Cleansing is an important part of maintaining health, slowing the aging process, and preventing diseases, by allowing the body to rid itself of a build-up of toxins. There are many ways of doing this. Ideally, a person should be free of commitments during a cleanse, as much as is possible, because a relaxed person can detoxify more efficiently. Another note of caution, to not ever make yourself “fit” into a cleanse. The cleanse should “fit” you. Take time to experiment to see what regime will best suit your schedule, but also remember that you will need to make room for it no matter how busy you are.

A cleanse can be fast, but it doesn’t have to be. You can eat while cleansing, provided that you use cleansing foods. If you want a specific food list for cleansing, check into any cleansing book and they will list the foods specifically. Generally, it is avoiding heavy foods like red meat, wheat, dairy, fried foods, Soya products, dried fruit, etc. You would eat fresh fruits, fresh veggies, whole grains with the exception of wheat, some chicken or fish, etc. (Some veggies contraindicated when cleansing are tomatoes, potatoes, and the squash family. Dried fruit is usually a no-no too.) Any condiments you use would be very simple like flax oil, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, etc.

The idea is to eat easily digestible foods so as to “free-up” the eliminative organs such as the liver, kidney, skin, lungs, colon, and lymphatic system so that they can spend more time detoxifying and less time digesting. (Some of these organs aren’t directly digesting food, but do help in the processing part of digestion). A juicer is also recommended, though a basic cleanse can be done without this.