10 Easy Steps to Detoxify Your Body and Improve Your Health

The environment we live in is full of toxins. We inhale them in the air we breathe, ingest them with our food and water, and absorb them through the pores in our skin. Even the personal care products and cleaning supplies that we take for granted are full of poisons that are harmful to our bodies. While we are surrounded by pollutants from the environment, the human body produces its own toxins. Our metabolic processes result in chemical wastes which can compromise our health. The accumulation of these harmful substances in the body is known as “toxic load” – sometimes referred to as “body burden.” Over time, the buildup of environmental toxins in our systems can lead to chronic or severe health problems. Some medical researchers estimate that nearly 75% of the diseases that afflict us are largely due to the toxicity of our systems. Headaches, chronic respiratory illness, cancer, and even autism have been linked to the accumulation of unsafe chemicals in the body. The good news is that, although it is impossible to completely isolate ourselves from these harmful substances, we can reduce our exposure to them and decrease their impact through a simple detoxification program. By following these 10 easy steps, you will rid your body of many harmful chemicals, putting yourself on the path to a healthful lifestyle and greater sense of well-being. 1. Get plenty of restorative sleep. Adequate rest is critical to your body’s ability to heal itself and perform its many biological functions properly. 2. Plan your meals with good nutrition in mind. Be sure to eat plenty of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables; avoid processed and pre-packaged foods, refined flour and sugar products, trans-fats, and red meats.

Proper nutritional balance is important for maintaining healthy organ function, especially the excretion of toxic elements through the liver. * A cleansing diet designed to flush toxic matter from your digestive system may be incorporated into your detox program. Keep in mind that these diets are meant for the short term only, and people who are being treated for a medical condition should not undertake a restrictive diet without the approval of their physician. 3. Adapt a stress management technique that suits your lifestyle, such as yoga, meditation, or another soothing activity that you enjoy. Stress is responsible for the production of hormones which can be harmful, leading to heart disease and other severe illness; stress management reduces levels of these hormones and boosts your ability to cope with the challenges of life. 4. Physical activity heightens your body’s ability to excrete toxins, as well as providing an overall health benefit. Exercise is important to the success of your detoxification efforts, in addition to being necessary for a healthy lifestyle. 5. Avoid behaviors that are detrimental to your health, like smoking, drinking alcohol in excess, and recreational drug use; stay away from artificial stimulants like caffeine. These substances will inevitably slow down your detoxification progress. 6. Take herbal supplements. There are several detoxifying herbs which are available in either tea or capsule form. These include dandelion, milk thistle, burdock, and red clover. Ginger root and the popular acai berry are also known for their detoxifying properties, as is Vitamin C. 7. Purchase a body cleanse or liver and colon cleanse kit. These consist of natural detox products that flush toxins from your liver and colon, restoring optimal function. 8. Drink plenty of water. Adequate hydration is needed to remove toxic elements from your body. 8. Massage therapy is not only relaxing and restorative; it allows your body to excrete toxins up to 200 times faster than on its own. 9. Take a sauna or a hot bath regularly. The skin is a major excretory organ, and the heat of a sauna or bath opens the pores and increases your body’s rate of natural detoxification. 10. Reduce exposure to toxic elements. An air filter in your home will drastically improve the quality of the air you breathe; use natural cleaners and personal care products whenever possible to prevent the absorption of toxins through your skin. Sticking to organic foods lowers your risk of ingesting dangerous pesticides. Watch out for foods wrapped in plastic wrap; plastic contains chemicals called phthalates which are known to cause cancer and developmental problems, including early-onset puberty. While it is impossible to completely eliminate your exposure to dangerous chemicals in the environment, by following these steps you can greatly diminish their harmful impact on your health.

The elderflower has been well known through the centuries for its high vitamin C content, anti oxidant and healing properties, and because of this is today one of the top selling natural summer cordials.

Drinking a glass of cordial daily is very refreshing and will help to improve your health, and it is not just the flowers that are good for you but also the berries when made into wine have equal beneficial properties.

We are all well aware now just how important anti oxidants and vitamin C are, and I do not mean only the ladies thinking about their skin and premature aging, but then maybe that is why through the ages women have always made and drank elderflower cordials and tea ritually, and is a staple product of the Women’s Institute along with jams.

Antioxidants are needed to help reduce the production of ‘free radicals’ (highly re-active and unstable molecules which contain atoms with unpaired electrons) in the body, high fat diets attribute to ‘free radicals’, but they are also produced naturally and especially in people who exercise heavily, attacking cells leading to long term damage and a higher risk of cancer.

Studies have shown that taking antioxidants such as vitamin C before eating high fat foods, reduces the damage greatly to the arteries.

The elderflower is well in bloom now and can be found in most hedgerows and roadsides, scrubland and gardens alike, and to many gardeners is a nuisance as it grows almost anywhere in a very short time to a considerable size.

The elder has acquired the nickname of ‘Nature’s Medicine Chest’, as its healing properties have been used for a very wide and varied range of problems from Rheumatism, hay fever, coughs and colds, asthma and influenza.

