The Four Basic Principles Of A Detox Diet Plan

The key to a simple detox plan is to keep things, well, simple. You don't need to join an expensive program, buy lots of books, or get coaching. Eating well just comes down to common sense. You don't need to study nutrition, you just need to start thinking about what you put in your mouth, and make conscious decisions rather than eating without thinking.

A simple detox plan doesn't have to mean starvation, calorie counting, or drinking vile potions. It's simply a case of eating good, natural food and cutting out, possibly just temporarily, some items which could be negatively affecting you.

There are 4 basic principles common to any simple detox plan:
1. Cut out all the processed rubbish that is not only unnecessary but also contains harmful additives.
This rule is first for a reason - it has massive implications! When you are trying to determine if a food is allowed or not, this is the rule to consider first.

But why should we cut out processed foods? Basically because they contain ingredients that are unnatural and the manufacturing process can leave them with virtually no nutritional value to us. They also tend to contain high amounts of sugar and fat (to make them taste good) which means they are high in calories.

High in calories, and with little nutritional value? Does that make sense to eat?

Initial questions to ask are:

1. Is it in a tin, packet, bottle, polythene wrapper, jar or cardboard box?
2. Do you recognize all the ingredients as natural food items? ie could you eat each item on it's own?
3. Can you identify less than 5 steps from raw ingredients to the finished product?
Basically, do you actually know what's in what you are about to eat, do you know how it was made, and is it going to provide you with good nutritional energy?
2. Cut out the elements that have no nutritional value to you, what so ever.
Now this is where it starts to get tough for some people.
During a simple detox plan you should cut out alcohol, entirely.
The same goes for the sweets, biscuits, crisps, cakes and fizzy drinks that take up so many isles in the supermarket.
Are they giving our body good nutritional content? No, of course not. What they are providing is sugar and fat, and a large number of calories.
(Not to mention they all fail principle number 1 on avoiding processed foods!)
3. Cut out the addictive elements that our body currently craves.
Sugar

For a lot of people, sugar and sugar substitutes are consumed on a daily basis, to the point at which we could call them an addiction.

This is why during a detox you should cut out all sugar from your diet.

During a detox you can learn to listen to your body, and start to distinguish its needs from its desires!

Caffeine
No matter what your tea or coffee drinking habit, most detox plans recommend you cut out caffeine entirely.
While detoxing you should only drink water, and lots of it!
4. Cut out foods which cause common intolerances.
Common symptoms of intolerance are bloating, indigestion, spots and general lethargy.

The only way to identify intolerance is by completely detoxing the body, and then adding the suspicious items back into your diet in a controlled manner.

The two key suspects tackled in most detox plans are wheat and dairy.

Wheat

By cutting out wheat, as well as all wheat based products, you will almost certainly see improvements to your weight, your waistline and your general feeling of well being.

Most detox plans will insist you cut out all bread and pasta, even the wheat-free alternatives.

Dairy

As with wheat, many people have intolerance to dairy without knowing it. So most detox plans will recommend you cut out all dairy apart from natural (preferably organic) yogurt, free range eggs and butter.

So, that means no milk, cream or cheese.

Stick to the above principles for as long as you can. Simple!

Samantha Goodwin is the author of the popular Nutritional Responsibility Guide. This is a nutritional program for the real world where you want to look great but at the same time not feel handcuffed by an overly strict regime that you'll never see the end of. You can read more about the program at http://www.nutritionalresponsibility.com/



at
Labels: ,