Try eating clean rather than just telling yourself what can’t have. Detox foods can help. Big time.

January is a time of year to do a good old spring cleaning of the system. It’s about giving your body a break after a season of over indulgence. And that doesn’t have to mean cutting everything out in lieu of a few cold pressed juices each day. It opens the door to binge eating once you just can’t take it anymore. Instead, why not consider adding these detox foods to your diet?

1. Cruciferous vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables are one of my favorite detox foods, and they’re also quite popular for this reason. Specifically, they detox the liver which is the body’s most important detoxifying organ. Cruciferous vegetables include cauliflower, broccoli, kale and collard greens, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage.

2. Legumes

Replace animal protein sources with legumes like black beans, garbanzo beans, lentils, and adzuki beans to give your body an opportunity to push out junk. Meat and dairy can get stuck in your system for long periods of time because they don’t have fiber. It’s not that you have to give up animal products completely, but taking a break is a great idea.

3. Green tea

Take a few weeks and see what starting your day with green tea instead of coffee does for you. Green tea is loaded with antioxidants and it’s one of the most detoxifying foods. It improves brain function, weight loss, and reduces your risk of cancer.

4. Dark chocolate

That’s right, chocolate. Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants but it’s important that you choose dark chocolate that’s at least 60 percent cocoa. Milk chocolate is not dark chocolate and if it’s too sweet it’s less beneficial. Dark chocolate is a powerhouse of ntioxidants including polyphenols, flavanols, and catechins. Consider it a cellular spa day.

5. Avocados

Avocados contain a chemical called glutathione, which detoxes the liver of synthetic chemicals and blocks carcinogens in the body. Not to mention the healthy fats, folate, and fiber. Avocados won’t make you fat so don’t be meager with their use–add them to everything.

6. Beets

Beets are a blood purifier and they boost the body’s cellular intake of oxygen. Bottom line–beets are overall body cleansers. Roast a batch up and add them to all your favorite meals like risotto, salads, or a quinoa dish. And they add such great bright color to all your favorite dishes.

7. Lemon

Consider using lemons as your acid source. Lemons are excellent liver detoxifiers because they are a source of glutathione (so mix them up with your avocado for double dose of the stuff!). They also contain vitamin C which is great for reducing cell damage due to pollution and other environmental toxins.

The best way to clean up your diet is by gradually adding in cleaner foods. Gradual replacement of foods is much easier than just taking away foods that aren’t good for you. The more gradual the changes you make in your diet, the more likely you’ll be able to maintain them.

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Do you LOVE the little salad that comes with your restaurant sushi meal with that delicious carrot ginger dressing? It’s all at once salty and sweet and makes even the pile of not-so-fresh iceberg lettuce seem appealing. Chances are, the carrot ginger dressing you love is from a bottle and likely has a lot of sodium and sugar. Luckily, there’s no need to add a lot of the bad stuff to this homemade version because so much natural flavor comes from fresh ginger and carrots.

This salad is perfect as a work lunch alongside a protein like grilled chicken or tofu. Chop your salad greens on Sunday night and store in a large tupperware with a jar of the dressing in the fridge for up to seven days. This combination calls for cabbage, lettuce, bean sprouts and mint leaves for a Southeast Asian feel, but you can also use butter lettuce on its own for that true Japanese restaurant feel. Try your own combination with kale, bok choy, pea shoots or spinach.

The secret to that rich flavor of carrot ginger dressing is miso paste, which you can find in most markets these days. Look for the brand Eden Foods, which uses organic soy beans and less salt than other imported brands from Japan. You can absolutely leave out the miso, the dressing will have a delicious, bright and pungent flavor without it. Try the dressing first without miso and perhaps add it in if you want to serve this salad for your family.

Super Healthy Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

Serves  4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
¼ cup sesame oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon fresh chopped ginger (from a small 1-inch piece)
1 shallot, chopped or 2 tablespoons chopped red onion
1 tablespoon miso paste (optional)
2 cups shredded cabbage (red or green)
1 cup shredded lettuce
½ cup bean sprouts
½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves

Directions

Combine chopped carrots, ginger, shallot and miso paste (if using) in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until finely ground, then add the rice vinegar and sesame oil with a pinch of salt. Grind until you achieve a slightly chunky liquid dressing.

Add the chopped cabbage, lettuce, bean sprouts and mint leaves to a large bowl and toss with the dressing to combine.

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Photos by Ally-Jane Grossan 

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ColumnIs that detox diet you’re considering for after the holidays all it’s cracked up to be?

I gauge people’s interest in food based upon what articles the Internet shares. Ok, kidding, but there are times when I see the same article shared again and again and again.

Earlier this month The Guardian published an article that made the internet rounds. It wasn’t so surprising that people clicked and shared, it was titled You Can’t Detox Your Body. It’s a Myth. I saw one person make a funny comment about how with this information the entire economy of Boulder would soon come to a standstill, and I smirked.

Oh god, green kale smoothies every morning won’t save us? What are we ever going to do?

It’s no surprise that people shared the article. In the last few years we’ve been fixated on detox diets, detox foods and detox methods. And why wouldn’t we be? Wouldn’t it be nice to know that the two weeks of holiday eating you are about to do wouldn’t matter as long as you stuck to two weeks of orange and ginger juice come the New Year?

But deep down, I think we all know the truth: this is not how healthy living works.

The real problem with a detox diet is that it’s still a diet. And we all know what the problem with diets is: they are not sustainable.

Healthy living comes down to having an all-around healthy approach to living. Dieting however is the opposite of that, the good ol’ yo-yo effect, keeping you in the mindset that if you take a few weeks here and there to eat really well, then you can binge and go all out the rest of the time. It’s an approach to eating that has you vacillating back and forth between one extreme and the other.

The reality is that diets don’t work, but healthy lifestyles do. As Catherine Collins, an NHS dietitian at St George’s Hospital, told The Guardian, “The ultimate lifestyle ‘detox’ is not smoking, exercising and enjoying a healthy balanced diet like the Mediterranean diet.”

In other words, the best detox diet you can do is to have a well rounded approach to living: stay active, avoid processed foods, eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains and indulge a little from time to time, but not too much. You know what’s great about this approach? It doesn’t cost very much. It doesn’t require you to go on a retreat to Bali for four weeks. It doesn’t require you to be super strict about what you put in your body. It keeps you away from the yo-yo effect.

In fact, a healthy lifestyle is more about celebrating food rather than demonizing food, something that a detox diet definitely doesn’t have going for it.

Sure, if you overdo it this holiday season, then a week of brown rice, leafy greens and plenty of water is going to be a nice change for your body. But once you’ve done that, it does’t give you the right to go back to nachos, beer and chocolate chip cookies, now does it? That green morning smoothie is only good for you if the rest of your diet is good for you as well.

A detox diet might be pointless, but a healthy, well-rounded approach to living certainly isn’t. Keep eating real foods, indulge a little, and don’t get too down on yourself because you had an extra glass of wine on Friday night. Celebrate food, and enjoy the process. That will keep you far healthier than any detox diet you’ve ever tried.

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This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: TipsTimesAdmin

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