21 Day Detox......Day 11 - 12

Cruising along now, I wish I could say I'm not even tempted by the cheese and rice chips my wife is munching on while we chat in the kitchen. I had to turnaround and converse while I searched the cupboard for some kosher snack that had somehow just magically appeared there to satisfy my desire for salty and crunchy. Alas, I had to resort to my banana coconut pudding with a little cocoa. I topped it off with cracked-cell chlorella, a detoxifying blue-green algae, and feel even more satisfied in my mind and palate. It's really pretty good (I have a greenish-brown ring around my mouth).

Over the last few years when I speak on detoxification and lead patients through the process, I am always asked about other programs, The Master Cleanse, Isagenix, liver flushes, etc. Although there are many I haven't looked closely at, the one's I've examined often come up short. Some of these do work to some degree, weight loss, an improved sense of health, but I've found most of them lacking what I consider basic and important attributes in a healthy cleansing or detoxifying diet.

For example I finally just looked over the Isagenix products, a very popular program. As is often the case I see some real problems with their ingredients. Most glaring is their use of fructose as a sweetener. For all you who read my liver articles recently you'll recall that fructose as an added sugar is very bad news. An effective and safe cleanse needs to support the liver, one of the most important detox organs. Fructose effectively congests the liver and is efficiently converted to fat. Next, I noticed in their fiber product Isagenix uses something called Fibersol-2 (produced by a proprietary method of controlled enzymatic hydrolysis of cornstarch). While this newfangled fiber may provide some of the health benefits of increasing fiber in the diet, it seems completely unnecessary to use a Franken-fiber created in a lab, when all around on God's green Earth is nature's fiber ("so turn Frakenstein into Franken-fine"). Lastly, I noticed some odd herbal additions that could be problematic, especially for those suffering from acid reflux; namely mint.

Not to pick on this one company, but my goal is to really feed the body while detoxing, support the organs of detoxification, and weed-out hidden food sensitivities or allergies. To that end, as we proceed through the last half of the 21 Day Detox, now is the time we can prepare for the "challenge phase."

Right, your asking, "wasn't the challenge phase days 1 through 10 or so?" Yes it was and continues to be challenging at times but one of the great opportunities we have nearing the end of the program is to begin to re-introduce foods back into the diet. One of the biggest mistakes I see by those finishing this program is to start haphazardly eating foods that have been eliminated. At this time, like no other, the body is primed to detect hidden food allergies. Food sensitivities and allergies are quite common, but often undetected. After a few weeks on a diet of this sort, the body will often produce a more obvious symptom after exposure to a food you were unaware was a problem. To know which food is to blame, one must introduce only one food at a time, in a sufficient amount, for a sufficient length of time.

Another important aspect of this program is that it teaches you or reminds you how to eat wholesomely. The diet is not intended to be permanent. It's not an ideal diet for life for most individuals. Dietary needs are individualistic, and I'm not talking caloric needs. Some need more meat, some do OK on vegetarian sources of protein. In both cases I'm talking about eating real food, from real (healthy) animals and plant foods from nutrient-rich and chemical free sources. Keeping your sugar, caffeine, and alcohol intake in check. By the way, have I told you about my nickname for Kettle Korn? "Cancer Corn;" Perhaps I'll explain that later.

Inevitably we are exposed to dietary burdens, intentional and un. That's why I recommend some form of detox diet yearly.

By the way, if you slip up, don't give up! "It's not what you've done it's what you do next."