We live in a pretty toxic world; it’s almost impossible to avoid at least some measure of regular exposure to chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, and other offenders. While a major exposure resulting in a health crisis will require a full liver cleanse, it’s a good idea to incorporate lighter detoxification rituals as often as you can.
Limit Your Toxic Exposure
First, you should start by limiting your exposure to known toxins as much as you can.
- Choose your cleaning products with care.
- Choose your toiletry items with care.
- Choose your food with care.
- Avoid excessive exposure to heavy metals.
- Avoid known endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
But no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to avoid all toxic exposure. To keep toxic burden low on a regular basis, try incorporating some of these tips into your daily or weekly routine.
Daily Detox Tips
- Dry skin brushing. Even though it seems like this isn’t doing much, dry skin brushing (from outer limbs towards the body’s core) follows the line of lymphatic drainage. Your lymph is sort of a sewage system for toxins carried by your blood. Dry skin brushing helps to move toxins along so that they can reach some of the key elimination organs to be eliminated.
- Eat more cruciferous veggies. Cruciferous veggies are the ones that “flower outward” —like broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, and brussels sprouts. These are excellent support for the liver detoxification pathways.
- Juice your veggies. I don’t always recommend juicing over eating the veggies whole, particularly if you have insulin resistance, candida overgrowth, or sugar addiction, because juicing removes the fiber and leaves the sugar. But it also leaves the nutrients, and does not require much effort on the part of your digestive system in order to absorb them: perfect for cleansing purposes.
- Eat plenty of fermented foods. Fermented foods are packed with probiotics, which are extremely important for your digestive health. An integral part of the raw diet, these used to be a much bigger component of our diets than they are today.
- Sweat! Many toxins are fat-soluble, and sweat helps liberate them from the fat cells and usher them into the bloodstream, where they will eventually find their way to the liver, and, if all works well, into the gut and out of the body.
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