It's Spring! And like every Spring, the word is on everyone's lips: Detox!
In principle, if you have adopted a healthy diet most of the time and a healthy lifestyle, the body's detoxification process takes place naturally, and your body doesn't need any extra help to cleanse itself on a daily basis.
The best thing to do is to maintain or reinforce these good habits: eat a balanced, organic diet, get enough sleep, use products with a "clean" composition (hygiene or home care) to avoid endocrine disruptors, exercise and limit your stress.
However, at the end of winter and after the excesses of the festive season, if you feel tired, have a dull complexion or are prone to allergies, it may be that your body needs an extra boost to eliminate toxins.
In fact, our bodies are constantly exposed to toxins from our environment, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the medicines we take, the products we use and even our own metabolism. These toxins can accumulate in our bodies and cause long-term health problems. A detox can help eliminate these toxins and reduce the body's toxic load.
Why detox in spring?
After the winter, when it's important to take care of yourself, let your body rest and recharge its batteries, spring is the ideal time to restore the proper functioning of the emunctories (the organs involved in waste elimination: liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs and skin) and induce better natural detoxification of the body.
Spring is a season of renewal and regeneration. Days grow longer, temperatures rise and nature awakens.
This season is also often associated with increased physical activity, a lighter diet and increased exposure to the sun.
These changes can stimulate the body's natural functions, making it an ideal time to support natural detoxification.
So how do you go about spring detox?
Here are a few essential general health tips to get you started:
- Adopt a light, healthy diet, preferably organic, local and seasonal: opt for nutrient-rich foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables, whole or semi-complete cereals, legumes, lean proteins and sprouted seeds. - Avoid processed foods, refined sugars, saturated fats and limit dairy products.
- Drink plenty of water: water helps to eliminate toxins from the body and maintain good hydration. Try to drink at least 1.5l of water a day (other beverages such as tea, coffee, juices, etc. do not count and should be limited).
- Eliminate or severely limit allergenic and irritating foods such as gluten and dairy products, which can cause inflammation in the body.
- Exercise regularly, but not excessively: exercise helps to stimulate blood circulation, increase oxygenation and promote detoxification of the body.
- Take a natural supplement: beyond the deficiencies that are not uncommon in today's society, natural supplements such as vitamin C, magnesium and probiotics can help support the body's detoxification process. Talk to your health practitioner to find out which supplements are right for you!
After that, you can gradually reintroduce the foods you've eliminated, while trying to maintain the good eating habits you've developed so as not to overload your emunctories again.
Which active ingredients to use for a detox?
Certain plants and techniques stimulate and support organ and emunctory function:
Hepatic plants: artichoke, black radish, milk thistle, dandelion, desmodium, rosemary... Kidney plants: birch, lime sapwood, orthosiphon, meadowsweet...
They can be used as infusions, capsules, mother tinctures or in gemmotherapy.
Birch sap is also particularly suitable for spring detox, and is easy to use. This vegetable water is harvested by cutting a slit in the bark of the tree as the sap rises. Particularly rich in water, vitamins and minerals, it is detoxifying and fortifying. You can take a course of fresh, unpasteurized sap, which retains all its properties. Preferably drunk on an empty stomach in the morning, 250 ml for 3 weeks.
Chlorella is one of the many active ingredients you can use to detoxify your body. Thanks to its high chlorophyll content, this algae has a real detoxifying effect, particularly when it comes to eliminating heavy metals or chemical molecules. In general, we recommend consuming 3 to 5 g of chlorella a day, starting with low doses and increasing according to needs and effects.
Natural techniques include hammams, saunas and dry brushing, which should be used regularly to help eliminate toxins and purify the skin.
It is generally advisable to carry out a detox over a maximum of 3 weeks.
Before taking the plunge, be aware that a detox can have more or less troublesome side effects (headaches, intestinal problems, skin rashes, irritability...), so it's important to listen to your body and not to start a detox if your state of health presents risks (prolonged fatigue, illness, pregnancy, breast-feeding, diabetes, heart or kidney failure...).
Don't hesitate to consult a qualified practitioner who can give you personalized advice.
As the 16th century Swiss physician Paracelsus said, "Everything is poison, nothing is poison, it is the dose that makes the poison".