If you are reading this, you probably already know many of the benefits of detox diets. The process of eliminating so many of the dietary and environmental toxins is enough for many people. But detox diets are also great for your digestive health.
If you are living with digestive problems, things like indigestion, or frequent upset stomach, this could be due to an imbalance in gut health. The health of your stomach and intestines depends on the presence of bacteria, and some of the bacteria that grow in your digestive system can be bad for your health.
Detox diets can restore gut health and help your digestion. Often, digestion issues improve simply by removing the toxic substances that can cause these problems. In other cases, detox diets restore a natural balance of gut health that leads to a healthier digestive system.
What is the connection between detox diets and digestion? How can detox diets restore gut health? And what are the best ways to take on detox diets for better digestive health? This guide will show you the tremendous benefits of detox diets for digestion.
What are detox diets?
A detox diet is designed to remove toxins from your diet and to assist your body in eliminating toxins from your body. Many detox diets include a period of fasting followed by a strict program of fruits and vegetables, juices from both fruits and vegetables, and water.
The purpose of a detox diet is to remove toxins from the diet and the body and to stimulate natural physiological functions that cleanse the body. Specifically, a detox diet works to:
- Give your organs a break
- Stimulate liver function
- Facilitate elimination through urine, feces, and sweat
- Improve circulation
- Boost nutrients in your body
Even if you maintain a healthy diet you still can benefit from a detox diet. Some of the benefits of a detox diet include improved digestion, alleviate inflammation, and may protect against many serious chronic diseases. Keep in mind that many things we eat that are meant to be healthy may still contain toxins that accumulate over time.
Importance of detox diets
Detox diets are important for several reasons. The world we live in today is laden with toxicity. Environmental toxins are all around us in the form of everyday pollutants like car exhaust and industrial emissions. Even though we may not be directly exposed to these things, they build up over time and can impact our health. A detox diet can help remove these kinds of environmental toxins.
Perhaps, more immediate are the toxins that are found in the things we eat and drink. There are so many chemicals added to food and drinks in our time, and many of them are quite toxic if they are allowed to accumulate in the body. Detox diets are designed to eliminate these kinds of dietary toxins. While our bodies have mechanisms for eliminating these toxins, the levels we are now exposed to can exceed our natural ability to process them. A detox diet helps eliminate the toxins and reset your natural systems of elimination.
Detox diets benefits
There are numerous benefits of a detox diet. Since our diets impact virtually every aspect of our bodies, including our minds, a detox diet stands to benefit the entire body and mind. Some of the principal benefits of a detox diet include:
Digestive Health
Everything we eat has an impact on our digestive system. When we are consuming toxic and harmful chemicals, our digestive system is perhaps the first thing to suffer. Detox diet cleanses the digestive system while providing foods that are simple in molecular structure and therefore easy to break down. The benefits of digestion are two-fold: the system gets a rest, and the processes it needs to perform are vastly simplified.
Control Cravings
We see above that a detox diet can help you lose weight. In addition to weight loss, a detox diet can help you stay fit by controlling cravings. By relying largely on the liquids that characterize much of a detox diet, your body becomes accustomed to lower intake and slower easier metabolic load. Over time, your cravings for foods will decrease.
Increased Energy
The toxins we take in every day create a burden for your liver. With the liver working too hard you will begin to feel fatigued. By decreasing the toxins you take in and simultaneously cleaning your body of built-up toxins, the liver begins to work more efficiently and this is passed on to your entire body in the form of more energy.
Improves Mental Health
Hormones are involved with all physiological functions. One of the primary ways hormones are regulated in our bodies is through our diet. One hormone specifically associated with stress is cortisol which increases our stress levels. A detox diet reduces the stress load on the liver which in turn allows the liver to process and eliminate cortisol. The net benefit is decreased stress and a profound decrease in the physiological effects of stress. The more egregious toxins like alcohol and caffeine are linked to things like fatigue and poor sleeping patterns. These harms our mental health.
By eliminating these things through a detox diet and giving your body the added boost you need to process these toxins in the body, you will experience better sleep, more energy, and an overall better emotional state.
What is digestion?
Put simply, digestion is the set of physiological processes that transform the things you eat and drink into compounds that your body can use to function, grow, and remain healthy.
When we consume food, digestion begins with the process of chewing. Mastication is the first step in digestion. Saliva is part of the chemical processes of digestion. From this, food passes into the stomach where further processes of chemical digestion break food into its parts.
