How To Cleanse Without A Detox

HOW TO “CLEAN THE TEMPLE” WITHOUT A SPRING CLEAN:

One of the most popular responses to my clean the temple diet, is “can I do this without having to fast/cleanse?” The answer is “absolutely”: If you want to do it the slow and less dramatic way. It is possible to work your way through removing one food group at a time, to slowly remove potentially toxic foods. This is known as a rotation diet.

But first don’t totally give up on the idea of doing it the quick and dramatic way.

First consider the advantages of doing the cleanse diet followed by a challenge stage:

1)      Offers you the chance to start your diet afresh.

2)      Gets rid of all the potential danger foods in one go.

3)      Cleanse the body of many stored toxins quickly.

4)      Challenge yourself with any food group to determine if “it” doesn’t like you (even if you like it… a lot!), and find out if it is a problem within minutes.

5)      Feel the best you’ve felt in ages at the end of the detox after only one week of persistence.

6)      Lose some excess fluid and weight in a short period of time.

7)      Give your digestive and immune systems a well earned rest from our toxic western diet.

And, consider the disadvantages of a rotation diet:

1)      Slow – Need to remove one food group at a time and withdraw for up to a week sometimes to “detox” from that particular food: Can take months to work through every food group.

2)      You can still have withdrawal reactions and cravings (that is – feeling yuck) as you detox from one food group (especially if it is one of your “poisons”).

3)      To withdraw one food group you need to be an “ingredient-nazi” to make sure you are not being exposed during withdrawal. With the cleanse diet all the potential nasties are removed at once, and you only have to be really thorough in food detection once you have determined that generic group is a problem through challenge.

4)      Good news – May be less rapid and dramatic. Bad news – May be less rapid and dramatic!

OK, you’ve hopefully got the hint that I prefer the detox/challenge diet. But, if you still can’t bear the thought of having to remove dairy, and wheat, and meat, and yeast, and all those great tasting chemicals, and caffeine; all at once! Then read on…

I must make something perfectly clear – this is a very simple and uncomplicated process!! So many people don’t even get on the starter blocks because they think this is going to be difficult, uncomfortable, or confusing. Hey, the worst thing that can happen with this diet is that you are going to eat slightly differently for a week at a time. Think about it – you probably already do this anyway.

The bottom line with a rotation diet is that you are going to be detoxing from one food group at a time then reintroducing it to see how your body reacts to it.

It is vital that as you withdraw each food type that you completely remove all traces of that food type from your diet for up to one week. “Why do I have to completely remove it? Isn’t cutting down going to give my body a break?” I hear you ask hopefully. To understand this let’s review the two types of poisonous food reactions and explain.

Firstly, an allergy is when you actually have an immune reaction to a protein in the food: Your body thinks the protein in the food is almost like a virus, so it tries to destroy it with immune cells. For some people this means they have a sneezing-fit after eating the foods, the sinuses congest, aches and pains occur, the mind becomes foggy, fatigue and malaise set in; almost like you are "coming down with something". Unfortunately on a day to day basis, because you are consuming so many different food types all the time, you are unable to distinguish which food is causing this problem. You just get used to feeling bad! Plus if you are continually consuming a food type your body develops a degree of tolerance to the offender, which can conceal the cause of the chronic reactions you are suffering from.

To uncover these foods, your body needs a complete rest from them initially; so it doesn’t have to be dealing with them all the time. Then, your body will enter a hyperacute stage where it will react quickly and dramatically to even small traces of that danger food. So, if you only partially remove an “allergy food”, you may never get your body into the hyperacute stage and you will get confusing reactions during your rotations.

Secondly, intolerance is a type of toxic reaction to particular chemicals within foods. Look at this as though for some reason your particular metabolism deals with certain chemicals poorly. So they tend to build up in the system till they become almost poisonous: Headaches, migraines, fatigue, depression, and/or lethargy are common symptoms of becoming toxic. If you fail to completely remove these food types during withdrawal then you may have some unusual symptoms while off the food, and will have difficulty contrasting this when you reintroduce the food in larger quantities.

These aren’t always synthetic additives to our diet either. These reactions can also occur from naturally occurring chemicals in your foods.

Now let’s get down to the business: Use the same table as for the challenge stage of the detox to guide you through the food groups that you are going to rotate. This is not an exhaustive list and you may need to investigate further food types and get more specific with food subgroups if you don’t get clear-cut reactions.

While working through the groups there are some common denominators with the detox diet that will help to maximise your results:

1)      Drink at least two litres (~eight glasses) of purified, spring or filtered water per day, in-between meals to facilitate any cleansing reactions.

2)      Monitor yourself especially during the first three days of withdrawal of a food type for any withdrawal, or cleansing reactions. Withdrawal and cleansing symptoms may include: Headache, muscle aching, fatigue, fast heart rate, irritability and depression. These often occur in the first three to four days. (Try to avoid masking these with paracetamol, aspirin or anti-inflammatory – they will pass.)

3)      Take note of any cravings you experience while off a food group as these are often your problem foods.

4)      At regular intervals, take your own pulse rate, and record. Your normal heart rate will be used as a yard stick for determining problem foods as you re-introduce them.

