Step 4: Holistic Detox

Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health.
- Julia Child

Chronic tiredness and the tendency to catch illnesses  may indicate that our organism is weak because of big amount of toxins. Unconsciously, we fill our bodies with harmful substances such as pesticides, preservatives, artificial colorants, emulsifiers, overdose of sugar and salt. When we don’t care how we wash fruit and vegetables, we also risk inviting parasites into our bodies.

Cosmetics from the colorful shelves in drug stores bombard us with carcinogenic ingredients and our everyday contact with domestic detergents, at best, causes various skin problems. Our gastrointestinal system is the main victim of living in the world of pesticides and chemical compounds. Our guts become the headquarters for the development of mold and yeast fungus. According to medicine, the guts are responsible for our general well-being and are responsible in 80% for our immune system. But still, we eat too much, too often and we choose food that is not good for us and our digestive system doesn’t have the chance to digest everything or have some rest. The remains of food in our guts are a real feast for parasites living in our bodies, as well as nonphysiological bacteria, mold and candida. As a consequence of this invisible contamination of our body, we are more prone to get sick, lose life energy or get symptoms similar to food allergy symptoms. Despite their attempts to lose weight, some people put on weight more and more every year. The best way to “reset” our body is to go on a few-day starvation diet or fasting. The process of detoxifying our organism is neither easy, nor pleasant, but it brings good results within a few weeks. Such a detox is a starting point to change your eating habits and live a healthier life.

Gradual detoxification
The fast should start with the watchful eye of a specialist. The whole process requires preparations. You should gradually reduce the amount of meat and dairy that you eat. Two weeks before fasting you totally stop eating meat and dairy. During the detox, it is good to schedule some time just for ourselves, for some relaxation and some time in the open air. Fasting is not the only way to detoxify our organisms. There are some people who, for various reasons, shouldn’t completely stop eating. Such people can switch to a macrobiotic diet or just eat millet groats with olive oil for a few days. However, it is crucial to choose only organic products. Instead of eating, you can fast on properly composed juices. The juices should be made from vegetables, fresh herbs, maybe a little bit of fruit. Though be careful with fruit. It contains fructose which is not very good for us. Juice should be prepared in a squeezer or in a juicer. That’s how it will be full of nutrients. Diet based on juices is a part of Gerson therapy that has been successful as a part of cancer treatment.

An organism that doesn’t get nutrients, turns on a survival mode, it feeds itself with remains of food which have not been digested. It uses cholesterol, lipids (fats), proteins (albumen, amino acids). The bone marrow is motivated to produce white blood cells (fasting is perceived as something life-threatening that’s why we witness such a mobilization while it lasts). A lot of other organs are “set straight”. Such a fast resembles an inspection or a drill of an army when their general officer pays them a controlling visit. The same happens with our brain. Since we are starving, it needs to find something to eat! There can be observed some beneficial changes occurring in the brain, like "clearing foggy mind“ and such people are less prone to suffer from neurological illnesses.

Fasting for the busy ones
More often than fasting, we can go through intermittent cleansing that does not require preparation or taking some days off. If you want to clean your mouth, you need to put coconut oil in your mouth and keep it there for about 20 minutes massaging your gums and palate. After about 20 minutes spit it out. You mustn’t swallow it. After spitting it out, just brush your teeth with a toothpaste that doesn’t contain fluoride. If you want to support your liver, mix olive oil with lemon juice (1:1) and drink it before going to bed. It helps the body to get rid of the toxins. Another good habit is to start the day with a glass of delicately warm water with lemon juice. Such a combination wakes the body up and prepares the gastrointestinal system to work. Lemon juice also prevents throat from infections. Despite lemons’ taste may suggest something completely different, lemons actually deacidify our bodies.

Another method to cleanse our organisms is drinking cistus tea. This herb is famous for its anticancer properties. It can be also very helpful in the treatment of borreliosis and it supports the activity of our guts. As all herbs, it has some active ingredients that may cause side effects, just like in case of medicine you get in pharmacies. So, drink it in moderation and read the information on the package.

Instead of food, you can drink properly composed juice that mostly consists of organic vegetables and fresh herbs.

You need to get exhausted
Intensive physical exercises influence not only our silhouette. When we perspire, we get rid of the toxins from our bodies. The first benefits of sweating we can observe on our skin, but even more important is getting rid of toxic substances that otherwise don’t know how to leave our body and they gather in some places in the form of cellulite. When we treat physiacal activity as a way to cleanse our bodies, we should choose these kinds of activities which make us sweat such as zumba, jogging or cross training. Sauna may be another option worth considering. High temperature improves our blood circulation and it motivates our bodies to fight with germs. Oxygen is carried to cells together with blood. A visit to a sauna helps to get rid of remains of some chemical compounds from cosmetics through the skin, as it opens skin pores. Going to sauna doesn’t require any effort from our side. In some countries it is a typical form of weekly relaxation or even meeting friends.

After cleansing it is good to change the usual cosmetics to organic ones. Instead of creams full of preservatives, look for products with the organic label. It is also beneficial for us to reduce the number of cosmetics we use to just a few.
You can read more in the book: Paul C. Bragg and Patricia Bragg “The Miracle of Fasting”.

Your choice
The results of fasting we have made may be forgotten quickly if we go back to our old eating habits. The whole purpose of fasting is to change our thinking about food, which is supposed to be the source of nutrients. Healthy products are incredibly delicious and we can prepare very exquisite dishes from them. But we need to make some changes in our habits. For example, instead of frying, it is better to boil or steam. Use rock salt (Himalayan) or sea salt instead of normal table salt. Another thing that we may notice after going through fasting is that our sense of taste gets sharper.

Here is a list of products that it is better to exclude from our plate:

• wheat-based products: white bread, pasta, cakes, pancakes; wheat is a source of harmful gluten, and in most cases contains residues of pesticides
• sugar and sweets containing sucrose and fructose, sweeteners
• alcohol, sweetened drinks and juice
• fast food
• salty snack processed in high temperature in refined fats
• processed meat from mass animal production that contains antibiotics or growth hormones
• dairy products with additives - thickeners, stabilizers, colorants, big amounts of salt or sugar
• ready-made meals, instant soups

You become what you choose, think and do every day.
- Heraklit from Efez

Go to Step 5 here >>