Detoxing the right way

7 min read – fact checked ✔

‘Detox’ has become a bit of a buzzword, especially in January after festive holiday excesses, leaving us feeling sluggish and ready for a fresh start, and whilst there are a lot of positives that can be said about ‘detoxing’, it’s also an area that is widely misrepresented, causing a lot of confusion and as such often gets a bad press.

The new year
So are you looking to revamp your nutrition and lifestyle this new year? You may have thought about throwing yourself into a detox, a juice cleanse or something similar as a way to compensate for any Christmas over-indulgences, heralding the way to extreme dietary and lifestyle changes in pursuit of that ‘holy grail’ called weight loss, often accompanied by setting unrealistic goals which frequently leads to dietary attrition and failure. Additionally, be mindful that weight loss per se is not a proxy for good health, as you can loose weight or be underweight and still be metabolically unhealthy, and achieving weight loss does not mean you have detoxed efficiently. Furthermore, loosing weight drastically, as well as yearly yo-yo dieting can actually do the body more harm than good if not done correctly, leading to a series of metabolic adaptations which can make weight regain more likely and more difficult to shift further down the road. Several years ago I wrote a blog post called the Yearly dietary cycle which you can read HERE, highlighting the challenges and risks of yo-yo dieting, summarised in the diagram below (figure 1) which I had created when writing that blog post.

Goals
Firstly ask yourself, what are your goals? What are you trying to detoxify from exactly? What blood nutrient imbalances (high or low) may have occurred during the festive period? What medical diagnoses, biochemical or metabolic imbalances do you currently have (figure 2), and how is your detox programme addressing those weaknesses without impairing your inherent strengths? Most people unfortunately don’t know because they are afraid to go to their healthcare practitioner for a health evaluation or have a blood test done, a bit like an ostrich borrowing their one’s in the sand, then sulk when diagnosed with a malignancy a few years down the line. Stop being afraid! Evidence suggests most diseases / illnesses are preventable ⁽¹⁾ and detoxing the right way may be a blessing. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, whilst the cost of eating healthier and focusing on detoxing efficiently, can greatly offset the stresses and expenses of regaining back health. A great value-for-money strategy to ‘tick’ all the boxes is signing up to my new year health evaluation programme (figure 2) for £400 which includes everything shown on the image below. CLICK HERE to email me about this.

Evidence-based and personalised
The second way to address a safe detox programme is determining what imbalances you already have in the first place. Setting out in a rush on a detox programme without understanding your starting parameters, is a bit akin to recklessly stepping on the accelerator on a curvy mountain road, it just doesn’t make sense and you will crash! So to avoid crashing, the best way to start is to get in touch with me an arrange a simple blood test to understand what we are dealing with in the first place. Working with a clinically trained and regulated Registered nutritionist / Nutritional Therapy practitioner like me who is qualified to understand and interpret lab testing results can help us safely set up a meaningful and personalised detox programme for your goals, whilst considering your underlying strengths and weaknesses. As a member of the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), you can be assured that you are working with a clinically and academically trained progressional adhering to their Code of Conduct, Ethics and Performance. The CNHC (Figure 3) regulates complementary healthcare professionals in the UK and Gibraltar. CNHC is also the holder of an Accredited Register by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care, an independent body accountable to the UK Parliament.

Who needs to detox?
Essentially, the short answer is, we all do! Irrespective of how much work you’ve done on improve up your diet, environment and lifestyle, the reality is that we’re all exposed to many different toxins on a toxins on a daily basis ⁽²⁾, food additives, particulate matter, volatile organic pollutants, per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS aka ‘forever chemicals’), make-up, fluoride, lead, smoke ,heavy metals, the list goes on! These are linked to a wide range of detrimental health outcomes (figure 4). This means we all need to be thinking about supporting our detoxification pathways, and even though January feels like the obvious time after December indulgences, detox is actually something we need to think about all year round!

Who would benefit from detox support?
Pretty much everyone can benefit from detoxification support. However, every person is different, and some dietary strategies isn’t always relevant or helpful, so this is still something we need to assess on an individual case-by-case basis. There are some situations where I definitely wouldn’t recommend it, for example, for anyone undergoing chemotherapy or anyone who is pregnant or breastfeeding.

What is (and isn’t) detox?
You’ll no doubt have read about lots of different faddy ‘detox’ diets, especially in January; anything from ‘tea-toxing’ to water fasts, cabbage soup diets, Veganuary and lots more in between. Yet the irony is that many of these ‘detox diets’ lack any nutrients to actually support the detoxification process. This is because detoxification is a full body process involving complex systems that require nutrient support – the very nutrients that you won’t get on a severely restricted fad diets or fast. Fasting can be particularly problematic, especially if someone has a high toxic load. During fasting, weight can be lost quickly, and toxins may be released into the system faster and in higher levels than the body is likely to cope with; a problem further compounded by not supplying your detoxification systems with the nutrients they need to work. For detoxification support to actually work, it needs to include a wide range of macro- and micro-nutrients and these are often completely lacking from many fad ‘detox’ diets. Another great way to detox and loose weight slowly, safely and effectively is by signing up to my 12-week Health & Body Transformation programme starting on the 1st (figure 5), which can help you not only loose weight but also target any metabolic imbalance you may be experiencing, such as high cholesterol / triglycerides, high blood glucose, fatigue, low energy, body aches & pains, or even high blood pressure. CLICK HERE to find out more.

My proposal
If your goal is to detox safely and effectively, get in touch with me, or simply sign up to one of the programmes shown above which will allow us to work together and devise a personalised dietary and lifestyle regime that is meaningful for you, and not copy what your best friend is doing or what ‘Doctor Google’ says. Google does not know your other health conditions, food allergies or what medications you are on, which can cause serious interactions with many foods, drinks and supplements. I am trained to understand all these potential interactions and help you safely adopt a suitable detox programme. Stop obsessing with weight numbers and weighing scales, and instead let weight loss come naturally as a result of a healthier dietary and lifestyle changes, and not the other way round. Make good nutrition and lifestyle habits a way of life and not a stressful event for a couple of months of the year.

To work with me, get in touch by phone / WhatsApp or emailing me by CLICKING HERE.