5)      Diabetics, asthmatics who have a history of life threatening attacks, people with complex intestinal or health problems, and people taking multiple prescription medications, should not attempt this process without professional monitoring.

FOOD GROUP WITHDRAWAL:

Now comes crunch time. Prior to getting started you will need to review the food type you are about to remove to determine which ingredients of your diet need to be avoided. Make sure you are very clear on what foods and products you need to exclude. Further below are some tips on what to look out for with individual food groups.

Now go to it – enjoy your modified diet for that week without the test food group. Look at this as a positive step: If this is the food that has been bogging your health down, you are soon going to be free from the pain and suffering caused by what you eat.

Don’t give in to any cravings, and on the other hand don’t stop the withdrawal just because you don’t think you feel any different without that food. The challenge stage is really the diagnostic step.

At the end of the week without the food group add it back into your diet. Eat a significant amount of the food type. Monitor yourself for significant increases in pulse rate and any of the following symptoms: Fatigue, tummy upset, skin rash or itching, diarrhoea, muscle cramps, joint pain, confusion, vision changes, irritability, depression. Make note of any other symptoms using the table provided.

Once you have completed this process you can return to a normal diet - minus the foods you reacted to! Over the next few weeks you can try to introduce these foods in small quantities: If you continue to get a fairly rapid and dramatic reaction, it is most likely an allergy: In this case you will need to think about avoiding these foods pretty strictly, for a sustained period.

You may also wish to then further test sub-groups of the food group you are avoiding: For example; if you found dairy to be a problem, you might want to test milk, cheeses, and yoghurt separately. Sometimes you are not lactose intolerant – you may be sensitive to chemicals formed in cheese production instead.

If the reaction varies in intensity and predictability it is most likely intolerance: In this case you just need to watch yourself with these foods. You will probably find that you can cope with small quantities, but if you start to pig out, binge or eat these foods consistently, then look out!

TIPS ON INDIVIDUAL FOOD GROUPS:

It might sound easy to withdraw some food groups, but sometimes you will have to become an ingredient detective to uncover clues of the presence of suspect foods in many of the products you eat. Here’s a clue though: The more processed and packaged the food, the more “stuff” that is going to be concealed in the packet!Bottom line – read the ingredients panel of everything you buy. If in doubt get your hands on a “code breaker” to decode those numbers!

Let’s look at a few food groups and illustrate:

DAIRY

“Dairy… that means milk, cheese and butter right?” Yes, but you will be surprised how many foods also include dairy. Ice cream, chocolates, yoghurts obviously, but even margarines. Many breads, biscuits, cakes, and even munchies will have some dairy by-products. When excluding this food group it is vital that you avoid anything with any amount of dairy product or by-product.

WHEAT

Not just bread: Breakfast cereals, cakes, biscuits, many products that have been thickened. Also be aware that some poor folks have cross sensitivities to other grains so you may need to go on a grain-free withdrawal if the process isn’t making sense and you are getting inconsistent reactions during withdrawal and challenge.

YEAST

More than Vegemite and bread: Beer, wines, most other fermented products (vinegar, soy sauce), anything with raising agents.

SOY

Man, this is the great deceiver. Many health care professionals in the USA are finding a massive increase in folks with sensitivity to Soy. “Why, I don’t even like Soy Milk?” It’s in just about anything processed nowadays. From baby formula, to munchies, to frozen dinners, through to take away foods. Don’t overlook this one because you don’t think you eat much of it.

MEATS

If you discover you seem to have problems with meats then it may not be the meat. It could be preservatives if your butcher uses them (especially sausages and pre-seasoned/marinated cuts); it could be steroids; it might even be antibiotics that are causing your reactions. If you do find that Meats seem to be bad for you it may be necessary to find a kosher or chemical free butcher (and his supplier) to discover that “clean” meat is fine.

FRUITS AND VEGGIES

Similar to meat some food groups are notorious for the way they are preserved and ripened: Bananas may have been gassed, potatoes might have absorbed some pretty interesting chemicals. If you find that you seem to be reacting to veggies and fresh fruits then it may pay to purchase organic to differentiate whether it is a food problem, or an additive problem.

DRIED FRUITS?

“Why test dried fruits as well as fresh fruits? Aren’t they the healthy snack alternative?” Not if you are sensitive to sulphurs. Dried fruit is the best way to test for sulphur sensitivity. In the withdrawal stage you will also need to remove other “carriers”. Beer, wine, many soft drinks, a lot of bottled juices (especially if reconstituted), many munchies, muesli bars, most packaged breads. I suggest you get a code breaker and remove any sulphite, metabisulphite, sulphur dioxide containing foods and drinks.

DELI MEATS?

Similar to the dried fruits, these are good examples of nitrate/nitrite containing foods. Once again you will need a code breaker to withdraw all the potential carriers at once.

What a great concept! You don’t have to totally change your diet to get better results – you just need to get to know your own body better. By reducing the stresses on your body that comes from eating foods that don’t like you, you will digest and process the foods that do like you more effectively – More energy and clearer thinking; less fluid and toxic retention; reduced load on your digestive organs; decreased muck floating around in your blood: A temple worth living in.

GOD LUCK!

“Frustration associated with being blocked by a limitation is simply an opportunity to grow & develop.” (Peter McHugh in "You & The Creative Power Of Frustration".)