New Year Colon Detox

The New Year is a great time to start a Colon Detox.

A Global Juice Feast started on Jan 3rd and I am all for cleansing but I never feel inclined to juice fast or feast in January.  Maybe if I lived in a hot climate I would but we are having a particularly cold snap here in England and I would be much tooooo cold living entirely on juices right now.

Spring time is considered by many detox authorities to be the best time to detox when the weather should be warmer and the new season’s produce is available. This does not mean that you cannot do anything to start cleansing your body. This is a good time to start a colon detox or cleanse.

Your colon is your waste management system.  A clogged, unhealthy colon allows toxins to back up into the liver and bloodstream, polluting the entire system so making sure it is clean and functioning well should be the first stage of any detox plan. A healthy colon should eliminate waste 3 times a day.   If not a colon detox can help.

If your diet has not been entirely healthy over the holidays then this is an excellent time to think about your colon.  I always start the year with a colon detox of some sort.  Many involve a short juice fast but the first stage in a colon detox is to change your diet.

Why change your diet for Colon Detox?

Fast food is full of additives, processed meat such as bacon, sausages, hot dogs, peperoni, packaged ham and salami contain substances that increase cancer, commercially produced meat is full of growth promoter residues and most fish is full of pollutants from the sea.

Avoid alcohol and cut down on other substances that are either bad for the bowel or hard to digest like refined sugar, too many flour products like bread and pasta, and most dairy products (live organic yogurt and kefir are good – see below), fried foods, processed oils and red meat.

Eating the right foods can stop more toxins entering and clear your colon of debris:

Fibre

Vegetables, fruits, beans, seeds, nuts and whole grains are high in fiber which helps sweep the digestive tract. Fiber exercises the intestinal tract by stimulating the wave-like muscular contractions of the bowel that move the food along helping colon detox.  It also holds moisture in the colon preventing constipation.

Fiber feeds the good bacteria in the bowel that help prevent infection and cancer and it is important for binding cholesterol to eliminating it.

Flax seed (linseeds) and oats are great additions to your diet for fiber  Try mixing half a cup flax seeds and half a cup of mixed sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds together. Store in a jar in the fridge and grind up 1 tbsp of the seed mix together every morning and eat with breakfast.

Green Foods

Green foods are high in chlorophyll known as the internal deodorant and are ideal for colon cleansing and detox. Chlorophyll removes toxic synthetic chemicals and heavy metals. The adhesive cellulose in its cell wall sticks to the metal atoms so they’re carried out as waste. It gives you an internal bath.

Try a green food supplement such as barley grass or a mixture of wheat grass, spirulina, blue-green algae.

Water

Most people need to drink more pure water.  If you don’t drink enough fluid more water is absorbed from the bowel drying it out causing constipation. Drink 8 x 8 oz glasses a day between meals is the general rule.  If you eat a lot of fruit, vegetables, soup and smoothies then you may not need to drink so much.

Improve your digestion by drinking a glass of warm water with 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice first thing in the morning.  Cut out soda and other fizzy drinks and reduce coffee and regular tea.

Fermented foods

Live bio yogurt, kefir and other fermented foods such as miso and home made sauerkraut can replenish friendly bowel bacteria and help bowel detox. They degrade toxins, crowd out less beneficial bacteria, stimulate the immune system and produce short-chain fatty acids that provide an energy source for cells lining the colon.

Exercise

Yes your colon needs a good blood circulation to work properly. Exercise can help stimulate the bowel and keep things moving.

Keeping your colon clean keeps your cells and tissues clean and takes some stress off your liver. Ultimately, a colon detox diet nourishes the body and paves the way to good health.

We will look at some colon detox supplements next time.