toxins have a negative impact on your body in various different ways. They begin by placing a burden on the excretory system that is responsible for ridding these toxins from your body. Your excretory system is comprised of your lungs, digestive tract, skin, kidneys, and liver.

These different organs each play a specific role in eliminating toxins, like the lungs that help remove carbon dioxide, the digestive tract that filters and absorbs nutrients from pathogens, the skin that excretes toxins through sweat, the liver that filters and excretes waste, and the kidneys that filter the blood, and excrete waste through urination. Our natural detoxification is truly a whole-body process and when we expose ourselves to too many toxins, all our organs suffer. Although our bodies do naturally detoxify, our organs cannot keep up with the toxic load of modern life.

Think of it like any job: there is only so much work you can accomplish in a day. If things are added to your to-do list faster than you can complete them, chaos ensues. In the body, chaos manifests itself in various different ways with symptoms ranging from mild discomfort to very severe chronic illness and autoimmunity.

Signs You Should Try a Natural Body Cleanse

The symptoms that occur due to toxicity vary wildly, which is why the problems often go undiagnosed. The source of your toxin exposure and if the exposure is acute or chronic will impact the way that disease can manifest itself in your body and mind.

Unless you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or facing a health challenge that cannot bare the added stress of a detox: essentially everyone can benefit from a natural body cleanse. Our modern environments are so filled with pollutants in micro and macro doses that most people are suffering from some degree of toxicity.

Many people don’t realise that they are living below their potential. It is only after they participate in a natural body cleanse that their standard of living ameliorates and they realise how bad they felt before. Many people live with chronic symptoms of toxicity and unknowingly settle for a mediocre state of health.

Common symptoms and signs that you should try a natural body cleanse include:

• Chronically tired
• Slow digestion
• Bloating
• Chronically sick
• Skin inflammation/ irritation
• Allergies
• Brain fog
• Painful or irregular menstruation
• Unexplained weight gain
• Weight loss resistance

How to Do a Full Body Cleanse

A full body cleanse does not have to be aggressive to be profoundly beneficial to your health. Removing the source of the toxins and replacing them with natural alternatives will allow your body to start eliminating the build up.

Removing the source of toxins requires examining what you put in your mouth, on your body, and in your environment. Some things are out of our control, like air pollution while living in a big city, and that’s OK. We don’t suggest obsessing over things you cannot control, but do take charge of the toxins that you can mindfully avoid.

Step 1: Cleanse Your Diet of Toxins

The food you eat is one of the most obvious places to start, because dietary toxins are a major culprit of toxicity in the body. Many conventionally grown foods are full of pesticides and herbicides like glyphosate. These chemicals are invisible to the eye but build up in the body and wreak havoc on your hormones and health. Glyphosate is notoriously dangerous and is one of the leading causes of leaky gut.

Foods that have been modified either genetically (GMOs) or through hybridization (like modern dwarf wheat) are not recognized by the body and cause harm. These frankenfoods often go hand in hand with glyphosate, which amplifies the toxicity. This is one of the main reasons for choosing 100% organic foods.

Next, you want to avoid any factory-farmed animal products. These products are susceptible to a wide range of toxins like hormones, pharmaceuticals (antibiotics), as well as tainted with GMOs and other toxins. When animals live caged lives, the food they become reflects the inhumane life they led. Often fed GMO grain and a lack of exercise, sunshine, and fresh air means your meat, eggs, butter, cheese, and yogurt are lacking nutritional density at best and are highly toxic at worst.

You also want to be mindful of how your food was processed. Although “natural” oils like sunflower oil might seem healthy– vegetable and seed oils are actually highly inflammatory. Over-processing delicate fats and using nasty preservatives and other additives can quickly turn a healthy food toxic. This also applies to refined flours and sugars. Although a beetroot can have its place in a healthy diet, processed white beet sugar does not. When in doubt, opt for whole foods.

Caffeine is often a top contender on food to avoid during a full body cleanse, so let’s explore that. Caffeine affects everybody differently, and being mindful of that you should be conscious not to over-do it. Some people get very little insulin response, while others get a massive spike. Caffeine can also mask poor sleep, but only in the short term. If you’re chronically exhausted, a caffeine addiction could be leading you straight to adrenal dysfunction. If you do choose to drink coffee or tea, your caffeine source should be 100% organic, and avoid adding any unnecessary refined sugars or artificial sweeteners.

Finally, alcohol is a no-brainer toxin to ditch from your body cleansing diet. Alcohol is by definition a toxin, and although it can be enjoyed responsibly in mindful quantities, we suggest avoiding it completely during a full body cleanse. If and when you decide to consume alcohol responsibly, be mindful of the high levels of added toxicity that is found in alcohols due to things like glyphosate. One hundred percent of organic wines from California have tested positive for herbicide glyphosate. Due to water irrigation, even organic wines have been contaminated.

Toxic Foods to Remove From Your Diet

Following the aforementioned principles, there are some major categories of food that have no place in a healthy, cleansing diet. Dogmatic, restrictive diets can be unsustainable, but these foods are interfering with your ability to naturally detoxify, cause inflammation, and actually trigger more unhealthy cravings.

