Both the words “diet” and “detox” come with all sorts of charged emotions. Images of calorie cutting, deprivation, and going to bed hungry are often associated with dieting. While detoxing comes with its own set of assumptions, such as living on nothing but green juice and wheatgrass for weeks.
In this article we’ll discuss the difference between dieting and detoxing, explain which is more effective for weight loss, and define what a proper detox actually looks like.
The Problem with Dieting for Weight Loss
While there are a variety of diets on the market, they all essentially involve avoiding certain types of foods, and or restricting your calories. Even keto diets that are not restricted in calories, are instead restrictive in carbohydrates. The idea is that by altering your diet through these different techniques, you’ll lose weight. But there is much more to weight loss than what you are or are not eating.
Toxins in Our Body
When it comes to losing weight there are multiple factors to consider including hormones, stress levels, gut health, and activity level. One of the most important aspects of weight loss that is often overlooked is one’s toxic burden. Chemicals and heavy metals from our food, water, and environment accumulate in our body. As a society we have a much higher toxic burden than we did in the past, and that has taken its toll on our health. Chemicals and various toxins can affect our gut health, immune system, brain health, and nervous system.
One of the ways that our body tries to protect us from these toxins is by encapsulating them in fat cells. By increasing our fat cell production our body is able to capture some of these toxins and keep them out of our blood stream where they can do some major damage. If you have a high toxic load and are trying to lose weight with a typical diet, you are going to have a hard time. This is because no matter how many carbs you’ve cut out of your diet, your body is not going to let go of those fat cells until you lower your toxic burden. This is why a proper detox can not only help heal different systems in your body, but is also a very effective approach to weight loss.
What Is, and What Isn’t a Detox?
Laxative Teas
There are a lot of “detox” products on the market today, but not all of them actually detox you. Laxative detox teas, a popular product in this market space, cause you to go to the bathroom (a lot) by using harsh expellant agents. And while cleaning out your colon can help eliminate some toxins, those laxatives can also be quite abrasive and cause inflammation and damage to your intestines.
Superfoods
Superfoods are also sometimes marketed as a detox. And there is no denying that superfoods are great! They provide antioxidants to support your body and make a well rounded addition to any diet. But while they are great for your immune system, they don’t really help you detox.
Fasting and Juicing
Fasting and juicing is another popular detox method. There can be many benefits to short periods of fasting, but fasting doesn’t always equate to detoxing either. You may not be adding toxins into your body during the time of your fast, but without intaking any fiber you aren’t going to have much luck at eliminating a lot of toxins either.
The Best Way to Eliminate Toxins
A successful detox should help your body eliminate built up toxins. This is something that your liver does naturally all the time, but because of the excess toxins in our environment and food, our systems tend to get a little backed up. To begin with, there are only 3 ways your body rids itself of toxic waste, through stool, sweat, and urine. If any of these elimination systems are not working efficiently, you are most definitely going to have a build up of toxins.
The Colon’s Role
The key to any detox is to help these different eliminatory systems, by binding toxins and moving them out of the body at a quicker pace. The colon is the main dumping ground for toxins, and stool is the primary way to get these chemicals out of your body. In order for this system to work efficiently you need fiber to create well formed stools, and ideally you should be eliminating 2-3 times a day. If you are prone to constipation you may have a higher toxic load as your body is not able to eliminate these chemicals fast enough. The same can be said if your diet is lacking in fiber, as 30-40 grams a day is really what you need to build a healthy microbiome that can support detoxification.
Nutrient Dense, Fiber Rich Foods
Diet is also a big part of detoxing, but not in the traditional calorie cutting way. A good detox diet focuses on eliminating processed, chemical ridden food and replacing it with real whole foods. It’s important to focus on eating nutrient dense, fiber rich foods during a detox. As well as taking out anything inflammatory such as gluten, dairy, alcohol, and soy. This type of diet is not focused on how many calories or carbs you are eating, but instead helps to lower inflammation in the body, increase your vitamin and mineral levels, and provide you with the fiber your body needs to bind up those toxins. Contrary to many programs on the market today, a detox does not mean starving.
A Better Way to Detox
At Healus we’ve developed a 2-week digestive cleanse that includes all the elements that you need for a successful detox. The purpose of this detox is to help reduce your toxic load and aid in healing your gut, the weight loss is a just bonus. This gentle colon cleanse helps to clean out your intestines, helping to eliminate toxins in a safe way. A diet guideline consisting of fiber rich whole foods will give you plenty to eat while also aiding in the detoxification process. You can learn more about this 2-week cleanse here.
The next time you are looking to drop a few pounds, instead of turning to the latest diet fad, look to detoxing instead, the proper way. You’ll not only lose the weight, but will lower inflammation, support your gut health, and reduce your toxic burden.