While digestion depends in large part on chemical processes, it also depends on biological processes which include bacteria in the gut. These bacteria further break compounds down into more parts so that they can be accessed by metabolic processes. Proteins are converted into muscle protein and the compounds that make up blood. Carbohydrates are converted into elemental chemicals that provide energy. Vitamins and minerals are converted into usable chemical compounds for things like hormones and enzymes.
The entire process of digestion depends upon a delicate balance of physical, chemical, and biological processes, and anything that disturbs these processes not only impacts digestion but also impacts all the physiological processes that make your body work.
How do detox diets help with digestion?
Detox diets help with digestion on several levels. A detox diet can work with your digestive system to remove toxins by using the elemental processes of digestion.
Water flush
Any good detox begins with plenty of water. Simply by drinking plenty of water, you can flush out your colon and rid yourself of many of the toxins that cause problems. A water flush often includes things like fresh watermelon, tomatoes, lettuce, and celery since these foods contain large amounts of water and healthy fiber that assists with flushing your colon.
High fiber
Fiber is essential to a detox diet. Foods that contain plenty of fiber include fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds. These high-fiber foods help flush the colon, and they help with the intestinal bacteria that are a part of the digestive system. To this end, high-fiber foods operate as a prebiotic.
Juices and smoothies
Juices and smoothies contain the fiber and water that are essential to a healthy detox diet, but they also contain vitamins and minerals that sustain you during the detox and feed the digestive system the nutrients necessary to boost the digestive processes. The vitamins in the juices and smoothies that make up a detox diet are crucial to the detox process.
Probiotics
Another important feature of detox diets and digestion is the inclusion of probiotics. Many of the smoothies and juices commonly used for detox diets contain probiotics. These are compounds that feed the healthy bacteria in the gut and assist digestion. Toxicity can reduce healthy gut bacteria. Probiotics help bacteria grow and return your digestion to working order. You can get probiotics by taking a supplement. But you can also simply eat lots of probiotic-rich foods, like yogurt, kimchi, pickles, and other fermented foods. Many of the juices and smoothies in a detox diet are specially formulated to provide probiotics.
Herbal teas
Some detox diets make use of herbal teas to help cleanse the digestive system. Teas that contain herbs such as psyllium, aloe vera, marshmallow root, and slippery elm will allow your digestive system to eliminate many toxic substances. These herbs are essentially laxatives so use them sparingly. Other herbal teas contain things like garlic, ginger, and cayenne pepper which can suppress the growth of harmful bacteria while preserving the healthy bacteria in your gut.
Detox diets FAQs
What is a detox diet?
A detox diet is most often a short-term dietary procedure designed to remove toxins from your diet and to assist your body in eliminating toxins from your body.
What is digestion?
Put simply, digestion is the set of physiological processes that transform the things you eat and drink into compounds that your body can use to function, grow, and remain healthy. The entire process of digestion depends upon a delicate balance of physical, chemical, and biological processes, and anything that disturbs these processes not only impacts digestion but also impacts all the physiological processes that make your body work.
How do detox diets help with digestion? Detox diets assist digestion with water flushes, fiber, and juices, and smoothies that contain essential nutrients and probiotics.
Spartan Detox Plans
As noted above, most of the side effects of a detox diet can be avoided or alleviated by using a sound professional detox plan. Certainly, there are plenty of things out there that will profess to give you a detox diet plan. But your overall health should go with a detox diet plan that has science and experience behind it.
The best detox diet plan available is the Spartan Detox Plan. Spartan offers several plans designed to meet your specific needs. Spartan Detox provides plans that include juices and smoothies that will help you meet your goals. Spartan Detox Plans are made from natural juices and smoothies are prepared every day using the best quality fruits outdoors offering an exceptional taste and drink experience that will help your body feel energetic.
Conclusion
One could say that digestive health makes it possible for all other parts of your body to remain healthy. Without proper digestion, you cannot get the nutrients necessary to fuel your body, maintain blood flow, or have the energy to do anything at all. Your digestive system is in many ways the portal to all other organ systems.
This is why maintaining the health of your digestive system is so important. When the chemistry of your body gets out of balance due to toxins in your diet and your environment, your digestive system can suffer. A detox diet can help clean your digestive system and restore your health.
A detox diet flushes your digestive system with plenty of clean water. It also provides nutrients for your body to heal from the damage caused by toxins. Finally, a good detox diet can restore the bacteria in your gut that are essential to proper digestive health.
