It’s really no coincidence that I started off the Natural Fertility 101 series with detoxification. Even in January. You see, cleansing our bodies before conception is important AND January is a great time to do it! During the fall months we normally dine on rich and dense foods like stews, chili, and roasts so that our bodies can build up nutrient stores to help us last through the winter months. The normal indulgent and sweet treats of the holidays are also behind us and our bodies are ready for a break.

I’d long heard that winter was a great time for a cleanse and I heard it again when I had a chance to listen to Jordin Rubin speak last fall. He highly recommended a week-long diet cleanse every three months, starting in January. A recent newsletter from the Body Ecology Diet mentioned the same thing as well as referred to the Traditional Chinese Medicine theory that backed that thought as well.

But how do you cleanse your body?

It can actually be as simple as making just a few changes within your diet and healing with real foods.

photo credit bobmarley753

Length of a Dietary Cleanse

The length that one would choose to cleanse can vary by person, but should last somewhere between 3-10 days. The goal is to lighten the load placed on the body and increase bile production to remove toxins.(increased bile production makes the liver more efficient and moves more toxins out of the body faster than it normally would) You don’t want to cleanse any longer than 10 days (unless you’re working with a professional for a specific health issue) because while the foods that help your body cleanse are healthy, you also need to make sure you get the building blocks needed for strong health as well as keeping your reproductive system working in top gear. Growing babies need those building blocks too!

Foods to Avoid

1. Caffeine – While it’s the most popular ‘drug’ consumed in America, it’s also very hard on the body. It’s one of the biggest contributors of adrenal fatigue, causing constant internal stress. It also causes us to push our bodies beyond normal limits and we work instead of rest.
2. Sugar – Not only is refined sugar hard to digest it depletes the body of nutrients. During a time of cleansing, we should also refrain from even unrefined sugars to allow for even more healing.
3. Gluten, Grains, Legumes, Nuts, and Seeds – Often hard for people to digest, they also contain enzyme inhibitors that are difficult for the body to deal with.
4. Meat – While meat is a very nutrient dense and building food, there are times where we need to take a short break from including it into our diets.

photo by wwworks

Foods that Cleanse

All of the following foods have wonderful cleansing properties to them and contain plenty of antioxidants, sulpher compounds, and/or specific nutrients that can help increase bile production.

• Dandelion leaves and spinach.
• Carrots
• Beets
• Broccoli and brussel sprouts
• Asparagus
• Garlic
• Lemon
• Avocado
• Eggs

Other Foods to Include

Probiotic Foods. Fermented vegetables, yogurt, kombucha, and homemade lacto fermented dressings all add to the beneficial bacteria within your system. This bacteria is essential for good health and keeps your body’s immune system functioning properly.

Homemade Bone Broth. Deeply nourishing, bone broths are rich with minerals and help heal the digestive system.

Seafood. More specifically, wild caught seafood is not near as “heavy” as other animal meats and offers a multitude of essential nutrients.

Berries and “Sour” Fruits. Lower in natural sugar, many types of berries and the more sour or tart fruits can help the body cleanse as well as help deal with any sugar craving that come up during a cleanse. You’ll want to look for not only berries and lemons, but fruits like green apples and grapefruit.

{Learn more about cleansing with foods in chapter two of the book!}

Cleansing During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

There are a couple of times in life when a woman should not try to actively cleanse her body. Pregnancy and breastfeeding are those times! When you cleanse, your body may release many toxins, which can end up being sent to the baby in utero as well as through the breast milk. It would be a good idea to eat foods that have cleansing properties along with your normal diet, but do not cut out foods like whole dairy and meat because your little one needs these nourishing foods to grow and develop correctly.

Also be aware of when you try to conceive following a strict cleanse as the sperm and egg have a three-month life before conception. You don’t want to be displacing toxins around your body to have them effect the DNA of the egg or sperm. If you are already in good health and don’t have a lot of exposure to toxins, this won’t be such a big deal as if you are coming off of a very standard american diet and may have a much larger toxic body burden.

Dr. Natura Health Tip:

For extra cleansing, you can boost the detoxifying effects of a plant based whole-foods diet with a fiber-based herbal cleanse. Adding a fiber cleanse to your whole-foods diet can help stimulate digestion while sweeping the GI tract clear of wastes and toxins. Look for a cleanse that combines powerful psyllium fiber husks with soothing and stimulating digestive herbs like fennel seed, rhubarb root and/or slippery elm bark.

What do you do/have you done to actively cleanse your body with foods?

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