Detoxing means detoxifying your body. You will significantly change your diet for a shorter or longer period of time: alcohol, sugars, caffeine, gluten, cow’s milk and meat are taboo. Your new diet consists of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, nuts and goat’s milk products. Detoxing is a popular approach to living a healthier life. I deliberately don’t call it a ‘diet’, because losing weight is not the primary goal of detoxing. This is detoxification, or the removal of toxins from the body. This can be done in various ways or a combination thereof, such as: an adjusted diet, supplements or pills, colonics, detox patches. In this article we will only discuss the eating pattern.
Why detox?
The starting point of detoxing is that the ‘standard’ diet in Western countries is not good for our body. Coffee, alcohol, cookies, sweets, meat and gluten are difficult for the body to digest, which promotes all kinds of complaints and diseases. In addition to obesity, this diet would lead to stomach, intestinal and kidney complaints, sleeping problems, fatigue, headaches and more.
Detoxing: what should you not eat?
At first glance it seems as if you are no longer allowed to eat or drink anything. Let’s be honest: it is. At least, no more of your old foods. Below is a list of prohibited foods during detox. This list is based on the book ‘From poison dump to temple in 28 days’ by detox coach Jacqueline van Lieshout and may differ per detox program.
- Potatoes without skin
- Alcohol
- Bread (due to gluten and salt)
- Caffeine, so coffee, cola, black tea, green tea, chocolate
- Eggs
- Cow’s milk products: milk, buttermilk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, etc.
- Pasta
- Soy products
- Sugar, i.e. candy, cookies, lemonade, fruit juices
- Meat
- White rice
- In principle all pre-packed products and ready-made meals
Detoxing: what can you eat?
OK, now you know what not to eat. For many of us, ‘forbidden foods’ are part of everyday life and it seems very difficult to put together 3 meals a day without these ingredients. Fortunately, there are various cookbooks and websites that help you make tasty dishes with ‘good’ foods! Here is the list based on the books by Jacqueline van Lieshout (see also at the bottom of this article).
- Potatoes with skin
- Beans
- Fruit
- Milk, cheese, yoghurt, cottage cheese, etc. from goat’s milk or sheep’s milk
- Vegetable
- Honey as a sugar substitute
- Nuts, kernels and seeds
- Fresh herbs
- Fish and shellfish
A typical ‘detox day’ is for example:
- 7 a.m.: Bowl of goat yogurt with sliced kiwi and banana, raisins, hazelnuts and honey
- 10 a.m.: double rice waffle with a slice of goat cheese in between.
- 12.30 pm: lunch salad of brown rice, avocado, tomatoes and corn.
- 3 p.m.: piece of fruit
- 6.30 pm: salmon fillet and new potatoes from the oven with broccoli
- 8 p.m.: Fresh mint tea
- 9 p.m.: Small bowl of unsalted mixed nuts
To detox or not to detox? There are pros and cons!
Are you considering detoxing and significantly changing your diet, for example for a period of 4 weeks? Below are a number of pros and cons that can help you determine whether detoxing is something for you.Benefits of detoxing
- Cleanses your body
- Can reduce health problems
- May result in weight loss (not a main goal)
- Let you discover many new recipes and dishes
- Can lead to a passion for cooking
Disadvantages of detoxing
- ‘withdrawal symptoms’ from coffee and sugars (especially headache and fatigue) in the first phase
- Spend more money and time on groceries
- Spend more time making the dishes (Tip: make Saturday or Sunday a cooking day to prepare several dishes in advance)
- ‘Social pressure’ when you are not allowed cake, coffee, or beer at parties or birthdays…