The elderflower is only in bloom for about six weeks, from the end of May to the beginning of July, but it is best picked now while the flowers are fresh and white and before they turn creamy brown.

I remember making this with my grandma every year, from collecting the flowers and berries to all the smells associated with this. I still have the hand written recipe of this and other by grandma, although I think some of these recipes are probably illegal to make at home now, like the marrow rum, I will have to check up on this at a later date.

The recipe to make 1.5 litres of Elderflower cordial is below, which you dilute to taste, is easy and inexpensive, and is great served with fizzy water and ice. Perfect for the summer.

Ingredients you need – 20 heads of elderflower, 1.8kg granulated sugar, 1.2 litres of water, 2 lemons and 75g citric acid.

Preparation time takes 20 minutes, plus overnight infusing and 5 minutes cooking.Method. Shake the flowers to expel any insects and place in large bowl.Put sugar in pan with water and bring to boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Pare zest off lemons in wide strips and place in bowl with elderflowers. Slice lemons discarding ends and add slices to bowl. Pour over boiling syrup and stir in citric acid. Cover with cloth and leave for 24 hours at room temperature. The next day strain cordial through a muslin (or a new boil washed J cloth or similar) and pour into thoroughly cleaned plastic or glass bottles with screw on lids, and that’s it.

The elder is also used as a natural garden insecticide, by crushing up and bruising the foul smelling leaves you can leave them around young plants to deter aphids and caterpillars. Obviously as they dry out and the smell disappears they need to be replaced.

Farmers used to hang bunches of elderflower above their horses before insecticides were used to rid flies, and dairy farmers used it as they thought it had properties to stop the milk from turning sour. People used to wear a small sprig to keep midges away. The elder has been closely entwined with pagans through the years to summon spirits, with twigs woven into head-dresses to enable the wearer to see spirits and undo evil spells! The mind boggles.

On the Isle of Man, every cottage has an elder growing outside its front door to ward off witches even to this day. In other parts of the country, people would never burn elder wood as it was said a member of the family would die. It was truly a revered plant.

The great thing about elderflower is that it tastes delicious, is highly refreshing and a good provider of vitamin C – an antioxidant, so why not try making your own or buy a good reputable manufactured cordial and start getting the benefits for good health now.

Happy drinking Sandra & Ted

http://www.goodfoodgoodhealth.com

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For many years garlic has been known to have great health benefits and is often thought of as natures own antibiotic’ but people have been wary of eating fresh garlic because of the pungent odour it leaves on your breath, or excreted through the pores. Garlic has this effect because it is a substance that is not metabolised; instead it is absorbed through the stomach lining.

Now it has been realised that taking a good quality supplement of Allicin (the active ingredient of garlic) gives you equal effectiveness, and of course you can use the odourless variety, for this garlic is aged and detoxified leaving it deodorised.

I adore garlic and am happy with garlic on just about any type of savoury food, but being the minority in the family have resorted to taking odourless capsules to keep the peace. I think garlic is one of the few foods that everybody has an opinion about; you either love it or hate it!

In fact my father-in-law Joe used to eat raw cloves every day, probably one of the reasons he is in his eighties and has never suffered from bad health. Joe originates from Poland where garlic had been used for health benefits for years and years, primarily eaten against influenza, but they would also use it topically rubbed on the soles of their feet to ward of colds and many other ailments.

But yes, there was a problem with odour and it came to a head at the maternity centre when I had our eldest daughter, the nurses could not believe how after he visited us the odour lingered, and went on to tell him they were worried it would upset the babies on the ward. Obviously he was a little offended, but more embarrassed, even though we had approached the subject before, thank goodness this time it sank in. Now he still uses garlic, but not every day, and happily takes a daily odourless supplement.

To date garlic has under gone many studies and it seems the list of its benefits keeps on increasing. The main reason I have taken garlic for several years now is because of the effect it has on strengthening the body’s immune system.

With all the stress in today’s society our bodies could do with a little help. The antioxidant properties contained in garlic comes from selenium and germanium that are sulphur-containing antioxidants that boost the immune system.

It is this property that helps rid the body of free radicals that are believed to be associated with the ageing process, growth of tumours and atherosclrosis. Garlic in it’s raw state is thought to be one of the most potent boosters of you body’s natural killer cells. This alone should encourage non-garlic lovers to change their minds.

Research has shown that garlic-Allicin is an excellent natural antimicrobial that can disable a wide variety of infectious organisms. These antibiotic properties can provide extremely active against yeast, fungi and viral infections.

Garlic is great for your heart too, as it contains properties that fight bad’ cholesterol. Nowadays we are all aware that HDL- high-density lipoprotein which is not dangerous, but LDL – low-density lipoprotein definitely is because of the fact that it can be oxidised by dangerous free radicals. Garlic’s antioxidising qualities help diminish the free radical damage.

