In today's fast-paced society, products are made for immediate consumption. Vegetables are treated with harmful pesticides, meat is injected with antibiotics, preservatives and/or growth hormones, and our food is now being genetically modified. Processed food is loaded with excess sugar, salt, and saturated fat. All of these toxins become part of your daily diet.
Add to this; the stress of daily life and the toll it takes on the body, is immense. It's very difficult in modern society to avoid toxic build-up, which is simply a slow poisoning of your body. When the body is overwhelmed by toxins, they bypass the eliminative channels and are stored directly in fatty tissues under the skin and fat cells to prevent them from circulating in the bloodstream. The toxin-laden fat cell becomes very stubborn. This is the body's way of protecting itself from toxins. Weight gain becomes inevitable and losing weight more difficult.
As toxins continue to build up, new cell formation is disrupted, and cells mutate. The very foundation of your body is built upon your cells, and you are only as healthy as your cells. Toxin build-up weakens your immune system, leaving you open to a wide range of health problems and diseases. When your body cannot eliminate these toxins, the system starts to break down. Common signs of toxic build-up are:
Because of the amount of toxins you consume, mostly involuntarily, your body needs help to detoxify. Neuropaths, naturopaths, and homeopaths, for example, regularly prescribe fasting as a way to treat chronic conditions such as:
Detoxification naturally occurs daily to process food, poisons, and pollutants that enter your body. In fact, 80% of the body's energy is used to process and eliminate food. Your eliminative channel includes the lungs, kidneys, liver, lymphatic system, and skin, which work daily to neutralise, transform, and eliminate waste products.
Your daily activities and every cellular function in your body produces metabolic waste (free radicals), and eating is an energy-intensive activity throughout the day. The more you eat, the more metabolic waste you produce. And the less you eat, the less metabolic waste you produce. 60 years of research on fasting & calorie restriction has found a link between accumulation of metabolic waste and age-related diseases even cancer and Alzheimers. Of course, most of the time, you must eat, but what you eat and how much is crucial to your health.
By periodic fasting or drastically restricting the amount of calories eaten even for a short time - you can reverse the aging process because you will have lowered your body's metabolic waste. In addition, fasting periodically will help you lose weight naturally, which will lower your risk of Diabetes type II and a whole host of health conditions related to obesity. This is why losing weight is so important to your health. (hyperlink lose weight)
The single most important part of a detox is not eating. Not eating may sound daunting, but it's much easier than you think. Most detox diets that promise an internal cleanse whilst still consuming food will not do as well as complete abstinence from food. Here's why:
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Food contains chemicals and additives, so consuming it will add more toxins during a detox. This hinders your ability to release the accumulated toxic build-up present in your body. |
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Eating food requires a lot of energy to digest, assimilate, and eliminate waste product from the food you consume. When you stop eating, your whole body is at rest, promoting homeostasis (metabolic rest) and reducing the production of metabolic waste. When the body is at complete rest, healing takes place and hormone balance is restored. |
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When you stop eating, your body goes into a fasting mode called autolysis (self-ingestion), a process where it burns off diseased or damaged cells and fat for fuel. This very process is used to treat morbid growths such as tumours, abscesses, and fibroids. This causes rapid expulsion of metabolic waste in the cells and promotes new cell formation. In short, your body rejuvenates when you stop eating. |
Two common ways to achieve homeostasis and reverse aging are through either a lifetime commitment of drastic calorie restriction (CRON) or periodic fasting.
" If we restrict the calories an animal can eat, by underfeeding it or periodically fasting it, we can significantly prolong its life. In fact, periodically fasting animals can double their natural life span."
(Juice Fasting & Detoxification, Dr Fuhrman, M.D.)
Before the advent of medical science, ancient healers knew the importance of stimulating the body's own natural healing and cleansing process to prevent and cure sickness. Throughout the ages in different cultures, the tradition of detoxification is carried out with fasting on water, juices, herbal tonics, or one meal by mid-day, promoting homeostasis.
