Internal House Cleaning: 10 Ways To Cleanse Your Body

Most of us intend to eat well, but daily tasks and habits steer us toward convenient, crave-worthy, and processed foods. We often eat on the run and rarely consume the nutrient-dense foods that our bodies need to thrive. The average American diet is too high in sugars, salt, refined grains, unhealthy fats, and artificial flavorings and colorings. Processed foods make up 60% of the calories most American adults consume, and that rate is about 67% for children.

Once we decide what to eat, there is the important question of how much of the nutrients we ingest are actually absorbed. Some of what we eat may even stick to the intestinal walls, inhibiting absorption of nutrients and eventually contributing to such conditions as heart disease, fatigue, obesity, and even colon cancer.

We get out of our bodies what we put into them. Most of us want to adopt better nutritional habits, so where do we begin? For starters, you can rid your body of the toxins that have built up from poor nutrition. At Blatman Health and Wellness Center in Cincinnati and Blatman Integrative Healing in New York City, we offer dietary consulting to support your whole-body cleansing efforts. In the meantime, you can take these steps to get a jump-start on your detox:

1. Give Your Body the Right Fuel

For energy and stamina, our diets need to include foods that provide energy the body can use. These include protein, fresh vegetables and fruits, perhaps some whole grains, and legumes. Limit or avoid refined carbohydrates, such as those found in sweets and processed foods. Instead, get more complex carbs from whole grains, and less starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes and squash, and beans.

For hydration, consider sticking with clean, unchlorinated, and unfluoridated water. You can also eat more watery foods like celery, watermelon, strawberries, or cucumbers.

2. Clean Your Digestive Tract

Your digestive tract breaks down what you eat, turning it into usable energy, and then quickly gets rid of the rest. The body normally excretes waste in 18 to 24 hours, after which, harmful toxins can form.

Years of poor eating and environmental factors may have allowed mucus, plaque, and “bio-gunk” to build up in the digestive tract, but you can coax these accumulations out of the body. Since we eat two to three times a day, we should move our bowels the same number of times. Having fewer than one bowel movement per day usually indicates constipation.

3. Eat Plenty of Fresh Vegetables and Fruits

We recommend getting 6-8 servings each day of green, yellow, red, orange, and white vegetables. Limit your consumption of canned vegetables or fruits and go for fresh or frozen. If you eat veggies raw or slightly steamed, the enzymes in the veggies can help clean your digestive tract. Try to eat them throughout the day.

Don’t forget about fruits! Consuming grapefruit at night can help you cleanse your system. Prunes and grapes are among nature’s best laxatives.

4. Take a Multidigestive Enzyme After Meals and Before Bed

Multidigestive enzymes help break down carbohydrates, dairy, proteins, and fats that may otherwise move slowly through the digestive tract. This is a temporary measure until your system can begin to use the properly combined food you’ll feed it. It may be important to check with your physician or pharmacist to ensure this will not interfere with or interact with your medications.

5. Optimize Your Digestion with Strategic Food Pairings

Given that fruits digest in the same stomach acid and enzyme conditions as other foods, many of them should not be mixed. Consuming foods with varying digestive rates, such as fruits, can cause gas, bloating, and other digestive problems.

Eat melons alone 20 minutes before or one hour after you consume any other foods. If you suffer from ulcers, avoid digestive enzymes that contain hydrochloric acid, except if you’re under a physician’s care. Drink aloe vera juice twice a day to aid enzyme activity in the body.

6. Support Digestive Health with Probiotics

Probiotics are yeasts, live bacteria, and other microbes that live in your gut and control the harmful bacteria that can cause digestive problems. Probiotic supplements like unsweetened acidophilus have a positive, antibacterial effect on the body.

Live yogurt contains acidophilus, but make sure it doesn’t have any artificial sweeteners, especially high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame (such as Equal® or NutraSweet®). During your cleanse, twice-daily acidophilus can be beneficial.

7. Use Aromatherapy and Essential Oils

Aromatherapy and essential oils applied to the stomach area, the bottoms of the feet, the ankles, and behind the ears may be helpful during a cleanse. Fennel, peppermint, patchouli, juniper, grapefruit, lemongrass, and tarragon are known to have antifungal and antibacterial properties. They also help encourage lymphatic drainage, which directs excess fluids away from swollen limbs and out of the body.

8. Drink Herbal Teas Twice Daily

Some herbal teas support digestion, hydration, and liver function. Consumed twice daily, the following herbs can boost your cleanse:

• Cascara sagrada
• Psyllium
• Comfrey
• Flaxseed
• Goldenseal
• Hops
• Fennel
• Licorice root
• Peppermint
• Lemongrass

Be careful about drinking licorice root or comfrey tea if you have high blood pressure. Use caution with cayenne and cinnamon if you have skin problems. The nutrition counselors and integrative health specialists at Blatman Health and Wellness Center can recommend the right herbs depending on your medical needs and detox goals.

9. Use Vitamin Supplements

Adding vitamin and mineral supplements to your diet can boost your digestive health and make up for any nutritional deficiencies. Supplementation with B vitamins and antioxidants, such as the vitamin C complex, can be beneficial during a cleanse. You might also try pycnogenol, an antioxidant supplement derived from pine tree bark.

10. Stay Regular

Regular bowel movements help your body eliminate waste, remove toxins, and aid digestion. If natural fiber and plant laxatives don’t improve your bowel movements, an enema to remove damaging toxins may be necessary. Before your situation gets that bad, however, try magnesium oxide. It’s available in capsule form and works as a laxative.

Internal Cleanse

An internal cleanse moves toxins through the body and releases them. However, if you’re new to regular body cleansing, you may experience flu-like symptoms without fever or skin eruptions that may last a couple of days. There’s no reason to worry, because this is the body adjusting and flushing out toxins stored deep in the tissues.

To make your detox more comfortable, try a detoxifying bath. Submerge yourself in warm water mixed with a cup of sea salt and a cup of baking soda for 10-15 minutes. Doing so will pull toxins out of the body through the skin. Hands-on therapy, such as massage and detoxifying body wraps, is also helpful in reducing these side effects and moving toxins through the tissues.

Also, don’t forget to keep up your exercise routine. Sweating can accelerate toxin removal, boost your energy, and flood you with endorphins that reduce withdrawal symptoms like anxiety and fatigue.

Are you ready to kickstart a body cleanse, but you’re not sure where to start? Complete our online contact form today to reach our Cincinnati or New York office. We can assist you with a comprehensive detox program that supports your digestive tract and overall well-being.