Today I’m featuring a blog from fellow naturopath Leisa Wheeler of Embracing Health (www.embracinghealth.com.au). Leisa’s article features 5 foods you can eat to help detoxify from heavy metals.
If you are overweight you can safely assume that unwanted wastes such as heavy metals will be stored in your body. As you release fat, rather than putting greater strain on your liver and other detoxification pathways, you may want to ensure you are encouraging the safe removal of these wastes out of your body.
Here is Leisa’s article:
Encouraging the body’s natural detoxification pathways
is something everyone would benefit from. Heavy metals
can enter our body through the foods we eat, the water
we drink, the cleaning products we use in our homes,
the personal care products we use on our skin,and
through just breathing the air itself.
Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, nickel, mercury,
aluminum and arsenic, can accumulate in our body and
interact with other minerals. This interaction can promote
the action of some minerals, and inhibit others, leading
to imbalances.
For example lead inhibits calcium, iron and potassium,
nutrients which are vital for our bone health, muscle
function and energy levels. One molecule of mercury
can affect the action of up to one thousand zinc
molecules; a mineral needed for hundreds of
enzyme reactions within our body.
Five foods that naturally act as heavy metal detox
agents are:
1) Apple and pear pectin – a type of fibre found in the
skins of apples and pears, pectin binds to heavy metals
in the colon and helps to excrete them from the body.
Make sure you are buying organic apples and pears
and eating them raw. Specifically it can help detox
aluminum, arsenic, mercury, lead and nickel.
2. Garlic – this amazing sulfurous herb not only stimulates
and protects the immune system, it chelates and assists
in the detoxification and excretion of aluminum, cadmium,
arsenic, mercury, lead and nickel. It must be eaten raw
and fresh! Cut or bottled garlic has lost most if not all of
it’s detoxifying effects. Stir it last through served meals
or cut it into small pieces and swallow 2-3 cloves like
pills.
3. Sea Vegetables – seaweeds like kelp, dulse and
wakame have a balanced mineral content and help to
remove unwanted metal deposits from the body. They
supply the body with necessary minerals and iodine
to aid in the removal of toxic metals such as nickel
and mercury. Use as a salad sprinkle, in place of salt.
4. Coriander – (or cilantro) this lovely plant absorbs
toxic metals in the body such as lead and mercury.
Add it fresh to served meals or salads, or juice a
whole bunch in a beautiful green alkalizing juice with
silverbeet, cucumber, apple and lemon.
5. Insoluble Fibre and Water– psyllium, chia seeds,
slippery elm, and rice bran all help the body eliminate
wastes by acting as an internal broom. Toxins are
swept up and moved through the colon at frequent,
regular intervals (at least one or two bowel motions a
day). Two litres of water per day is necessary to
facilitate this action.
We are exposed to heavy metals on a daily basis, so
supporting our body by consuming these natural foods,
boosts our ability to safely move them out!
