Diet and Detoxification: Thoughts Upon Reading
The Detox Strategy by Brenda Watson
Written for Cambridge Naturals: www.cambridgenaturals.com
Why
even consider a detox strategy? Who
needs it? According to Brenda Watson,
author of The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in Five Easy Steps (Free
Press, 2008), everyone would do well to engage in detoxification because of
pollution – pollution in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, and in the
food we eat. Even organically produced
food cannot entirely escape because pollution is ubiquitous.
Consider
the known facts about the chemicals discharged into the air, water, and
soil. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency reports that “industrial and federal facilities in the United States released more than
four billion pounds of chemicals into the environment in 2005.” (Nutrition Alert, vol.13, No.4,
p.7) Simply put, we are exposed to a lot
of what our ancestors did not evolve to cope with and so we can expect the
unexpected in our physical reactions.
Those substances are what Brenda Watson calls “environmental toxins,” as
opposed to “internal toxins,” the by-products of metabolism. To help with the former, she provides a
useful to-eliminate list of household items.
For the latter she goes into specifics to describe how the body deals
with what it gets.
My
own understanding of how our bodies deal with what comes along – food, drink,
air, cosmetics, sunshine, etc. – is sufficient to know that science has
uncovered a great deal but may only have scratched the surface. For example, finding cholesterol in arterial
plaque, researchers concluded cholesterol was causing the plaques; now we read
that perhaps cholesterol is part of the body’s first aid kit. (Real
Food, Nina Planck, 2006: “Beyond Cholesterol,” ch.9, pp. 245-268). Similarly, the ups and downs of the
antioxidant vitamin C also suggest the
fitful progress of scientific dietary research.
My advice: pay attention to how your body reacts and give it good,
wholesome food with a focus on fresh, local, organic fruit and vegetables.
This
attentive, caring, informed approach is also very much Brenda Watson’s. Her
recommendations are sensible and gentle.
If colonics (aka colon hydrotherapy) are not for you, then don’t do
them. She does not recommend water
fasting, and, if juice fasting, only for three days and under certain
circumstances. Most recommendations are
for limited diets of three or four daily meals. The idea is to work with your
body, which, if not overwhelmed, is well equipped for the job. One chapter is devoted to the body’s natural
detox program in which the liver plays a key role. In this context she describes the tri-peptide
glutathione as a “star player” because it tackles carcinogens, industrial
toxins, and free radicals, and then promotes their excretion via the bile.
(p.89)
The
liver being the premiere detoxification organ, it makes sense to eat and drink
what helps the liver do its job and to eliminate those things which give it
more work, to wit, caffeine, alcohol, and sugar. So what diet will do that? Paul Pitchford (Healing With Whole Foods,
1993) tells us that “Chinese medicine recognizes certain common foods as toxin
neutralizers,” (p.68) among them adzuki beans, radishes, turnips, and
figs. Raw apple cider vinegar (two
tablespoons in a tall glass of lukewarm water, with a little honey or a drop of
stevia leaf extract if you want to sweeten it) can also be part of your detox
regimen. Seaweed has the reputation of
escorting heavy metals out of the body. Sally Fallon (Nourishing Traditions,
2001) touts fresh cilantro leaves as “stimulating the body to remove mercury
and other toxic metals from the central nervous system.” (p.145) Milk thistle has long been used to support
the liver and is available as a supplement in capsule form. Generally, bitter
is better for the liver.
What to do about fish and mercury?
We do want those omega-3 fatty acids many species provide us with but we don’t
want the mercury, which Brenda Watson points out is, unfortunately, efficiently absorbed. For readers worried about the mercury they
may have taken on board either through diet or environment, she offers a heavy
metal cleanse of one-to-three months.
There is good reason to want to eliminate these metals as they can
indeed be troublesome for the brain, the kidneys, and the nervous and
reproductive systems. Watson’s
recommendation is for capsules containing vitamins, other substances like kelp,
and a dozen trace minerals which will help transform and dislodge the
undesirable metals and thus start them on their way out. It is, obviously, important to avoid future
contamination. The Blue Ocean Institute
will send you gratis their pocket-sized “Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood,”
which ranks fish by levels of contamination and also risk of extinction: www.blueocean.org.
Spring
is our time of new beginnings. If you
are thinking of turning over a new leaf through detoxification, you will find
something to guide you on your way in Brenda Watson’s book because it is definitely
a something-for-everyone sort of book.
One size does not fit all; but you can easily take what you like and
leave the rest.
