“You’re made of elements. Take the time to learn the foods with high element properties in order to save your health and your body.”
Dr. Sebi
Health is equally predicated on ceasing many of our current habits as it is about introducing healthy routines into our lives. More than supplementing or adding to your usual routine, knowing how to prepare your body for detox is mostly an elimination process that entails removing dietary and lifestyle choices that lead to high inflammation and acidosis.
I hope this guide shows you properly and effectively how to prepare your body for detox, which will ignite a slow detoxification process by hydrating the body, strengthening the elimination organs, and improving the function of the lymphatic system.
Let’s jump into ways you can start preparing your body for purification! Foremost, the best time frame to start preparing for it is a few months beforehand, depending on the desired level of your detox. For a seasonal or health boost cleanse, the best recommended time is one month to enjoy the long-term benefits of the cleanse.
However, if you suffer from chronic inflammation and disease and want to heal your body, I recommend a three-month preparation time so that your system can adjust to hydration and acid elimination from the body. In essence, detoxing the body slowly by limiting its acidic input helps it regain enough energy to ignite its self-healing mechanisms.
The Elimination Process of Proper Body Detox
Eliminating excess chemicals, toxins, and acids is the fundamental precondition for any successful detox regimen. And since our modern lifestyle is full of artificial foods, products, and chemicals, preparing the body for detox entails replacing all toxic personal and cleaning products with natural alternatives.
It also means not consuming acid ash foods (foods that produce acidic residue when metabolized) – which cause dehydration of cells and tissues – and replacing them with hydrating, alkaline ash foods.
Alkaline foods provide the body with astringent chemistry that purges acids and cools inflammation. The alkaline chemistry is full of nutrients, electrolytes, and enzymes that “jump-start the body” by providing it with the vital substance it needs to correct imbalances and self-heal.
Here are some of the most harmful substances that should be eliminated when preparing the body for cleansing. Do remember that body purification should be a life-long process, akin to taking a regular “shower” inside the body.
Although short detoxes do help tremendously, to truly heal and reverse years of chronic inflammation that has been silently building in our tissues and which contribute to most diseases, a long-term commitment to body detoxification is key. Rome wasn’t built overnight, and unfortunately, a lifetime of bad habits cannot be fixed with a few smoothies and supplements.
Stimulants and Depressants
Stimulants like coffee overstimulate the adrenal glands and cause the body “stress” by inciting the glands to pump out large amounts of adrenaline and cortisol. Stimulants further over-activate the nervous system and can weaken its function over time.
Although alcohol has stimulating and depressive qualities, it depresses the nervous system and slows down its function. Further, both prescription and recreational drugs dysregulate the body’s natural function and cause systemic acidosis over time.
Since the nervous system requires the most electrical energy to operate, by stimulating and depressing its function, we are losing plenty of cellular energy that the body must use to keep it regulated. Not only are stimulants and depressants highly stressful to the body, but their chemistry is also acidic (or inflammatory). The body must work properly to be able to eliminate these acids before they do too much damage to cells and tissues over time.
Processed Sugar
Unlike simple sugars that are found in fruit and vegetables and which the body uses as cellular fuel to make energy, processed sugar does the opposite. Instead of feeding the cells with proper nutrition, their chemistry starves cells, which increases cravings and food addictions (since the body keeps asking for proper simple sugars as fuel but never receives them) and dehydrates the body.
Overall, processed sugar creates havoc by upsetting vital metabolic processes and throwing the body’s chemistry off balance. Specifically, sucrose deprives cells of oxygen, creates a deficiency in vitamins and minerals, promotes inflammation inside the body, contributes to obesity, and more.
High processed sugar intake leads to chronic inflammation, which results in higher bad cholesterol levels, since the body uses the waxy substance as a protective coating over degenerated tissue lesions in order to salvage their function. This is exactly why individuals with high body inflammation also experience high cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is produced as the body’s way of protecting itself against the degeneration caused by acidosis.
In addition to inflammation and bad cholesterol, processed sugars stain pancreatic function by raising insulin levels and feeding opportunistic bacteria and yeast, enabling them to proliferate and dysregulate the body’s pH balance and gut flora.
By removing processed sugar from the body and replacing it with the essential fuel for our cells – simple sugars – you can start to heal the body and still enjoy the sweetness and nutrition that comes from nature.
Milk and Dairy
Milk and dairy are some of the most congestive and mucus-forming foods you can consume! Mucus is the body’s reaction to inflammation, and dairy consumers usually suffer from clogged sinuses, heavy feelings in the head, headaches, and a blocked throat. Tumors are fed by congested mucus in tissues and dairy consumption increases the formation of benign and malignant tumors and cancer.
