Does Learning To Detox Your Body Boost Your Well Being

I've always considered myself to be fairly healthy and in reasonably good shape. I very rarely got ill, and don't recall even having any kind of cold of virus - or certainly not that lasted more than half a day or so. So it came as a bit of a surprise when I started feeling run down and tired all the time, and struggling to find the energy to even get out of bed in the morning. I'd seen doctors and consultants galore and had so many tests my arm was like a pin cushion, but they all came back negatve.

As luck would have it, not long after I met up with a naturopath who recommended I should look into doing a detox, and put some effort into learning how to detox the body and how my eating habits may be affecting my health. It seemed a lot of people had a lot of good things to say about it, so took it upon myself to learn as much about the process as possible, and why so many alternative and complementary health practitioners recommend healthy detox diets and recommend starting with the 7 day detox diet so strongly.

She also hinted to me to try a relaxing foot detox. I now use a foot spa about twice a week, if you don't want to invest in a foot spa, the detox foot patch can work just as well - but doing it this way you miss out on the relaxing foot massage at the same time

So here's my top tips about how to detox your body.

Drink water or herbal teas

One of the most important things you need to is drink lots of water while you are following a detox diet as it helps to eliminate water-soluble toxins from your body. Drinking plenty of water also has other health benefits like promoting regular bowel movements, stops water retention (believe it or not), and encourage clear skin. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water each day (about 2 liters), and more when you exercise.

As a rule of thumb, aim to drink an extra half liter of water for every hour you exercise. Choose still mineral water, or tap water that has been filtered, or boiled and then cooled. Ideally drink water that is at room temperature. Feel free to substitute herbal teas if you can't face all that water - preferably loose leaf rather than tea bags. Green tea, horsetail, camomile and roibosch (or redbush) in particular are great choices as their essential oils naturally support the detox process. Green tea and redbush has other health benefits too as it is very high in OPC antioxidants.

Should You Go Organic

When detoxing, there's no need to go completely organic, because organic is usually much more expensive, but if you can manage one or two organic foods that would be great.

If you can't buy many organic foods, don't worry. It's more important that you eat plentiful amounts of fresh foods regardless of them being organic or not, instead of eating too few of them. However, there are some good reasons for having as much as possible of organic produce on a healthy detox diet.

Organic foods are free from artificial pesticides and sprays, and therefore they are much healthier being free from toxins and man made chemicals. Although it's a controversial area, there is mounting evidence that the cumulative impact of toxins from man made chemicals and bug sprays can cause long term health problems.

Organic foods are subject to a lot less processing. The big benefits of this are that they have no genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and free from artificial preservatives. On top of that, organic foods usually taste better too.