Preparing to Detox

Today, we are facing a huge barrage of toxicity in our lives. In the past 20 years, the level of toxins in humans and on Earth has been higher than the whole history of the world. Understanding where toxins come from and how they can enter our bodies, evaluating our current lifestyles and taking steps to eliminate or reduce our exposure to toxins in our daily lives are important before embarking on a body detox program. By doing so, we can lessen the negative influences of toxins on our health and improve on the positive influences on a daily basis. That is the ultimate objective of Body Detox.

The foods and liquids that you ingest on a daily basis can either make you feel healthy or sick. If you answer ‘yes’ to three or more of these following questions, they may help you to better identify the toxins in your diet and make necessary diet changes:

• When buying groceries, do you usually choose processed or fast-cooking/instant food?
• Do you buy non-organic food, meat and dairy products?
• Do you eat red meat more than once a week?
• Do you use commercial or table salt instead of sea salt in your food?
• Are your cooking utensils made of aluminium?
• Are you aware that your crockery may include lead paint?
• Do you often consume fried foods at home or at restaurants?
• Do you often eat junk snacks?
• Do you drink coffee, tea or colas regularly?
• Do you include artificial sweeteners to your hot drinks?
• Do you often eat candies and desserts?
• Do you drink less than eight glasses of water daily?
• Do you drink water from the tap or plastic bottles?
• Do you quickly swallow your food without properly chewing it?

Our environment can also be a major source of toxins, whether indoor or outdoor. In fact, the American Cancer Society said that at least three-quarters of all cancers are caused by environmental toxins. If you answer ‘yes’ to at least three or more of the following questions, your environment would greatly impact your health:

• Do you live or work in a city?
• Is your home or workplace near a factory?
• Is your home close to a farm that uses pesticides?
• Do you often use pesticides in your home or garden?
• Does your home have fluorescent lights?
• Does your office have insufficient air circulation?
• Are you often exposed to cigarette smoke when you are working, travelling or eating out?
• Do you live or work beside a dry cleaner shop?
• Is your home nearby any high voltage power lines?
• Is your home or office located near a nuclear power plant?

Some of your daily habits and practices can also lead to a higher toxic level. However, unlike your environment, this area is one of the easier ones to change. Take a look at this following questionnaire:

• Are you a cigarette or cigar smoker?
• Do you often wear dry-cleaned clothes?
• Do you buy standard cosmetics than using natural ones?
• Do you use perfumes instead of essential oils?
• Do you sit in front of your computer for a long time everyday?
• Do you watch television daily?
• Are you a non-exerciser?
• Do you stay inside your home or office without going outside to take a break?

When you become more aware of the sources of toxins in your daily lives whether they are from your food, environment or habit, you will get a better understanding on how to decrease your toxic load. This ensure the body detox program that you take up later on will produce much greater results that if you had not.