Milk is an essential substance that is meant to nourish a growing baby of every species to healthy adulthood. It provides particular enzymes, growth proteins, and immune system regulators meant particularly for that species.
When we drink another species’ milk, our bodies recognize the chemistry as “foreign,” since we don’t require any of the chemistry that it provides. Likewise, we don’t have the proper enzymes to break it down!
In general, if a substance is not meant for the body, the body will reject it by deeming it acidic, or toxic. And depending on our constitution, most of us simply cannot tolerate dairy, since we’re not meant to in the first place. What is labeled as “lactose intolerance” is actually a higher sensitivity to the toxicity of milk chemistry.
Overall, not only is dairy not meant for human consumption, but due to current farming practices, it is laden with pesticides, antibiotics, and even the animal’s mucus.
Meat
In our culture, meat is often marketed as delicious and attractive and as an essential food group whose limited intake leads to proper nutrition. In reality, however, meat is simply rotting flesh (parasitical and bacterial activity starts at the onset of death) of a dead animal, whose “nutrients” come from its own tissue assimilation of plant matter.
The energy that most people feel after eating meat is simply the release of adrenalin and neurotransmitters from animals’ adrenal glands as they experience fight or flight while facing death.
Further, the complex protein in meat is very hard for the body to process, and causes the colon and the kidneys to wear out over time. The digestion of the meat is likewise vastly energy-robbing and feeling tired, dehydrated, and like a rock is sitting in your belly is very common after its consumption.
When it comes to anatomy and food, all carnivores and omnivores share a stronger stomach acid than humans do. This is so that when they eat raw meat, it can break down and kill off any harmful parasites and pathogens faster. Carnivores like cats have a very short intestinal tract that can assimilate and expel flesh quickly, so that it doesn’t ferment in the guts and cause putrefaction.
Also, notice how long cats sleep every day after their meals! When they wake up, they have a short spur of energy to hunt, and then fall back asleep after they consume their prey. Human anatomy, chemistry needs, and energy systems are designed very differently. And although we were able to adapt to survive in colder climates by eating meat, we did so at a high cost to our health and genetics.
Gluten and Other Lectins
Like humans, plants have evolved the ability to protect themselves from predators by releasing lectins – or small doses of poison that can paralyze or hurt bugs, insects, and small animals – into the skins and seeds of their fruits.
Humans do not produce or possess the enzymes necessary to block or break down lectins and when we consume them, they introduce small quantities of poison into our gut that over time (especially if the body is unable to self-heal properly), we can experience the onset of leaky gut, inflammatory bowel disease, cognitive issues, arthritis, skin disease, autoimmune diseases, and kidney failure.
Gluten is only one popular example of many lectins present in nature. Most grains, beans, and seeds contain them, so it is vital to buy them organic and sprout them before consumption. Although individuals with existing bowel weaknesses are more predisposed to lectin sensitivity, it is wise to avoid them as often as possible.
During body detox, it is important to eliminate all substances that will cause inflammation or dysregulation in the body. That is why removing gluten and lectins is strongly advised!
Conventional Skin, Beauty, and Household Products
If you check the ingredients of your personal, cosmetic, and cleaning products right now, chances are that you’ll see many ingredients that you can’t pronounce. If you don’t know what they are and what they could do to your body, it’s best to not use them at all!
Instead, using all-natural and organic beauty and cleaning products (with as few ingredients as possible) is the best investment you can make for your health. Since the chemical industry exploded and bloomed in the mid-20th century, chemical industry lobby groups have looked for ways to promote the use of their chemicals in as many consumer products as possible by passing immediate “health threat” protocols – meaning that they could pass FDA and consumer safety regulations without any red flags.
However, to shock the body immediately and cause side effects, you would need high quantities of chemicals or poisons to enter the body at any one time. That is why small amounts of chemicals are strategically used in products – to make products more cheaply, appease regulations, deter lawsuits, and make profits at the expense of the health of consumers.
What none of the regulatory companies tell you is that perhaps those chemicals they deem safe will not harm you right away, but since the body has to deal with everything it absorbs and consumes, these chemicals will accumulate and cause tissue damage over time.
These regulatory bodies cannot do long-term safety tests, since it is almost impossible to correctly trace back the impact of certain chemicals to the onset of cancer in 10 years, for example. There are too many variables that occur and interplay in that time to be able to point to one cause specifically. That and not understanding the human body are two of the culprits of all regulatory industries that deem many toxic man-made chemicals as “safe”.
