What are toxins?
Toxins are substances that are poisonous or damaging to humans. They come from a variety of sources:
- Drugs (i.e. alcohol, caffeine and medications)
- Certain substances in plants (i.e. herbicides, pesticides, insecticides), animals (i.e. hormones) and water (i.e. chlorides and flourides) that we consume
- Heavy metals such as lead and mercury
- Organic chemicals in our environment found in everything from fuel for our cars to cleaning products to skincare
Toxic load is a term more commonplace in holistic medicine, in which we’re thinking about the accumulated amount of toxins which can affect your bodily systems at any given time.
How do I know I need to reduce my toxic load?
We are detoxifying all the time, via your liver, kidneys, bowels, skin and breath. If your body didn’t do this effectively all the time you wouldn’t last very long.
That said, your diet, environment, lifestyle, and even certain types of bacteria in your gut can all build up to increase our toxic load. Over time this can manifest itself as feelings of sluggishness, digestive issues, poor sleep, low immunity and even longer-term development of diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Ideally, we should keep our toxic load to a level where our body can optimally function. However, if you have gone through a period where you feel that you have overdone it and are feeling the negative effects, taking a period where you focus on reducing the amount of toxins whilst increasing foods that contain detoxifying nutrients can be very beneficial.
How can I reduce my toxic load?
- Use filtered water
Toxic chemicals (i.e. chlorides, fluorides and heavy metals) are present in unfiltered water. Therefore the quality of what you’re drinking and adding to your food is important. Use filtered water for drinking and cooking wherever you can.
- Avoid plastic and non-stick cookware plastic containers
- Cut processed foods and avoid larger sized fish
- Eat whole foods and choose organic where possible
- Support your liver and digestive system with nutrients
Increase your intake of detoxifying fruits and vegetables (i.e. beetroot, garlic, leeks, broccoli, fennel) or consider including green superfoods like spirulina and chlorella into your morning smoothie. It’s also worth including B vitamins and quality protein to help facilitate detoxification. Your digestive system is important too to help get rid of toxins so make sure you’re getting in soluble and insoluble fibre (from fruit, vegetables and whole grains) and probiotic-rich foods (i.e. sauerkraut and live yoghurt) to help aid digestion.
- Go au naturale
- Move around
Skin and sweat are a great way to remove toxins through the skin, and exercise can help get systems (i.e. circulatory, digestive and lymphatic systems) working and moving to help get rid of waste.