What is a detox diet?

Detox diets have been around for hundreds of years, even before the term was coined. People have always felt the need to take a break from their excessive lifestyles and give their body and mind a chance to recover and rejuvenate. This concept of giving your body and mind a break however, has never been more relevant as it is today.

We live in an age where ‘convenience’ food has become mainstream, our eating habits are all over the place and our stress levels keep reaching new highs. In this scenario, detoxing has become very popular and its results are remarkable.

How does a detox diet work?

Under a detox diet, you are required to incorporate more fresh, often raw vegetables into your diet at the expense of junk food and foods that are high in fat, additives, sugar, oil and salt. At the same time, you are required to change your lifestyle and introduce some regular exercise into it be it swimming, jogging, aerobics, yoga or even brisk walking. In fact, practising meditation and yoga can be a huge help in bringing down stress levels and therefore they are widely popular all over the world, not just where they originated.

Sometimes, a detox program can have phases where you fast or where you cut out a certain type of food altogether for a fixed period of time. There is now research to suggest that such techniques, particularly fixed periods of fasting, can have a lasting positive effect on one’s health.

By practicing these different techniques of detoxing, you allow your body to flush out toxins from various parts including the liver, kidneys, digestive tract, respiratory tract, blood and skin.

To conclude

A well observed detox diet can help you improve your overall health, strengthen your immune system and decrease your chances of getting certain illnesses. It invariably leads to weight loss as well since we cut out bad food from our diet and add a healthy measure of physical activity.