Nutrition tips supplied by Angela Walker.
We’ve called on nutrition expert Angela Walker to help us busy women with fortnightly nutrition tips to improve your health, wellness and sporting performance.
Angela Walker (BSc NutMed) is a Nutritional Therapist with a busy practice in London's Notting Hill. She's a member of BANT, NTC registered, and an approved PruHealth provider.
For professional nutritional advice contact Angela via her website: www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk
Do we need to detox?
Posted: 07-Jan-10
If you google detox 11,800, 000 entries appear. It has become a real buzz-word in the health and wellness field.
Last year a dossier published by The Voice of Young Scientists concluded that ‘detox’ as used in product marketing is a myth. I would agree with them on the whole, I believe that detox has become a very over-used and miss-used word, yet is it still vitally important for our health.
From a nutritional point of view detoxification is the biotransformation of harmful molecules, and is absolutely core to our physical and mental health. Lots of factors can inhibit the body’s normal detoxification systems: Think of it like a set of scales, if we overload one side with too many toxins (from bad food choices, alcohol, environmental toxins and so on) without having enough of the nutrients that the detoxification systems rely on (antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, amino acids) on the other then the detoxification system will become unbalanced.
So what’s the answer?
The simple answer is to reduce the toxins you are exposed to and increase levels of beneficial nutrients. You might be feeling the effects of a excesses over Christmas and New Year and plan to make amends in January, this is a great time to kick start a new health regime. The following tips will help:
- Eat at least 9 portions of vegetables or fruit (but more vegetables) each day: this will help to maintain good levels of key vitamins, minerals and antioxidants
- Have a good protein source with each meal: egg, lean meat, fish (especially oily), lentils and beans: this will help ensure you have good levels of the essential amino acids
- Have some raw seeds and nuts each day – either as a snack or with meals: they include the good oils and some amino acids
- Cut down on refined grains i.e. limit your bread, pasta, cereals and when you do have them, make sure they are wholegrain
- Completely eliminate processed food, fried food, alcohol, sugary snacks and drinks (yes, even the diet ones)
- Drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day as plain water or as plain water, herbal tea or a broth (email me if you want a good broth recipe)
- Stress uses up the nutrients we need for detoxification, so relaxation and breathing techniques as well as regular exercise will help
- Buy organic food, especially meats, soft fruits and root vegetables.
- We absorb a lot through the skin and respiratory system, so think about what’s in the creams and lotions that you use and use ones with natural oils, also buy toxic free home cleaning products
- Throw away any aluminium pots and replace with stainless steel or cast iron
Follow the above tips and you will be helping the body’s natural detoxification systems and taking great steps towards a healthier you.
You can go even further with a nutritional detox programme. The liver is the primary organ of detoxification where biotransformation of toxins occurs in two phases. A well-designed programme will provide high levels of nutrients required for both pathways and fantastic way to enhance long term health, increase energy and improve mood and sleeping patterns. I am currently running a 3-week nutritional detox programme, which is fully supported and targeted to the individual. For more details email me.
So yes, our amazing bodies are perfectly well equipped for detoxification. However our modern day lives can mean we are over burdened and under resourced to efficiently detoxify. So we do need to think about supporting detoxification through our diet and our lifestyles, but do beware of products on the market which might be jumping on the detox bandwagon.
Next time: A functional test to improve your athletic performance
Previous nutritional tips
- Have a Happy and Healthy Christmas
- How body fat is influenced by gut flora
- Carrot and Banana Gluten-Free Muffins
- Energy bars under the spotlight
- Eat healthily – tips to make it simple
- Keep the fluids flowing
- Healthy, delicious and nutritious
- Fuel-up for training. What to eat, and when
- Post Training Smoothie
- Boost your natural defences to Swine Flu