By Aiko Jin
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Every day, we are exposed to elements in our environment that are not ideal for our bodies. Fortunately, our body is well-equipped to remove them. Special enzymes produced in the liver work together to immobilize, neutralize and bind toxins. Your digestive and urinary tract moves toxins out.
In addition, your immune system helps you by recognizing and neutralizing substances that may be harmful. Your body can always use some help. In today’s world, it’s easy for your body to become overwhelmed by the garbage we’re exposed to.
By using a few tactics, you can help your body get rid of toxins more effectively. Here’s a great list of them:
Natural Purifier #1: Water
Your body needs water for every metabolic reaction. Water helps you move toxins out of each cell, through the bloodstream, through the cleansing kidneys . . . it’s what you use to move waste out and to sweat it out. Water is by far the most essential purifying ingredient.
There’s no set rule to how much water you should drink each day since we’re all different weights and have different activity levels. The best way to check if you’re getting enough water is to check your pee. If it’s light colored, you’re getting enough. If it’s dark yellow, drink some more.
Natural Purifier #2: Exercise
Exercising gets your sweat glands working, spewing out a mix of water, oils and toxins. It also gets your heart pumping and the blood moving. With this increase in circulation, your body can move toxins out of the body more quickly.
Exercise also helps you burn fat. Many toxins can bind to fat and avoid being washed away by normal internal cleansing processes. However, once the fats they’ve attached to start to break down, they no longer have a safe refuge.
Natural Purifier #3: Heat
Exercise is the best way to work up a good sweat. But you can also sweat it out sitting in a sauna or steam room.
To get the most out of a good sweat, make sure you drink lots of water. This can prevent dehydration, but also, the more water your body has at its disposal to move the toxins out through your sweat glands, the better.
Natural Purifier #4: Massage
Massage doesn’t just feel good. It does good - it helps increase circulation. For a while, many health experts considered the massage-circulation connection to be a myth, but recent study has proven them wrong.
Researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, divided study participants into 3 groups. One group exercised and then got a massage, one group just exercised, and one group just got a massage. When they compared the blood flow in the arms of people who got a massage after exercising to the people who didn’t get a massage, there was a significant difference in flow for up to 72 hours.
Surprisingly, the group who didn’t exercise but just got a massage also showed the same increase in circulation as the people who exercised before a massage. [1]
Natural Purifier #5: Eat Organic
No matter how hard you wash produce that’s been grown conventionally, you can’t wash it clean. Pesticides and other conventional agricultural chemicals are persistent and can stay in the soil for decades.
Organic foods have less of these chemicals on them. And – as an extra bonus - research shows they’re higher in antioxidants than their conventional counterparts.[2]
It’s best to eat as much organic food as possible, but it can be challenging to do so on a budget. If you can’t go all organic, be selective. Some foods are more important to eat organically than others. To help you figure out which is which, the non-profit Environmental Working Group publishes a list called “The Dirty Dozen”. Based on USDA data, EWG lists the 12 vegetables and fruit with the most amount of pesticide residues on them. They also list the 12 “cleanest” veggies and fruits that even when grown conventionally tend to have minimal pesticide residues after harvest. So you can save your money and take less pesticides in with your meals.
Natural Purifier #6: Purifying Foods
Some foods are particularly good at helping your body remove toxins.
Here are a few stars:
Greens like cabbage, kale and all members of the brassica family may boost the activity of enzymes that can help your body remove toxins.
Chlorella, a superfood algae, has a well-documented history of helping the body remove unwanted materials from the body. Its high concentration of chlorophyll seems to be a big part of its exceptional purifying benefits. Beyond purification, chlorella offers your body many incredible benefits.
Onions and garlic have high concentrations of sulfur compounds known for helping cleanse the liver, your body’s main purifying organ.
Ginger is known among herbalists as a great circulation-booster.
Natural Purifier #7: Fiber
Fiber can help you get rid of toxins in two ways:
1. Fiber binds with toxins to make it easier for your body to get rid of them.
2. Fiber helps your bowels move waste out.
The best way to get fiber is through whole grains, vegetables and fruits, and you get not only fiber but a whole slew of other nutrients.
There are many ways to enjoy fresh fiber-rich foods – in a salad, soups, a stir fry or simply chomping a piece of fruit out of hand. Fruit and veggie smoothies offer a delicious and convenient way to get plenty of fiber. And let’s be clear here – smoothies beat out juicing any day. When you juice, you lose out on all the fiber. Get everything by blending ingredients whole.
Natural Purifier #8: Indoor Plants
Plants are powerful! NASA has been studying plants for years because of their purification power NASA’s research has shown plants are nature’s air purifiers. Put them in a room and they can clean up all kinds of contaminants (not to mention produce some oxygen on the side!) NASA researchers found plants can clean up toxins like benzene, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde.[3]
Some of the particularly powerful air purifiers include the spider plant, English ivy, peace lilies and pothos.
Natural Purifier #9: Limit Your Use Of Plastics
Some of the plastics used in our food chain – lining soup cans and in water bottles – contain a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA). So the best solution lies in limiting your exposure to plastics as much as possible. It can be hard to do. But if you opt for less processed food, you usually have an easier time going plastic-free. At home, use glass or metal to store food in.
Finally, don’t heat food in plastics. Heat triggers more leaching of BPA and other chemicals than plastic left at room temperature.
Purify Your Body And Your Life
It’s hard to dodge all the toxins coming at you in this world, but don’t lose hope. You have several tactics for getting them out of your body and avoiding them as much as possible. And these only scratch the surface of all you can do to naturally purify your body.