Detoxing For Our Health (Food Wise)

I recently read The Parent's Guide to Natural Health Care for Children by Karen Sullivan, in which she talked about detoxing your childrens' body of a bad diet. There are no strange foods to eat or extreme measures taken, basically all you do is remove refined and processed foods for days and eat foods that encourage the body to clean itself out.

She includes a list to ask yourself if they may need a detox.

- Does your child eat junk food of any sort?
-Does your child eat processed foods or refined products, such as white bread or pasta?
-Is your child under any stress?
-Is your child in contact with cigarette smoke?
-Does your child smoke or drink alcohol?
-Does your child drink carbonated drinks, or any sweetened drinks, apart from pure juice, milk and water?
Are any of the fruits, vegetables, meats, milk or grains you serve not organic?
-Does your child have asthma or eczema, or suffer from frequent skin rashes or hives?
-Does your child take medication regularly?
-Has your child had antibiotics in the last six months?
-Do you live in an area with high levels of air pollution?
-Is your child overweight?
-Does your child suffer from frequent constipation?
-Do you live in a city?
-Do you live in the country near farms that use chemicals of any sort?
- Do you use household cleaning products?
-Does your child crave sweet foods?
-Does your child suffer from frequent headaches or abdominal upsets?
-Does your child have mood swings linked to blood sugar?


For my children I was able to answer yes multiple times and continued on reading. I found her process completely doable sounding and really its a one to three day process.

Here is what we are doing:

-Before breakfast daily serve fresh grape juice w/a squeeze of lemon. (Grapes help to speed up the metabolism and cleanse the liver, kidneys and other eliminative organs.)
-Serve at least 5 of the following ea/day (raw- if possible): pears,grapefruit, apricots, apples, pineapples, melons, papayas, bananas, beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumber, lettuce, and fennel. (Theses all help w/the detoxification process.
- Avoid tomatoes & spinach (can irritate digestive tract)
-Everyday offer @ least serving steamed brown rice, w/out salt or fat.
-Avoid condiments.
-drink @ least one glass of fresh water before every meal. 5-8 glasses ea/day.
-Add fresh garlic to @ least one meal/day. (garlic is an excellent blood cleanser, and stimulates the digestive organs.)
-Give 1 acidophilus pill between meals. Or fresh, live plain yogurt- to sweeten mash in a little overripe banana. (acidophilus balances the intestinal flora in the gut, helps to encourage healthy digestion and elimination and to insure against future toxicity.)
-Snacks: fruit, unsalted nuts, brown rice crackers (w/sesame seeds,if possible) raw veggies, seeds or dried fruits.
- For 3 days make sure everything we eat is unrefined. All foods should be fresh and natural. Including whole grains, vegetables, fruits, brown rice, lean meats, dairy products w/out added sugars or flavors, legumes, nuts seeds and plenty of water.

So this is "the plan". We've already, slowly begun these things a while ago, but now, TODAY!, we are officially detoxing. I've been preparing the kids for a few days now letting them know this was just for 3 days- and surprisingly everyone seemed cool with it. With one except- and I was a bit surprised by who- my R- the one lately who's been asking if everything we've been buying , eating and making is organic! She over most could really use this and is the most resistant.????



So check in a few days for an update! I'll try and remember how hard it was to complete, how it affected us and what were the biggest hurdles were. Hopefully, as the end result is supposed to be, we'll be cleaner!