The body can do a great job at getting rid of toxins. And we can help it by providing the right foods to do that. Body cleansing foods help your body cleanse itself. Simple as that; eat more of these and your body does its own internal “cleaning,” Food is really your best medicine.
The liver is a big part of the cleansing process. It is essential for proper body functioning, as it purifies toxins, and produces the necessary digestive substances. Plus, it stores the vitamins and minerals the body needs for distribution throughout the body.1 Eating overly processed and fried foods overstresses the liver. As do environmental pollutants.
You can detox or remove toxic substances from the body when you eat a healthier diet. Here are some nourishing foods that can promote a healthier liver and a healthier body. These foods cleanse the body’s detoxification organs including the liver, intestines, kidneys, and skin, preventing harmful toxic buildup.
Help ward off the harmful effects of pollution, food additives, second-hand smoke, and other toxins with delicious fruits, vegetables, nuts, oils, and beans (eating organic whenever possible is always the best way to go).
Apples are high in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that helps remove toxins from the digestive tract helping to eliminate toxic build up while cleanse the intestines. It also binds to cholesterol and heavy metals in the body.
We rarely think of avocados as a cleansing food but these nutritional powerhouses and dense super foods lower cholesterol and dilate blood vessels while blocking artery-destroying toxicity. Avocados contain a nutrient called glutathione, which blocks at least thirty different carcinogens and is necessary for the liver to detoxify harmful toxins and synthetic chemicals.
Beets
Time to whip up some delicious borscht soup since its main ingredient, beets, contain a unique mixture of natural plant compounds that make them superb blood purifiers and liver cleansers. Beets protect bile ducts in the liver from damage from toxins. They are high in potassium, magnesium, fiber, phosphorous, iron, and vitamins A, B, C, and folic acid. They can also be used as a natural energy source that is better for you than caffeine. Want a great duo to improve liver function? Then combine carrots and beets for a high amount of plant-flavonoids and beta-carotene.
Truly one of the most powerful healing foods, blueberries contain natural aspirin that helps lessen the tissue-damaging effects of chronic inflammation, while lessening pain. Blueberries also act as antibiotics by blocking bacteria in the urinary tract, thereby helping to prevent infections. They also have antiviral properties and help to block toxins from crossing the blood-brain barrier to gain access to the delicate brain.
Cabbage contains numerous anticancer and antioxidant compounds and helps the liver break down excess hormones. Cabbage also cleanses the digestive tract and neutralizes some of the damaging compounds found in cigarette smoke (and second-hand smoke). It also strengthens the liver’s ability to detoxify. Try eating more kimchi, coleslaw, cabbage soup, and sauerkraut.
Celery and celery seeds are excellent blood cleansers and contain many different anti-cancer compounds that help detoxify cancer cells from the body. Celery seeds contain over twenty anti-inflammatory substances. It is particularly good for detoxifying substances found in cigarette smoke.
Cleanse your body from harmful bacteria and viruses that may be lingering in your urinary tract with cranberries since they contain antibiotic and antiviral substances.
Try drinking freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice first thing in the morning to stimulate the liver’s production of bile, which pushes toxins out. It also helps to prevent gallstone buildup, promotes digestion, and liver function. Excellent liver detoxifiers, lemons and limes contain high amounts of vitamin C, a vitamin needed by the body to make an important substance called glutathione. Glutathione helps the liver detoxify harmful chemicals. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice (not the bottled variety) to pure water to support your cleansing efforts on a daily basis.
Loaded with essential fatty acids, particularly the Omega-3s, flaxseeds and flaxseed oil are essential for many cleansing functions throughout the body.
Eat garlic to cleanse harmful bacteria, intestinal parasites and viruses from your body, especially from the blood and intestines. It also helps cleanse build-up from the arteries and has anti-cancer and antioxidant properties that help detoxify the body of harmful substances. Additionally, garlic assists with cleansing the respiratory tract by expelling mucous build-up in the lungs and sinuses. Garlic aids the liver in flushing out toxins too. And it’s sulfur compounds activate liver enzymes. For the health benefits, choose only fresh garlic, not garlic powder, which has virtually none of the above properties.
Add a ruby red grapefruit to your breakfast to benefit from pectin fiber that binds to cholesterol, thereby cleansing the blood. Pectin also binds to heavy metals and helps escort them out of the body. It also has antiviral compounds that cleanse harmful viruses out of the body. Grapefruit is an excellent intestinal and liver detoxifier, and is rich in Vitamin C.
Steam some kale to benefit from its powerful anti-cancer and antioxidant compounds that help cleanse the body of harmful substances. It is also high in fiber, which helps cleanse the intestinal tract. Like cabbage, kale helps neutralize compounds found in cigarette smoke and strengthens liver cleansing.
Add a handful of cooked beans to your next meal since they loaded with fiber that helps lower cholesterol, cleanses the intestines, and regulates blood sugar levels. Legumes also help protect the body against cancer.
Seaweed could be the most underrated vegetable in the western world. Studies at McGill University in Montreal showed that seaweeds bind to radioactive waste in the body. Seaweed also binds to heavy metals to help eliminate them from the body. In addition, they are powerhouses of minerals and trace minerals.
If you haven’t tried watercress add this delicious green to your next sandwich since it increases detoxification enzymes and acts on cancer cells in the body. In a study at the Norwich Food Research Centre in the United Kingdom, smokers who were given 170 grams of watercress per day eliminated higher than average amounts of carcinogens in their urine, thereby eliminating them from their body.
Eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables assists with detoxifying harmful substances from your body. So what are you waiting for? Who knew cleansing could taste so good.
Want more ideas on using food to promote health. Read our article on “Fat Fighting Foods” by clicking here.
1 Thilagavathi, T., et al. “Foods That Cleanses The Liver.” Biotica Research Today 2.5 Spl. (2020): 300-302.
