Click here for a more extensive list of detoxification diets.

What to Look for in a Detox Diet

A good detox program addresses parasites, heavy metals, colon, liver and gallbladder, and nutrition. Usually when people attempt to detoxify, they fast. Reducing calories is ideal when detoxifying, but reducing nutrition can be dangerous. When your body is releasing chemicals, parasites, calcifications, heavy metals, and many other nasty toxins, your body needs nutrition!

Radical Detoxification

Anyone with diabetes, cancer, thyroid problems, or any serious, life altering health problem should consider doing a very serious and completely comprehensive detoxification program such as The Total Body Cleanse, or OLM’s own Full Body Detox.

While these detox diets are very comprehensive, and completely capable of ridding the body of serious disease, they are not easy to do. In fact, taking time off work may be necessary for those who are particularly sick. But then again, if you’re that sick, you’ll be taking time off of work soon enough.

Simple, Inexpensive Detoxification

For something a lot less expensive, intensive, and consequently, less effective, but still very beneficial, try this routine:

Stevia Lemonade with Cayenne

With distilled water, use fresh lemons and cayenne liquid extract. If the fresh lemons are not available, get organic lemon juice. You can use cayenne pepper in the form of powder if need be. Use as much cayenne as you can. Make the lemonade to taste. Stevia has kind of a funny after taste, but it’s barely noticeable with lemon juice. Drink one gallon a day.

Detoxify the Blood

Dr. Shillington has a wonderful herbal tincture (purchase here) that helps to detoxify the blood. Ingredients include Red Clover, Chaparral, Poke Root, Periwinkle Flower, Lobelia, Cayenne, Garlic, Mullein, Burdock Seed & Root, Yellow Dock Root, Goldenseal Root, Oregon Grape Root, and Blood Root. For more information, and instructions, check out Doc’s article, BLOOD  DETOX.

Liver and Gallbladder Detoxification

The cheapest, easiest, and, well, most unpleasant (at least for most people) way to clean the liver and gallbladder is with a coffee enema. Read our Coffee Enema article. And to learn more about the gallbladder read Gallbladder Bile, How the Gallbladder Works.

Kill the Yeast

Undecylenic acid kills fungus better than anything. Thorne SF 722 is the best we know of, but it’s not vegan. Take 20 a day (ten twice a day) until the bottle is empty. If it must be vegan, there are other options for undecylenic acid.

Remove Heavy Metals

Thorne Captomer is a great choice for heavy metal detoxification. Take three a day for three days on and then do not take any for four days, and repeat. Thorne says it is especially important to talk to your health care professional before using this product. It is important to make sure you replenish your minerals, as heavy metal chelation therapy draws out important beneficial minerals as well as toxic metals. Eating enough raw fresh vegetables during this diet can help with this, but if you are not eating lots of vegetables consider adding their Heavy Metal Support as well.

Eat

Vegetables, whole coconuts, avocados, and granny smith or crab apples are on the diet. Avocados are a great source of protein, too! And coconut and avocado fat will not make you fat. In fact, they will help you lose weight if needed.

Cook nothing. Get lots of enzymes. Eat as much of these foods whole and raw as you want. Provided your appendix has not been removed, the best way to build up a healthy eco system with beneficial bacteria in your colon is with vegetables. Most probiotics (like yogurt) are killed in stomach acid.

If you’ve had your appendix removed, it’s harder to build back up your beneficial bacteria. If you have never done a serious colon cleanse, you need to. While this makes our inexpensive program a bit more expensive, for those in need of serious colon cleansing or those without an appendix, consider adding Dr.Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanses to the program.

Juice

Juicing is not totally necessary for this particular diet, but juice all the vegetables you want and add ginger to all juices. But limit your carrots and beets as they are higher in sugar. No fruit except granny smith, crab apples, lemons, and limes. A juice press is ideal, as centrifugal juices heat up the juice and kill enzymes.

Exercise and Breathe

Sweat. Breathe heavily. And breathe properly. You should be getting enough nutrition to exercise strenuously. And breathing heavily and properly for long periods of time detoxifies the body. Read How to Breathe.

Turbocharge any Detox with Niacin

Niacin, otherwise known as B3, is a very inexpensive way to boost the efficacy of a detox. You want the flush kind, not the no flush. Most doctors recommend people start with 100 mg, but up to 5,000 a day has been used for serious drug detoxification and other urgent detox needs (such as chemical poisoning). I weigh 220 pounds and I took 1,500 mg for three days. Don’t take niacin for too long, it can damage the liver in high doses and it can also put your b vitamin balance out of whack.

Take it in the morning, and then, in about 30 to 45 minutes when it kicks in, get some exercise or do the sauna. Try some hot tea. Drink lots of fluid (like the cranberry lemonade) and sweat out the toxins. Niacin won’t do you much good if you aren’t flushing out the junk while you do it. It’s powerful. You’ll be itchy, hot, and flush red all over.

Most people with out damaged seriously livers can easily handle 500 mg for a few days. The effects last about an hour.

Things to Consider Before and After Detoxification

If you are very sick, you are very toxic. If you are not sick, you may still be very toxic , and being very sick is just a matter of time. But a highly toxic body can be overburdened with detoxification.

Even those who seem perfectly healthy can get detox symptoms such as headaches, nausea, irritability, inability to focus, and fatigue. Consider starting slowly. Eat healthy for a few weeks and exercise before starting your detox diet. Drink tons of water, or better yet, drink a gallon of the stevia cayenne lemonade a day for a month before you detoxify.

And after you detoxify, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU EAT! For instance, eating a bunch of mashed potatoes after you fully clean your colon and detox for a few weeks can actually kill you! After detoxifying, introduce foods slowly back into your diet. And focus on raw fresh produce, which is what you should always do anyway.