Although many people choose to detox (cleanse) their bodies after a holiday season like Christmas or Thanksgiving, when they’ve filled their bellies with too much sugar and foods loaded with calories, I feel spring is actually the best time. Why? Well, that’s because spring offers a breath of fresh air, with the dandelions coming out and nature in full bloom, there is no better time to do a little spring cleaning in our bodies. The liver is our largest organ, and is our filter and the big boss of digestion. It plays a huge role in how we digest our foods, and giving it a break with a good detox is optimal. Many people choose to detox just because it’s become a bit of a trend for shedding pounds quickly. Please do not do that! While you will probably lose some weight by eating the foods that nature intended, the real purpose of a detox is to help our bowels get rid of food that has been sitting too long in our intestines. I encourage my clients to think about making a plant-based diet a daily choice along with smoothies and juices. This will help promote a healthy alkaline body and detoxifying lifestyle.

Let’s take a look at what foods stimulate this process of detoxification. Our liver loves beets, dandelion greens and lemons. You can add yellow or red beets to your salads by grating them. They add a wonderful flavor. Most green leafy vegetables help the body cleanse, such as kale, spinach, arugula, collards, chard, mint, coriander, and parsley. These are all good choices to add to your salad.

If you are a regular meat eater and mostly have cooked food, here is a plan that can help you detoxify for a few days 

Start your day with the “Master Cleanse Lemonade”. The purpose is to dissolve and eliminate toxins, clean the kidneys and digestive system, purify the glands and cells throughout the entire body, eliminate all unusable water and hardened material in the joints and muscles, relieve pressure and irritation in the nerves, arteries and blood vessels, promote a healthy blood stream, and a youthful appearance and elasticity regardless of age.

Master Cleanse Lemonade

Per glass:

• 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
• 1/10^th tablespoon of cayenne pepper
• Combine all ingredients in a 10oz glass and fill with room temperature water

Your first meal should be fresh fruit or a fruit smoothie. Fruit is a simple sugar and does not need to be broken down. Starting your day with fruit feeds you instant energy. Include some sprouts in your smoothie, but if you are looking to ease your digestion, stay away from any added protein unless it is plant based. Stay away from cereals, bread, muffins, etc.

If you are looking to stick with a liquid cleanse, which would really give your digestive system a break, you must have a juicer. Juicing is the best way to get a huge amount of nutrients in one meal as you can certainly juice more than you can possibly eat. On the other hand, if you are someone that does not usually eat raw food, then juicing is probably not at the top of your list. To detox your body, however, cooked food is not the answer. Try a big salad at lunch with at least 8 vegetables, which will give you a wide assortment of vitamins and minerals and a complete protein. People do not realize how much protein there is in green leafy vegetables, but assist in cleansing at the same time.

Cleansing Salad

• – 1 cup greens (choose a variety as mentioned above) 
• – 1 carrot, 1 turnip, 1 beet grated
• – 1 cucumber
• – 1 cup red or green cabbage grated
• – 1 tomato 
• – 3 celery stalks 
• – 1 bunch parsley
• – 1 onion
• – 1 red pepper with seeds 

This will make a large portion that you may eat throughout the day 

If you do have a juicer, here are two good cleansing options

Juice #1

4 carrots 

2 celery stalks

1 handful spinach

1 apple

1 inch of turmeric

Juice #2

2 beets with tops

2 carrots

2 celery stalks

2 apples 

1 inch of turmeric 

To further help you flush toxins out, make sure that you’ve taken in adequate fluids. Herbal teas are great to improve digestion. Good choices are marshmallow tea, nettle tea, licorice, or dandelion tea. I always recommend drinking water and chlorophyll throughout the day as well. This will provide you with ongoing energy and is extremely alkalizing.