Up Your Feed

How do I detox my body?

Natalie Sabin Season 1 Episode 5

If you have been on a bender and want to hit reset, you might be wondering how to detox your body? In this episode, I share with you exactly what your body needs and why some common detox diets might actually work against you. Nutrition information and research are nuanced and have many shades of gray. This makes it confusing. UP YOUR FEED sorts through the noise to help you make the best decision for yourself. 

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Hey there, welcome it is Coach Natalie and this is up your feed. In this podcast, I share with you common questions I get from my nutrition clients because while everyone has unique needs, the questions are usually the same. And if they are asking you probably are too here we go in this episode I am answering the question, what is the best way to detox my body? The first question I always ask is, what are you trying to detox from? For example, for you out on a bender ate really low-quality food maybe had way too many cocktails on vacation? Well, the good news is in this situation, your body is not toxic. Because trust me, if your body was toxic, you would end up in the hospital in this case, shifting to higher quality foods is all you really need to do. No supplements, drinks, potions, or rituals will detox the body in a special way that your bowel movements and urination has not already been able to take care of. If the goal is to detox from environmental exposures, the body will still manage these things. But in this case, avoiding exposure is the number one thing you can do. In other words, don't expose yourself in the first place. This is less about low quality foods, but more so about environmental exposures like household cleaning products, cigarette smoke, car exhaust monitoring your home for carbon monoxide exposure, reducing dust and mold in your home. The body has its own detox system, and it works amazing. Primarily we're talking about your kidneys and your liver. But you can help support your body's own natural process. And those interventions focus on supporting the body's endogenous process of breaking chemicals down into non toxic metabolites and supporting healthy excretion from the body. Glutathione is the main detoxifying antioxidant and done to the DOM it is made in the body. It is your natural detox powerhouse. Now you can support the production of glutathione and this is done by regular exercise, protein consumption, avoiding prolonged fasting therefore doing the opposite would reduce glutathione production. being sedentary, eating a low protein diet. Long fasting periods are super restrictive calorie intake. All of these things lower glutathione stores. The body's ability to detox requires energy that means you need to eat calories and ideally you would eat these from high quality foods that supply the body what it needs to do its work. Here's some things you can do. Keep fiber intake up. Fiber not only decreases the absorption of some of the toxins but it also helps regulate an elimination and excretion through the store. Men should be aiming for about 30 to 35 grams of fiber every day and women should be aiming for about 20 to 25 Avoid alcohol. It induces an enzyme that creates an unbalanced detoxification system. consume plenty of fresh filtered water this also helps with elimination. Eat a nutritionally balanced diet including omega three fatty acids provide the body with the macro and micronutrients it needs. And if you don't know what those are, think in terms of lean protein fruits, vegetables, whole grains. I like to put it in simple terms of eat the rainbow, eat a wide variety of colors and you will get the micronutrients that you need. A common question I get is about glutathione supplements. Because I do mention that this is the powerhouse folks immediately want to go take a pill for it. Sure they're available but most of the time they're not effective because they can't even survive the GI tract during digestion. Nutrition and keeping your body healthy is not about no pain, no gain. That means you don't have to torture yourself with very long fasts. Or juice cleanses. Oftentimes those diets don't live up to the claims or the research is a little bit nuanced. And the bigger issue is some of those nutritional gymnastics they put you through it's actually working against your body's healthy natural detox system. Now listen, I'm not coming after anyone that enjoys doing these types of diets or genuinely feels amazing. You have to do what makes you feel really good. My point here is let's be careful about the claims of some of these diets and also not scare other people into thinking that they have to do these things where they have to buy certain things in order to be healthy. A quick recap on how to detox your body sticking with the basics fruits, vegetables, lean protein, fiber, get your exercise in so move your body drink water, get rest and minimize exposure. I'm Natalie Sabin, and this is up your feed

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