What Is a Good Cleansing Diet?

A cleansing diet rids your body of harmful substances. It is often called a detox or detoxification. If you are going on a detox diet, you may increase your water intake, change your diet, eliminate processed foods and sometimes take supplements to help cleanse your system.

A Healthy Cleansing

While many people feel that a cleanse is needed due to all of the artificial and processed foods in our diets, there are natural mechanisms in your body that continuously cleanse our bodies. The purpose of the liver and kidneys, along with the digestive and immune systems is to cleanse your body. If you want to purge and cleanse your body, a diet and lifestyle change may be more beneficial to your health than a cleanse.

There is a simple way to cleanse your body and begin a healthy diet. If you are starting a diet or weight-loss program, a cleanse can be a great way to start. This type of cleansing starts with eating all raw, frozen or lightly steamed fruits and veggies. Eliminate breads, pasta, dairy products, meat, coffee and alcohol. Make juices with raw fruits and other ingredients. Drink green tea. This increases your metabolism and has been known in Chinese medicine to have numerous health benefits. This cleansing program is the most sensible and safest. Unlike some other cleanses, you can continue eating while on this diet and everything you eat is all-natural instead of processed, artificial food. Additionally, with these dietary changes, you can lose weight at a reasonable rate and adapt to a healthy lifestyle.

Avoid Drastic Detox Diets

Eat a healthy well-balanced diet along with a fitness program. If you want to detox, eat healthy foods.

The use of drastic detox diets can result in weight loss, but this may be a drastic weight loss that will not be able to be maintained when you start eating normally. For example, it is a common myth among dieters that laxatives can promote weight loss by cleansing your system. However, laxative use can lead to dehydration, heart damage and colon damage.

Beware of Self Detox Programs

Another detox diet that has shown to be dangerous and unsuccessful is the Master Cleanse diet, which involves a cleansing drink made of lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water that you drink for 10 to 14 days with no other sustenance. Although this drink may sustain you for a limited time, it can cause headaches, caffeine withdrawals, nausea and dehydration. While you may show immediate weight loss, this is usually water weight loss and not fat loss.

Instead of a drastic diet, follow a natural weight-loss program. Find a program that incorporates healthy eating with a change in lifestyle and a fitness program.