How detoxing affects your gut health
You know that moment on the 1st of January when everyone, everywhere, starts juicing or detoxing? They want to rid the body of evil toxins and start glowing from within. But are these restrictive detox plans doing more harm than good?
Does your body need a detox?
Before it was splashed all over Instagram, the word detox referred to ridding the organs of alcohol or drugs. Once the wellness industry got hold of it, people started using detox as a way to ‘spring clean’ their bodies. Soon, sipping laxative drinks became associated with everything from curing fibromyalgia to restoring energy levels.
The reality is that the body has its own clever systems in place. Ingenious organs work efficiently together, and detoxification is one of the many processes that it does perfectly. In the gut, for example, a mucous membrane lining filters all the good nutrients from bad particles. While hundreds of other processes happen simultaneously that we aren’t even aware of, purging or removing entire food groups from our diet can disturb these processes, causing havoc to our delicate microbiome. Actually there’s no scientific evidence for the benefits of so called “detox” diets and no universally accepted definition for “detox”.
Don’t DIY
It’s best not to guess nutrition. Listen to you doctor or nutritionist, if they noticed symptoms of a food intolerance or gut issues, they may suggest changing your diet. Otherwise, stick with what has been scientifically proven to work, which means basing your diet on fruit, vegetables and whole-grains, with protein from lean proteins, fish, eggs and legumes and limit your Intake of saturated fat, sugars and alcohol.
Ditch the detox, improve your diet
There’s no such thing as a quick fix for health. And certainly no miracle green juice which improves skin, hair, energy levels and liver function. But eating a diet that’s rich in fibre is proven to have a positive impact on gut functionality, as it absorbs toxins and facilitates the moving of waste through the digestive tract.
We hope this has been helpful! We’ve got plenty more information on everything from fibre to FODMAP on our blog.
