6 Food Items That Are Great For Detoxing

Every now and then, because of holidays or hectic schedules, we tend to go a little overboard with food and drinks that lead to weight gain and health issues in the long run. This is why we need to turn to a detox diet or cleanse ever so often- to give ourselves the much-needed nudge to get back on track. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to detoxing. While some people go in for a green detox or detox drinks/juices, others stop consuming sugar and sugar products altogether or cut back on meat and go vegetarian. No matter which diet you are on, some food items remain permanent fixtures for detoxing or cleansing. This article lists six food items that help flush out toxins from your body and improve your metabolic functions.

Naturally Detoxifying Foods

Food truly is the best medicine for detoxing the body of harmful toxins that accumulate over a period of time due to bad eating habits, hectic lifestyles, and other factors like pollution, consuming contaminants, etc. Many of our favourite foods help in cleansing the body's detoxifying organs like the intestines, kidneys, liver, and the like, preventing harmful toxins from building up in the body. Let us look at a few of these detoxifying foods.

Green Leafy Vegetables

Green leafy vegetables support the body’s natural detoxification process and feature as one of the most important foods to have daily. Most people prefer to go on a green detox diet when they want to cleanse their bodies. Green detox refers to a diet comprising juices and smoothies made of green leafy vegetables, including kale, spinach, moringa leaf, and parsley, among other things. Green leafy vegetables are nutritious, full of vitamins, minerals, iron, calcium, magnesium, dietary fiber, potassium, and antioxidants. They help to protect the body against oxidative stress, which is the root cause of chronic diseases.

High consumption of green leafy vegetables may reduce the risk of developing liver diseases such as fatty liver or liver steatosis. The liver is one of the most vital organs of the human body. Not only does it help in secreting bile juice, which helps in the digestion of lipid fats in the small intestine, it also helps detoxify harmful toxins from the body.

If you find it challenging to prepare a green detox juice every day from scratch, give Wellbeing Nutrition’s Daily Green a try! A multivitamin made from 39 farm-fresh greens, veggies, fruits, and antioxidant-rich superfoods, Daily Greens, is the perfect detox drink for you! Just drop a tablet into your glass, watch it fizz, and sip on the delicious drink to get your daily dose of nutrition.

Lemon

Lemon is another essential food that helps to detoxify the body. Like all citrus fruits, lemon is rich in vitamin C, which helps keep cold, cough, and other immunity-related issues at bay. Lemon water without adding sugar or salt is considered one of the best detox drinks to have as part of one’s cleansing routine. Most people who wish to lose weight or overcome metabolic disorders prefer to drink lemon water first thing in the morning as it aids in flushing out all the toxins from the system and bolstering the immune system. Lemon is also known to purify the blood and helps in maintaining the pH levels of the body.

Turmeric

Turmeric is not only a popular spice that helps to enhance the flavour of the food it’s added to, but research suggests that it contains a bright yellow chemical known as curcumin, which lends it its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. That is why adding turmeric to hot water, tea, lemon water, etc., acts as the perfect detox drink, which helps the liver get rid of harmful and toxic compounds built up over time. Furthermore, a 2018 research published in the Advanced Biomedical Research Journal suggests that adding turmeric to your food or juice plays a critical role in detoxifying the liver and other internal organs. It also aids in fat loss, prevention of cell damage, slowing aging, reducing inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, among other things.

Wellbeing Nutrition’s Apple Cider Vinegar Plus (ACV+) contains the goodness of amla, turmeric, black pepper, and cinnamon. Add 20 ml of this ACV to a cup of warm water, and what you'll have is one of the best detox drinks ever.

Flaxseeds

Rich in omega-3 fatty acids and fiber, flaxseeds play a vital role in the body's detoxification. They contain soluble and insoluble fiber, which helps facilitate smooth bowel movement and reabsorption of cholesterol from the colon. You can either add a tablespoon of these seeds to your morning juice, smoothie, or salad for that fiber boost or else ground the seeds and add it to a glass of hot water to enjoy the benefits of a potent detox drink. If you want to enhance the drink's flavor, you can add lemon juice to it to meet your daily vitamin C requirements. This drink will help you lose weight and stay healthy.

Fiber-rich fruits

Fruits like apples, papaya, pineapple, berries, pomegranate, to name a few, are rich in dietary fiber and antioxidants that help in reducing oxidative stress, inflammation, stimulating digestion, and aiding weight loss. Apples contain phytochemicals and pectin, which help to flush out additives and toxins from the body. It contains malic and tartaric acids that help facilitate digestion. While pineapple contains bromelain, papaya contains an enzyme called papain, and both help in the breakdown of protein and its digestion. These fruits contain natural sugar so juicing them or adding them to your morning cereal/ smoothie is a great way to lose weight, fasten your metabolism, get rid of toxins from your body, and improve your overall health and wellbeing.

Green Tea

Green tea acts as a natural flush for your system. It is rich in antioxidants, and drinking it regularly helps your body increase its detoxification properties. Furthermore, it bolsters your immune system and protects your liver from the build-up of harmful substances. Drinking green tea twice or thrice a day helps fasten the metabolism, which contributes to losing weight.

Take Away

Detox drinks and food help flush out the toxins from your body, which helps in losing weight and improving your overall health and well-being. Apart from having an antioxidant-rich anti-inflammatory diet (comprising foods mentioned above), you can support your body’s detoxification process by staying hydrated, sleeping well, exercising regularly, and managing stress.

References:
Plants Consumption and Liver Health, Yong-Song Guan and Qing He, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal, 2015, doi: 10.1155/2015/824185, (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4499388/)

Lemon detox diet reduced body fat, insulin resistance, and serum hs-CRP level without hematological changes in overweight Korean women, Mi Joung Kim, Jung Hyun Hwang, Hyun Ji Ko, Hye Bock Na, Jung Hee Kim, Randomized Controlled Trial, doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2015.04.001, (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912765/)

Role of Curcumin in Disease Prevention and Treatment, Arshad Husain Rahmani, Mohammed A. Alsahli, Salah M. Aly, Masood A. Khan, and Yousef H. Aldebasi, Advanced Biomedical Research, 2018, doi: 10.4103/abr.abr_147_16, (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5852989/)

Flaxseed: Composition, detoxification, utilization, and opportunities, Alaa El-Din Bekhit, Amin Shavandi, Teguh Jodjaja, Edward John Birch, Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology, DOI:10.1016/j.bcab.2017.11.017, (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321632134_Flaxseed_Composition_detoxification_utilization_and_opportunities)

Apple phytochemicals and their health benefits, Jeanelle Boyer and Rui Hai Liu, Nutrition Journal, 2004, doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-3-5, (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC442131/)

Properties and Therapeutic Application of Bromelain: A Review, Rajendra Pavan, Sapna Jain, Shraddha, and Ajay Kumar, Biotechnology Research International Journal, 2012, doi: 10.1155/2012/976203, (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3529416/)
Nutritional And Medicinal Value Of Papaya (Carica Papaya Lin.), World Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical, DOI:10.20959/wjpps20178-9947, (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319048781_NUTRITIONAL_AND_MEDICINAL_VALUE_OF_PAPAYA_CARICA_PAPAYA_LINN)

Beneficial effects of green tea: A literature review, Sabu M Chacko, Priya T Thambi, Ramadasan Kuttan, and Ikuo Nishigaki, Chinese Medicine Journal, doi: 10.1186/1749-8546-5-13,(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855614/)