Garlic is a natural aspirin as it can help prevent red blood cells from clumping together. Garlic naturally keeps the blood thin which is necessary for the prevention of strokes and heart attacks, so people who regularly take garlic benefit from the same aspects as aspirin but without other risks associated with it, but it should not be taken in place of prescribed medication.

Garlic is also beneficial for the cardiovascular system – circulation, and has been proven to improve circulation in the body’s peripheries, which is extremely helpful especially in the aged, when getting enough exercise is often difficult.

Studies are also being undertaken to find the effect garlic has on cancer cells, and to date the findings carried out on mice are looking good. This is really encouraging.

I hope if you are not a lover of garlic this has given a good insight into the benefits of eating garlic or at least taking a supplement. Not only will your health benefit, but you will also have the added benefit of knowing you are safe from vampires!!

Garlic has been written about throughout history. 22 Egyptian remedies using garlic were found on papyrus dating back to the sixteenth century BC. Vikings would not take to long sea voyages without garlic, because of its anti-bacterial properties, this was also the reason it was used against the plague in the 1770′s. African missionaries found that garlic was successful at stopping dysentery.

In fact my granddad grew garlic, and he used to use old cloves steeped in water to cleanse his lean-to come greenhouse, he would fervently swear that it killed mildew and other infections, and apparently having been his grandfather that passed this down to his father, was obviously well thought of for its antibacterial properties.

In our modern hi-tech world we now live in, we have all but forgotten natures own natural problem beaters and these are often absolutely harmless, with no man made chemicals to endanger the environment. Perhaps we should look closer at what our ancestors knew and we seem to have forgotten.

Good food is good health

Sandra & Ted
http://www.goodfoodgoodhealth.com

http://www.thetalkingbooksite.com

http://www.quantum-mind-power.com

]]> http://goodfoodgoodhealthforyou.com/garlic.html/feed 1 http://goodfoodgoodhealthforyou.com/detox-naturally.html http://goodfoodgoodhealthforyou.com/detox-naturally.html#comments Sat, 12 Jan 2008 13:01:39 +0000 Good Food Good Health http://azland55.wordpress.com/2008/01/12/good-food-good-health-detox-naturally/ Hi

After eating all the rich food that Christmas entails it is time to naturally detox your body, and quite simply eating a good balanced healthy diet can do this. Our motto ‘good food good health’ says it all.

Nowadays there are many books written about this subject and many famous people swearing by some new treatment which costs the earth and generally has little effect the body cannot do itself.

Did you know that our bodies already have fantastic ways of ‘detoxing’ – getting rid of things that we do not need, silently and effectively every day?

What we need to do is to help and support these natural processes. By taking stock of our diet though eating a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, regularly, enables the body to work at its best – ‘good food good health’.

The word varied here is of utmost importance. It would do your body no good at all if you ate only one type of fruit or vegetable, and ate that in abundance. The body gleans different components from various foods and needs an array of vitamins and proteins a good balanced varied diet delivers.

Basically the body has three methods of naturally ‘detoxing’. Firstly through your lungs when you exhale, secondly your skin and the third most obvious way of getting rid of waste is through stools and urine.

The skin is the area most people over look, and yet it is the largest area on our body. Many cultures in the past used the skin far more for cleansing and detoxing and knew its importance for cleansing the whole body.

Your skin is fabulous, when you start thinking of it as a two-way membrane through which substances can pass back and forwards, into and back out of your body, then there is a lot you can do to assist and improve detoxification processes through your skin.

Making your own salt scrub is cheap and easy, mix olive oil and finely ground sea salt together with a few drops of essential oil. Vigorously rub the mixture in and leave for at least 15 minutes before showering or bathing.

As always make sure you are sensible and use a rubber slip proof shower or bath mat when using any form of oil products in the bathroom.

As well as detoxing, you can have added benefits by having a partner or friend to massage each other, with relaxation and de-stressing, and the great smell of the aromatherapy oil adds to this.

Can also be great fun is you share the shower too! But beware, this kind of malarkey is no good if you both slip and do yourself an injury. Always take care.

The shower is another great tool too, and any shower can be turned into a naturopathic treatment just by alternating hot and cold water, although this is most definitely not advised for people with heart or blood pressure problems.

After taking a normal shower, turn the heat up as hot as you can bear – obviously not to burn yourself, and focus especially on the chest, tummy and thighs for about 30 – 60 seconds. Next switch to cold water for 30 – 60 seconds, and yes it is ok to shriek at this point, although family members and neighbours might be confused!

Repeating this procedure a few times after your daily shower will really get your blood circulating through the skin, with the added benefit of each skin cell getting boosted oxygen and nutrition. Detoxing is this simple.

Honestly, after a couple of weeks your skin will feel great and have a healthy glow, and by eating good food at the same time will maintain this and help strengthen your body’s ability to fight off stress and viruses that are prevalent at this time of the year.

So as always just remember good food is good health.

Sandra & Ted

http://www.goodfoodgoodhealth.com

http://www.thetalkingbooksite.com

http://www.quantum-mind-power.com