Detox tips from a nutritionist

Now that spring has come and every­thing around brings a feel­ing of light­ness, this is the per­fect time to get rid of bad eat­ing habits and make you health­i­er and hap­pi­er. If you’re ready to break free of unhealthy habits and ener­gize your body, it’s time for a lit­tle spring clean­ing!

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At the cen­ter of spring clean­ing is a sug­ar detox. Why sug­ar? Sug­ar caus­es inflam­ma­tion in the body, and inflam­ma­tion is linked to heart dis­ease, dia­betes, and can­cer. It also cre­ates an addic­tive cycle of hunger, fatigue, and crank­i­ness and caus­es excess weight gain. List­ed below are the steps to help you hit the reset but­ton and kick your sug­ar crav­ings this spring.

Steps for spring cleanup of your nutri­tion.

Clean out the kitchen

Go through the cab­i­nets and refrig­er­a­tor and remove any­thing that has been pack­aged or processed. Read food labels and get rid of any­thing that con­tains ingre­di­ents you can’t pro­nounce. Look out for refined sug­ar, arti­fi­cial sweet­en­ers, trans fats, diet foods, sweet and savory snacks.

A few tips for nav­i­gat­ing the prod­uct label.

Skip calorie counting

Calo­ries are not the best indi­ca­tor of nutri­tion because not all calo­ries are the same. Your body absorbs 300 calo­ries of high fruc­tose corn syrup, not the 300 calo­ries of an avo­ca­do. It is more impor­tant to focus on the qual­i­ty rather than the num­ber of calo­ries in food.

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Examine the list of ingredients

The true val­ue of food lies in the list of its ingre­di­ents. Ingre­di­ents are ordered by quan­ti­ty in the prod­uct — so any­thing list­ed first is the main ingre­di­ent, while those clos­er to the end are lighter in weight. Look for whole foods that you rec­og­nize and stay away from the sug­ary foods list­ed at the begin­ning. As a rule, the few­er ingre­di­ents list­ed, the more use­ful and real the prod­uct will be.

Don’t Believe Health Claims

If a prod­uct label adver­tis­es that it con­tains no fat or sug­ar, chances are that an extra serv­ing of sug­ar sub­sti­tutes or chem­i­cals was added to make up for it. Read these ingre­di­ents! Beware of prod­ucts adver­tised as “all nat­ur­al” as they may con­tain chem­i­cals and growth hor­mones.

And remem­ber — when in doubt, you can nev­er go wrong with whole foods that don’t need a label or dis­guise — like fruits, veg­eta­bles, nuts, and more.

Restock your kitchen

Now that you’ve giv­en up sug­ar and cleaned up your kitchen, what can you eat? Focus on eat­ing the most sat­u­rat­ed foods: healthy fats, fiber, and pro­tein. Fat, fiber and pro­tein will keep you full and keep your blood sug­ar sta­ble. Choose avo­ca­dos, nuts, extra vir­gin olive oil, and coconut oil for healthy fats. Eat plen­ty of fresh, sea­son­al veg­eta­bles for fiber. And lean meat, eggs, fish and legumes are pro­tein. These good­ies need to be avail­able at every meal (and there­fore in the kitchen) to keep blood sug­ar bal­anced and curb sug­ar crav­ings.

Healthy snacks

So, your kitchen should now be filled with healthy, sat­is­fy­ing food, but you should also be pre­pared for the time when you can’t eat at home. Stock up on healthy food to grab a quick bite or take on the go. Your stock may include flax chips, unsalt­ed nuts, pump­kin seeds, fruit, dried fruit, nat­ur­al yogurt, etc.

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Drink more water

Your body is 60% water, and almost every sys­tem in the body needs it to func­tion. The best way to detox­i­fy your body is to drink more water. Water with lemon aids diges­tion and cleans­es your body (lemon helps max­i­mize the func­tion of enzymes that stim­u­late the liv­er and aid detox­i­fi­ca­tion). Start each day with a glass of fil­tered water and the juice of half a lemon. Keep drink­ing water through­out the day and con­sid­er post-work­out coconut water to replen­ish your reserves.

The first week of a sug­ar detox can be chal­leng­ing (heavy crav­ings, headaches, fatigue, and many oth­er symp­toms), but the ben­e­fits are worth it! Once the sug­ar is out of your sys­tem, you will start to feel like a more ener­gized, more pos­i­tive, and clear per­son, and maybe even lose weight nat­u­ral­ly. I rec­om­mend tak­ing a friend/girlfriend to make sure you’re account­able and moti­vat­ed to take on this spring clean­ing.

Do you want more help­ful arti­cles? Fol­low Anna Kovalchuk on Insta­gram and read the col­umn on the Lisa web­site!