My advice is to stay away from all conventional products if you care about your health! Not only will you lower the number of toxins entering your body through the skin-blood barrier, but you will invest in better health markers in years to come.
Another benefit is that you won’t be supporting industries that take health shortcuts and use chemicals only because they’re easy and cheap to use. Instead, you’ll be supporting small businesses that care about consumer health and the environment and who want to give consumers healthier alternatives.
How to Prepare Your Body for Detox With The Supplementation Process
Add More Organic, Raw Vegan Foods to Your Diet
All of us know that eating more fruits and veggies is overall a better investment in our health. But many don’t realize how essential they are to our vitality and function. Since we live in a highly acidic world that easily breeds disease, raw vegan foods offer us a chance to alkalize our bodies from pollution, metabolic and dietary acids, chemicals, and decay.
As my natural health mentor, Dr. Robert Morse, often states, two sides of chemistry govern all life – acidity and alkalinity (think of the two sides of the pH scale). Whereas acids burn and dry out everything they touch, alkaline compounds hydrate, clean, nourish, and energize.
If we are further down the acidity scale – which, let’s face it, most of us are – we will more easily succumb to disease, decay/aging, and early demise. However, if we keep the body in the 80 alkaline/20 acidic homeostasis, we will provide the ideal terrain for our cells to be nourished and for our bodies to function optimally well into old age.
Since modern life is highly laden with EMF frequencies, man-made chemicals, pollution, and artificial lifestyle patterns that are foreign to our natural cycles and to truly offset most of the damage, we have to commit to a highly alkaline diet and practices.
Remember, we are supposed to be more alkaline than acidic in our pH terrain to support cellular life and function. If we are highly acidic, our body will compensate and leach calcium and electrolytes from non-essential tissues and bones – compounds that are alkaline.
An alkaline diet consists of a high degree of organic and raw fruits and vegetables. And since fruit is the most astringent, healing, and electrical food found in nature, it is essential to eat plenty of organic fruit (at least 50%) during an alkaline detox cleanse. To prepare the body to deal with this level of cleansing and alkaline chemistry infusion, it is important to start consuming as many raw foods as possible while you prepare for your high fruit detox cleanse.
Add Detoxification Herbs to Your Morning Routine
Herbs hold the wisdom of cosmic intelligence that is then assimilated into the body to treat the root cause of imbalance. Many natural healers across the world will tell you that herbs possess unique consciousness that interacts with our cells to help elevate them to their original function. Across religions and spiritual texts, herbs have been referred to as gifts from God to humanity to help us heal our bodies and elevate our consciousness.
Herbs also have various qualities and personalities. Some are meant to give us vitality, others to help us purge, and others, to tone and fortify our tissues and muscles. Indeed, the consciousness we consume is the consciousness we assimilate!
When we wake up in the morning, the body has been in a revitalization and healing state for many hours. To break this fast, we should have a hydrating “break-the-fast”, or breakfast. Every fast should be followed with hydration – be it water, cold-pressed juices, or fruit – and doing so after waking is no exception.
To help prepare and kickstart the body for detox, I recommend that you have a few cups of detox herbal tea first thing in the morning. Not only will these herbs promote elimination and body cleansing, but hot water is also known in Ayurveda to kill off harmful pathogens, gently invigorate organs, and promote digestive health.
Eat Organic Fruit in the Morning
After a few cups of tea, the best thing you can do for your body is to consume fruit for breakfast in the morning. This will not only help promote bowel elimination, but the fruit will be able to clean and energize the body on an empty stomach – the most effective scenario for catalyzing healing!
Citrus is truly recommended, since it is watery, hydrating, and astringent. Tropical fruit, kiwi, berries, grapes, and watermelon are all ideal as breakfast fruits, as they are incredibly nourishing and easy to assimilate.
After consuming a morning fruit diet, you’ll feel very full, since you’ll absorb plenty of nutrition! After these watery fruits, I usually have stabilizing fruits like a banana with dates and dried figs with coconut shreds and other superfoods.
Overall, eating fruit for breakfast is one of the most healing health practices you can incorporate – especially if you’d like to feel light, energetic, and productive during the day!
Other Detox Preparation Practices
Intermittent Fast By Consuming Dinner Early
Intermittent fasting is an hours-long break between meals that allows the body to take a break from digestion and conserve its healing energy. Given that digestion utilizes over 70% of daily energy supply and the rest is relegated to the brain and metabolic function, it is no wonder that our bodies never get the break or means to heal outstanding issues that can grow into disease over time.
