Is your gut in bad shape right now? If so, detox is much more important than you think.
Detox is not the first thing that springs to mind in relation to gut health. Naturally we think of changes to our food or supplements, and maybe lifestyle changes such as more exercise and less stress.
What we may not realise is that – because our gut isn’t functioning properly – we are carrying around a bunch more toxins on a daily basis than we should be. These toxins can drastically affect the way we feel, lowering our defences to illness and contributing to inflammation in our body.
First of all, what do we mean exactly when we talk about ‘toxins’? We mean chemicals inside our body that are harmful and need to be got rid of.
A well known example of poison in the air is lead, which for many years was added to fuel to make cars run better but which is toxic for us and makes us sick.
Sometimes these chemicals are waste products from our metabolism. Other times they are poisons that we consume by mistake because they are in the air we breath or food we eat, such as lead in petrol.
Other times they are toxins manufactured by bacteria in our gut (more on this below).
When the body is working well, we can clean out these unwanted toxins by excreting them in a variety of different ways, such as through urine, sweat and bowel movements.
However when our gut isn’t working properly, toxins can build up quicker than the body is able to clear them away. This can contribute to:
- Inflammation, which sets the stage for chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
- A weakened immune system.
- Difficulty losing weight.
- Autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis and psoriasis.
- Brain problems such as moodiness, brain fog, anxiety, depression, autism and Alzheimers.
Increased Toxic Load
Why are people with gut problems likely to have more toxins inside them?
Our bodies are full of trillions of bacteria, known as our microbiome. Don’t take it personally, all animals and plants are! Although we’ve been taught that bacteria generally make us sick, in fact most of the bacteria inside us are extremely helpful.
These friendly bacteria are little factories busily making products, many of which are vital for us, like vitamins and neurotransmitters.
However a certain amount of the bacteria in our microbiome are unhelpful or downright dangerous. One thing they do is create nasty toxins, sometimes as waste products and sometimes as a self-defence mechanism.
When these bad critters get the upper hand in our microbiome, our body has a lot more mess to clear up every day! This is a state known as dysbiosis.
Another problem is that, without enough good bacteria, we struggle to digest our food fully. This leads to more undigested food particles floating around than normal.
These undigested food particles wouldn’t necessarily be considered as toxins but when they pass into our body through our leaky gut lining, we’re into a world of problems. They’re treated as ‘foreign’ and dangerous by our immune system, which switches on the body’s defence and healing mechanisms, including inflammation.
This can trigger food intolerances and allergies as well as symptoms all over our body far away from our gut, such as skin conditions, headaches, chronic fatigue and weight gain.
Leaky Gut
To recap, if our microbiome is out balance (in dysbiosis) this leads to more bacterial toxins and undigested food particles floating around in our gut.
Normally these bothersome substances would stay safely in our gut and be pooped out at the next toilet visit.
However if we have leaky gut, the gut wall becomes full of holes – like a sieve – allowing particles to pass through that would normally stay inside the gut.
These particles are then able to pass from the gut into the body, where they don’t belong, upsetting our immune system, causing chronic inflammation and making us sick.
What causes leaky gut in the first place? There are many factors that can contribute to this but the single biggest one is too many bad bacteria and not enough good ones. If you’d like to learn more about the different factors in play and find out how likely it is that you have leaky gut, take our Leaky Gut Quiz
Some toxins even pass through the blood-brain barrier and mess with our delicate brain chemistry, causing havoc with our mood, memory and perception!
5 Steps to Detoxify
Here are 5 steps you can take today – and every day – to clean out the crap:
1. 12-hour fasting: the body needs a few hours each day to focus its energies on cleaning house. It can’t do this until it’s finished digesting the last meal. Make sure you allow at least 12 hours between finishing your dinner and having breakfast the next morning. 24-hour fasting is also very detoxing and beneficial.
2. Juicing: the body’s detoxification system needs nutrients to work, such as zinc and magnesium. Unfortunately we are often sorely lacking in these nutrients, particularly if we have gut problems. Juicing provides a huge payload of valuable nutrients and is a time-honoured method of detoxing. Make sure the juices are freshly made, or failing that, are cold-pressed (not pasteurised, as this removes many nutrients!)
3. Avoid processed food and sugar: these just fuel to our BAD gut bugs and increase our toxic load.
4. Sweat every day: this helps to ensure that toxins are being shown the door every day, instead of being allowed to build up. Saunas have been shown to have many health benefits. Also if you sweat through exercising, this will have an anti-inflammatory effect on your body, an extra bonus!
5. Remove chemicals from your house: unfortunately our homes are full of toxic chemicals, from laundry detergents to cosmetics. People with gut problems are much more sensitive to these chemicals, because their detoxification systems are already overloaded. Switch bleaches and chemical detergents for biodegradable cleaners, and find cosmetics made from natural plant products!
Detoxing will give you more energy, make you stronger and help you you feel positive and stable. It may even – quite literally – keep you sane!
53 thoughts on “5 Steps to Successful Detox!”
Thank you for all of the great tips to detox. These are such great ideas!
I want to try detox too. I have never tried detox before this post is really so helpful . I will surely try your tips
thanks for these reminders.. while i am working on 1 – 4 as often as i can, i know i need to do #5 more consciously.. switching to natural cleaners all the way through is taking more effort
Detox is such an important part of having a healthy gut. Your post is of great help to do it the right way.
