4 Questions About Food Cleanses Answered

It seems that everywhere I look, online, magazines, blogs, people are talking about detoxes and cleanses. I am even offering one, Wake Up From Winter, for my students to do together. With so many questions, let's find some answers.

Would a cleanse be right for you? For someone who is living in a polluted environment, eating processed foods, drinking alcohol, fluoridated and chlorinated water, smoking, taking medication, and anything else that puts toxins into your body, you would benefit from doing a cleanse. If you have any health concerns, please check with your health care practitioner before starting a cleanse.  Also, please do not stop taking prescribed medications unless directed by your doctor to do so.

Which one is good? As I mentioned in an earlier blog, You are what you eat, whole foods are the best way to go. I don't believe in punishing ourselves and though I have a descent practice and have developed discipline, I am somewhat lacking when it comes to willpower. I need to feel nourished and like I'm doing some thing good for myself.  I really like the cleanse offered by Hale Sofia Schatz in, If Buddha Came to Dinner; it's healthy, safe, and based on a whole food diet. And, like with most things in life, it's better to do with a friend. There are so many books and cleanses available. Read through them. Make sure they are reasonably priced and based on whole foods.

How long should I cleanse? The length of a cleanse depends on you.  I started with a day and built myself up to 21 days.  My goal is to eat from my cleanse diet one day a week.

Are cleanses helpful?
My experience of trying many diets, fasts, detoxes and cleanses is this: I want to change my life not just lose some weight. My friends and family gave me the best feedback about how well the last cleanse I did worked. People told me that my skin glowed. I was filled with energy, lost some unwanted weight, and let go of my coffee addiction (still). Yes there are some withdrawal side effects, but the are worth it.
According to Woodson Merrell, M.D., there are at least 7 reasons we should do a cleanse or detox regularly:

• Reduce toxins in the body quickly
•  Lose weight
• Lowers risk of diabetes
• Makes your body efficient in creating energy
• Reduces the competition in how our body gets rid of toxins
• Helps repair our chronically overloaded digestive tract
• Helps you breathe better

To read more:
Why Starting a Detox Program Should Be a Top Health Priority for 2014 First the bad news: The evidence is now overwhelming that pollution contributes to chronic disease. Almost every system in the body can be disrupted by levels of exposure to toxins commonly found in the majority of Americans. (14) Many toxins target multiple systems and can set off cascades of inflammation that can topple a person's health like a perfect throw straight down the lane at Lucky Strike. And guess what: Your government is NOT protecting you enough from exposures that harm. 

Let me know what cleanses have worked for you. Feel free to ask questions too!
 

You ARE what you eat

reachingutopia.com photo credit

I'm not sure when I first heard the quote, 'You are what you eat,' but I have heard if often especially as of late. I'm also not sure that I believed it whole heartedly until recently. Last November I did a whole food cleanse that changed my life. I've done many cleanses and fasts over the last 20 years, and they were always a struggle. While I benefited from most of them in some way, they never changed my habits or me completely.

What made this last time different? Well, me and where I am emotionally was different. I was cleansing with a friend, yet I have done that before. The particular cleanse I was doing, again, I have done that before. So, we'll come back to this question.

Our diets have changed dramatically since our youth. I remember getting milk from the local farmer, my mother making spaghetti sauce, and fast food was a luxury that occurred once a year.

I don't need to describe how it is today--because we all know--it's almost impossible to find unpasteurized milk, homemade spaghetti sauce is a luxury and fast food for some is the norm.

 Our vegetables are be modified, sprayed with pesticides, chemicals are added to many foods to add to their shelf life, color, packaging with added chemicals, and the list goes on. How has this changed us? We have more allergies, addictions, obesity, chronic illness, emotional disorders, medicated children and adults than ever before.

So what can we do? We can change our eating (cook at home, grow your own food, slow down, eat mindfully) and buying habits (buy organic, eat locally grown food that's in season, read ingredients and don't buy anything that has ingredients that you can't pronounce or know what they are) just a couple suggestions. Does it have to be a total overhaul? We can start small and work our way to changing the aspects of our lives we want to be different--one bite at a time.

So, what was different this time? ME!! Where I'm at in my life, my practice, with my family and career, I see things from a clearer perspective and through my November cleanse, my eyes, tastes and body was changed. I was actually able to give up my worst addiction or habit (diet soda--I know I'm embarrassed to admit it) easily.  When I tried to drink some after the cleanse was over, I just couldn't. People from all parts of my life commented on my transformation. I had wished I had taken before and after pics, but I didn't.

I will be leading a group whole food cleanse starting on March 1st, 2014.  If you are interested, check out the flyer on my website, Wake Up From Winter. I will be blogging throughout the cleanse. Please feel free to share any experiences you have had with changing food habits (or any other appropriate ones) below. Bon appetite!