The New Year often brings a plethora of detoxification diets, smoothies, teas and fasts.   Most of the products you see in health food stores and advertised on the internet that say they are "detoxifying" are really code for weight loss.   Often individuals with food addiction, binge eating or emotional eating can get roped into to trying one of these products which can trigger them to relapse or to develop an eating disorder.  

Your body is already designed to rid itself of toxins without your help.

I do not recommend that you use detox diets to lose weight.   But what I do recommend is that you do a RESET for your body and mind and the New Year is the perfect time to do that.

Diet culture has rebranded itself as "healthy" vs. the prior branding of the thin ideal, losing weight or getting skinny.  There has also been a trend by social media influencers to market detox products to make money, but in doing so, they may be contributing to the development of eating disorders in their followers.

Your body has its own detoxification system. How does your body get rid of toxins:

1. The liver is your body's primary filtration system.  It takes up toxic substances and converts them into harmless substances or makes sure they are released from the body.  
2. The kidneys remove toxins from our bodies daily.   They prevent waste and excess fluid from building up in cells.
3. The colon (large intestine) is part of our microbiome that houses microbes (or "good bacteria") that help us digest food, absorb nutrients, and ward off gastrointestinal diseases.

RESET your body and your body’s hormones to help you decrease cravings.

RESET your body by providing what it needs nutritionally as a way to help with food addiction, emotional eating and binge eating.  Rather than starting the new year depriving yourself of foods you love, try these simple steps to RESET your body and your body’s hormones to help you decrease cravings:

1.    To support your body’s natural ability to get rid of toxins, include some of these foods in your meals: cabbage, broccoli, collards, kale, brussels sprouts, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, and turnips.

2.    Use the spices turmeric and curcumin in your cooking—they are known to help the liver rid the body of toxins.

3.    Drink green tea, which increases glutathione—a strong antioxidant that helps the body repair itself and get rid of toxins.

4.    Eat foods that contain sulfur: eggs, garlic, and onions. Sulfur is also important in the detoxification process.

5.    Regular exercise is another way to support your body in resetting.  Working up a sweat is one of the ways your body detoxifies itself naturally

Let your body do the work it knows how to do to take care of it and you can support it in the ways we mentioned above.

In Part 2 of Breaking free of the foods that hold you hostage, I will talk about doing a MENTAL Reset.

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