Such an informative and helpful post. I always follow the first 4 steps and the 5th one is new for me. will try to follow the 5th one too
I would like to try some of the steps, I already stopped eating sugar. That’s a good start.
how did you know, your post came just in time because i have just started my detox. i am doing the fasting and exercise of cause. i have mostly been eating fruits and also meats for protein, will that be effective too
Sweating and excerising help s a lot for me when I have an imbalance in my body. I love to exercise as it is fun but also helps to reset my body when I ate too many bad things.
I badly need a detox. Thank you for sharing these tips. I know it’s not easy totally changing our lifestyle but will take baby steps to make the shift. Will start off removing chemicals from our house.
I’m trying to detox on an everyday basis. Before covid, I used to go five times a week to sweat and relax at the local sauna to detox.
I have never done a detox, but I am sure I definitely need one.
It was my sister who encouraged me to detox and at first, I wasn’t interested (because I was ‘young’ then and skinny) until I noticed I started to gain a bit of weight. I love chocolates, chips, and everything ‘junk’. It was juicing and exercising that helped me a lot.
While detoxing has been a big topic for a long, now we have a clearer perspective about how to do it, thanks for the great tips, and can’t wait to try them out!
Gut health is so important! My husband and I fast and my daughters naturally have breakfast 12 hours or more after they have had dinner. Gut health needs to be spoken about more, it really is so important.
Some cool information, I definitely need to have days where I stay 12 hours of no food. However, other things I do on daily basis. Thank you for sharing!
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These are some great tips for detoxing. I’d like to try detoxing out for myself, especially to cleanse/reset my stomach/colon a bit.
Thanks for the guide, I am starting to avoid such processed foods and sugar. I will follow these tips, thank you so much for sharing. I learned a lot.
This is right on time for me. I feel like I have even excess energy in my body and I need to sweat it out! Thanks for your informative post, as always.
Thank you for these tips! I used to juice regularly but we have gotten way out of the habit. This is a good reason to start back again!
I enjoy detoxing. Thank you for this very informational post about it!
I’ve seen lately alot of articles concerning this but your blog made it very clear. I am not convinced I need to detox myself!
Thanks for sharing!
Thoroughly enjoyed this article. Learned much about why my weight loss could be flattening out. May have to try a detox effort. Thanks again!
Really helpful post! I used to be really good at the 12 hour fasting, but lately I’ve been struggling with getting back into that routine, but I really need to get back at it! I also need to do better at chemicals in my house. I try to exercise each day but I think the fasting and lack of chemicals in my house will help improve my situation more. Great tips as always! Thank you! 💜
I think its time I do a detox. This is has been very informative. I don’t sweat enough and sometimes don’t eat the healthiest of things.
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These are perfects ways to a successful detoxing. A must-share article. Thanks!
These are some really great points. I want to start fasting. I always feel sluggish even with a good night’s sleep.
I learned a lot from this post. I Normally try fasting every once in a while but I need to improve on trying to sweat every day.
Your health is extremely important. I’m not a fan of detoxes but I do believe that through intuitive eating, drinking enough water, and eating the right foods, on top of getting a bit of exercise every day you can help improve your health tremendously.
Woohoo! Thank you for this post! It was super informative and has got me thinking. Thank you!
I like this approach and tips. Before I would usually do only frit detox for 72 hours or even water fast for 72 hours. Combining seems as another effective option.
This is a great post. I love making my own juices and smoothies but I didn’t think about sweating the toxins out. Thanks for sharing.
It’s so important to keep a healthy gut! I’ve actually never tried to detox with full commitment but it’s informative enough for me to possibly consider. Thanks for sharing!
I’m a huge fan of IF! have been fasting 7pm -11m most days for a couple for years now and I swear by it for inflammatory conditions.
Health is important, thanks for sharing this information.
Whoa. I have never had detox but at least I know what to expect now if I do try it.
We have started 12 hours fasting which is really important and it is really giving good results!! You have really complied it well
That is very informative – Thank you so much for sharing this with us 🙂
Everytime I try to finish my detox. But my husband doesn’t allow me 😕. We should need a good partner for fitness. My hubby is a foodie guy. So helpless 😣 to me. At least this time I should complete my detox. Will follow those and let you know thank you.
I have really been looking to do a detox lately to sort of just reset. Thanks so much for these steps – I’m definitely bookmarking this post. 🙂
I try to Detox atleast 3 days a month, I find it very refreshing. Thank you for sharing this
I love all of your recommendations. I think people should do them whether they have a leaky gut or not! 💚
Loving these detox ideas – I need to go on one I think!
Nice blog. I need this. haha
I think #5 was a new one to me. I’d never knew or thought that things like laundry detergent could impact our gut health. Thanks for the info!
I’ve never tried detoxing before, but with these awesome tips, I might just give it a try!
Thanks for sharing…I wasn’t sure exactly what was involved in a “detox”. I appreciate you guiding us through it.
This is something ive been working on lately. I am diagnosed with depression and anxirty and had no clue that bad gut health could be affecting these! In the past couple of weeks I have been feeling more like myself.
Such great tips for detoxing! I’ll have to try a few!
Ooo I’m so good at all of this except for sweating every day and chemicals in the house, but I am slowly ridding myself of these too! Very informative post, hope everyone heeds this advice 🙂
Staying healthy is a challenge in the fast living time we are. Self-control is one of the main points and self-motivation. Detox starts with this even if we have environmental issues which challenge us, which you pointed out.
Is this true? Registered dietitians and nutritionists are very clear that detoxing is pure myth – if you’re not an RD or RN do you think you should be posting articles like this with no scientific evidence? I’d be interested to know https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/05/detox-myth-health-diet-science-ignorance
Thank you for all these tips! i’ve been looking for a post like this for ages . I always feel bloated even when i haven’t eaten and i’ve been trying to find a detox plan to get my body back on track.