Intermittent fasting gives the body this very opportunity! The best way to structure intermittent fasting is to cease eating in the evening – it is recommended around 6 pm – and to not eat anything until the next morning. So, if you have dinner at 6 pm and then breakfast at 7 am the next morning, that is a 13-hour period that the body had experienced without digestion and extra metabolic strain.
All this energy is then utilized for healing and self-repair, which the body can seldom do due to our eating practices and heavy/acidic food intake.
And whenever you feel under the weather, mimic sick animals in the wild and simply rest and fast. That is the quiet path to getting well again! Combined with herbal detox tea and cleansing fruit breakfast, intermittent fasting will accelerate the process of detoxification even if you don’t change any other eating or lifestyle habits.
However, if you choose to follow this elimination and supplementation protocol for a month or longer, your body will be set to assimilate a detox of even higher intensity without extreme detox symptoms that arise as the body purges acids to be eliminated into the lymphatic system and other elimination organs.
These deeper cleansing detox protocols include an all-fruit diet, an all-raw diet, a pressed juice cleanse, or a water fast, which put the body in a mode of deeper cleansing and healing.
This detox cleanses are ideal for those that are suffering from various diseases or mystery illnesses that doctors can’t properly diagnose, like chronic fatigue. They are also ideal for nervous system disorders and when one is looking to regenerate the body fully after accidents or injury.
However, you can still heal and improve your overall health on this very body detox preparation protocol, especially if you continue it for 3-6 months, and even more so if you keep it up long-term!
Strengthen Your Kidneys and The Lymphatic System
The last thing to mention that is of very high importance when it comes to preparing the body for a detox is the need to strengthen the function of the kidneys and promote better circulation of the lymphatic system – the body’s sewage system.
When the kidneys aren’t filtering acids and waste properly, the body does its best to purge the acids from our skin (hence the onset of skin diseases like eczema and psoriasis) or to hide them in fat tissues, where they are kept away from vital organs and functions.
In the short term, this intelligence helps the body survive, but in the long term, the acids either stay in the body and cause high inflammation – the precursor of disease – or are eliminated through detoxification.
Strengthening your kidneys with kidney-friendly foods and herbs will ensure that they are strong enough to filter all the acids that are purged from tissues during a detox protocol. If they aren’t, the acids will be circulated back to places where the body will keep them until they can be removed.
And if they can’t be removed because of the weak function of our elimination organs, they will simply contribute to the deterioration of cells and tissues over time. Strengthening the kidneys is an absolute priority when it comes to cleansing and achieving ultimate health.
The lymphatic system is made up of liquid, clear fuel that is composed of cellular waste and metabolic acids. It runs throughout the body and is as twice as long of a network as the blood system. It then circulates back the waste to the kidneys to be eliminated.
However, unlike the blood network that utilizes the heart as its circulatory pump, the lymphatic system relies on our bodily movement, activity, and diet to circulate properly. That is why incorporating light physical activity, as opposed to intense physical exercise that creates excess uric acid because of cellular metabolism, is essential before and during a full body detox.
You can think of it this way: even though acids can be purged from cells and tissues because of your detox diet and lifestyle, they cannot be properly circulated and eliminated from the body without proper movement and function of the lymphatic system.
This is exactly why diet and light exercise like speed walking, jumping jacks, stretching, and yoga are the synergistic duo that works together to help the body with the whole detox process. Without both, you won’t experience the true healing benefits of body cleansing!
Final Thoughts
Knowing how to prepare your body for a detox is important, since it will ensure that it will have the capacity and energy to process and purge acids and toxins without re-absorption. During this time, lowering the amount of acidic chemistry entering the body is essential. What is likewise vital is to strengthen the function of the primary elimination organs, including the kidneys, the skin, the lungs, the colon – as well as the lymphatic system.
Although the liver is not an elimination organ, it plays a key role in detoxification and its function should be supported during every detox protocol. It performs approximately 2,000 functions to keep us alive and stores harmful toxins and chemicals within its tissues until the body is healthier and clean enough for the liver to release them. What a miracle the body is, right?
By following the outlined elimination and supplementation advice in this article for a month to three months, your deep detox protocol should proceed smoothly with fewer detox side effects.
In fact, this advice for body detox preparation is in itself an effective tool on how to effectively detox the body over time. It encompasses my daily routine, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for life-long health!
And if you’d like to learn more about the healing crisis and what to expect during and after a detox, check out my helpful article Healing Crisis Guide: Common Detox Symptoms and How to Alleviate Them.