It’s inevitable to sneak in a few mini chocolate bars or pieces of candy corn to celebrate Halloween. But when the trick-or-treating fun ends and the sugar hangover begins, it’s a good idea to add a few naturally detoxifying foods to your diet. You see, refined sugar is considered toxic to the body, and is also an antinutrient.
This is because processed sugar offers no benefit to health, and may actually contribute to nutrient deficiencies by depleting the body of electrolytes such as magnesium ( 1).
Sugar is also an acid-forming substance, which contributes to creating an acidic internal environment. When your blood is acidic, you can begin to experience symptoms such as chronic low energy, weight gain, digestive issues and skin conditions such as acne. Luckily, there are certain foods that can help detoxify your body and neutralize the acidity that comes from eating sugar. Here are the top 10 foods to include in your diet to promote an easy, breezy post-Halloween sugar detox.
1. Coconut Water Your body depends on water to help flush toxins out of your body. But staying hydrated with coconut water can provide an additional detox boost because it’s rich in the alkaline mineral, potassium. Potassium helps alkalize your blood and helps cleanse the kidneys.
2. Beet Greens Beet greens may not be the most popular leafy green to add to your diet, but they’re considered one of the highest alkaline foods on the planet. Not only do beet greens provide you with antioxidant vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C and magnesium, but the insoluble fiber found in beet greens binds to toxins and helps remove them from the digestive tract. Beet greens make an excellent side dish when they’re sauteed in some coconut oil, and can be juiced or added to veggie based smoothies. Beet greens have a bitter taste, so they taste best when blended or juiced with sweeter fruit, such as pineapple.
3. Organic Eggs Eggs contain sulfur, which is a nutrient that helps promote phase II of liver detoxification. Phase II liver detox is the phase where the liver is preparing detoxified substances to be safely eliminated from your body. So, load up on the organic eggs and have breakfast for dinner to help support the health of your liver. As a sidenote, eggs should always be purchased organic when possible because non-organic eggs may be raised with hormones and other toxic chemicals, which only increase the amount of toxins in your body.
4. Cilantro While it’s not everyone’s favourite herb, cilantro is an herb you may want to start including in your recipes because it’s such a powerful detoxifier. Cilantro is said to be a natural chelator, which means it binds to toxins such as heavy metals, and safely eliminates them from the body. Some people describe the taste of cilantro as “soapy”, so it doesn’t make the greatest addition to a green smoothie. However, cilantro adds a mild flavour boost to ethnic soups and curries, as well as homemade salsas and guacamole.
5. Cauliflower Cauliflower is another food that helps with phase II liver detox because it also contains sulfur. In fact, all of the vegetables in the brassica family contain this nutrient and can help support phase II liver detox, such as broccoli and cabbage. Get your salad bowls ready: a freshly made batch of coleslaw or warm cauliflower salad make the perfect post-Halloween detox side dishes.
6. Avocado Avocado contains a nutrient called glutathione, which is known as the “master antioxidant”, because it’s the most important nutrient your body depends on for detoxification.
Your body can naturally produce glutathione, but the production declines as you age.
This is why it’s important to regularly eat foods that contain glutathione, to offer your body a natural detoxification boost.
7. Dandelion The health benefits of dandelion have proven it’s much more than just a weed growing on your front lawn. Well they dandelion may cramp your gardening style, the bitterness of dandelion root helps cleanse the liver, kidneys and gallbladder.
The most common way to add dandelion to your diet is by drinking Dandelion Root Tea. Dandelion greens can also be found in the produce section of most natural food stores, and adds a pleasant and slightly bitter taste to salads. As you can see, promoting natural detoxification is as easy as adding more nutrient-rich, (and primarily plant based) foods to your diet.
Life is all about balance and enjoyment, so there’s nothing wrong with having the occasional treat. However, it’s important to make sure you’re adding detoxifying foods to every meal to support your body’s natural cleansing process.