Highlights
- Festive season is the time apt for a detox
- Detoxing is nothing fancy
- It can easily be achieved in the comfort of your home
Ahead of this festive season and even after it gets over, what you really need is a good detox plan. Given the environment we live in, we are constantly interacting with harmful toxins that are not only present in the air that we breathe but also in the cooked food that we consume. Add a dose of stress and sedentary lifestyle into the picture and what you have is a clear case of toxin overload on our health. Experts suggest one should detox every now and then. If clean eating is difficult to achieve and mindful consumption is not your cup of tea, it is advised that you give detoxing a try. "A cleanse program can be a powerful tool to rejuvenate your body and skin from the inside out. Increase fiber intake to help keep your colon clean. Along with the fiber from fruits and vegetables, include two tablespoon of chia seeds in a glass of water to eliminate toxins from your body. Don't forget to drink lots of filtered water- at least eight glasses per day," notes Shilpa Arora ND, a renowned Health Practitioner, Nutritionist and certified Macrobiotic Health Coach.
If you are not sure of jumping on to the detox bandwagon, or don't know the basics, pay attention to the following tips to begin your detox journey.
What to eat
All fresh fruits and vegetables are excellent for detox. Include lots of vitamin C in your diet and natural fluids like coconut water, buttermilk et cetera. Fermented foods, whole grains are great too. Fruits like apples, pineapple, papaya and pomegranate have great detoxing properties. Berries are packed with essential nutrients, antioxidants and fight cell-damaging free radicals.
Drink up!
While hydration is of the utmost importance, make sure that you give regular ingredients a chance and arrive at health promoting detox drinks. Detox waters are in vogue, these are easy to put together and can do wonders to your health. Simply infuse your drinking water with strawberries, lemon, bite-sized berries, orange slices or herbs and spices like cumin, neem leaves, basil, carom seeds among others. Just in case you want to step up the game a bit, try putting together detox drinks like the one shared below:
Cucumber Mint Detox Drink
Recipe by Swasti Agarwal, Foodhall
Ingredients
1 Cucumber
8-10 Mint leaves
2 Tbsp Lemon juice
Ice cubes
Iced Water
Lemon rings and mint leaves
Method
1. Peel, chop and blend cucumber, mint leaves and 1 cup of water.
2. Strain and discard pulp.
3. Add lemon juice, black salt and dilute with water if needed.
4. Pour the beverages in glasses, put some ice cubes and garnish with lemon rings and mint leaves.