Some of they key toxic foods to remove from your diet include:

• Vegetable and seed oils
• Hydrogenated fats
• Factory farmed animal products
• Conventionally grown food (non-organic)
• Processed foods (sugar, grains, and flour)
• GMOs (especially gluten, dairy, soy, and corn)
• Hybridised foods
• Too much caffeine
• Alcohol

Step 2: Eat Natural Cleansing Foods

Food can be medicine, if you eat the right things. A naturally cleansing diet focuses on real, whole, organic foods that have been minimally processed. Organic food is important because although it is not completely free of contaminants, it’s the best option we have.

Naturally cleansing diet focuses on lots of healthy fats, a moderate amount of high quality protein, and a low to moderate amount of unrefined carbohydrates. Fats in particular are important since it is in our fat cells that we store toxins. The more we introduce healthy fats into the body, the more easily our body is able to release old, toxic fat stores from the body. Eat fat to stay thin!

There are also specific foods that can support your natural detox pathways. Consuming a diet high in minerals, fiber, vitamin C, as well as bitter liver-supporting herbs, omega 3 fatty acids, and fermented foods is a great way to boost your body’s natural detoxing capabilities.

The Best Cleansing Foods

There are so many incredible foods to eat on a naturally cleansing diet. The key here is always quality, and variety. Each food has a complex profile of nutrients, and opting to rotate your foods seasonally will ensure you fill in all the nutritional gaps.

You should always opt for organic, pasture-raised products, but if that isn’t possible make sure you go organic for the ‘Dirty Dozen’. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) puts out a regular list of the top pesticide-infested crops that you should always buy organic. Leafy greens and berries always make the top of that list. Another list called the ‘Clean 15’ is a list of fruits and vegetables that are less sprayed.

When buying animal products you should always invest in high quality, pasture raised, organic products. This is not only ethically responsible, but will also drastically reduce your toxic load. Although these meats and animal bi-products are more expensive, you’re better off eating less of them and spending a little more.

Some of the best cleansing foods include:

• High quality protein (pasture raised animal meat like beef and lamb)
• High in omega-3 fatty acids (salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines)
• Healthy fats (avocado, cold-pressed olive and coconut oil, macadamia nuts, eggs, cheese, and yogurt)
• High fiber foods (leafy greens, beets, cabbage, artichokes, and broccoli)
• Fermented products (sauerkraut, kefir, kvass, and yogurt)
• Liver supporting foods (herbs like dandelion root, milk thistle, and burdock)
• Vitamin C rich foods (berries, kiwis, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and brussels sprouts)

Step 3: Remove Toxins From Your Home

Removing the toxins from your home is the next step in naturally cleansing your body. Although we do not ingest these toxins, having them present on the surfaces we touch and the air that we breathe means these pollutants make their way directly into the body.

It may seem insignificant, but the small doses of these toxins come in contact with our bodies everyday, all day long. If you start to tally up the toxic exposure you get in a day, you’ll quickly realise that these seemingly small doses are happening all the time. Although many people have become desensitized to them, these small consistent exposures to toxins in the home can lead to very real and large health problems.

Although it takes a little adjusting, opting for natural home products is very easy and can even be less expensive than their toxic counterparts. A quick online search will flood you with natural options on home cleaning products, often using natural alternatives like baking powder and apple cider vinegar. Natural scents from pure essential oils is a great way to add scent to your home without flooding your nervous system with harmful artificial scents.

Common Toxins in Your Home

Unless the label clearly states non-toxic and lists ingredients you actually recognize, odds are it’s harmful to your health. Anything that comes up as highly corrosive or contains artificial scents is a big red flag. Unfortunately the majority of brand name household items sold at major department stores are all toxic to your body and harmful to your health.

Many companies use ‘greenwashing’ techniques to try and trick consumers into thinking that their product is natural, when in fact it is far from it. No matter what the front of the marketing tactics say, make sure you take a look at the whole ingredients list. If the list is long and confusing, odds are good that the product is highly toxic.

Common toxins in your home come from:

• Cleaning products (counter sprays, dishwashing tablets, hand soaps, and window cleaner)
• Scented products (air sprays, wall plug-ins, and scented candles)
• Building materials
• Plastics (bottles, and used for storing food and liquids)
• Mattresses and furniture that contain flame retardant
• Body care products (shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, body cream, shaving creams, perfume, and make up)

Next Steps

This article gives you the first steps towards naturally cleansing your body, but is only a glimpse into a multidimensional topic. Whether you’re currently facing serious health issues or want to prevent any in the future: addressing your toxic load should be a top priority.

If you are serious about your health and cleansing the body, we have available resource to dive deeper into the subject. To know more about body cleansing and learn about True Cellular Healing.

The body’s natural state is health, but unfortunately our modern world has overburdened our ability to eliminate toxins. Taking simple and sustainable steps to help your body cleanse is the foundation of a healthy body. Start with removing toxins from your food and home, and making healthier, more natural choices.