Detox Diet
Occasionally, I'm asked about someone having severe detox
symptoms and what can they do. Here's a typical one and my
reply:
I just finished my first 10-day cleanse and feel
fine. My 26-year-old daughter, however has lead poisoning,
multiple chemical sensitivities, an infection of the thyroid
and low blood sugar. She started the cleanse today. She did
not put cayenne in her first drink, so she doubled it in her
next drink. She felt bad immediately and had a very bad reaction.
She tested allergic to cayenne about 18 months ago, but we
thought it had gone away. Is there an alternative for the
cayenne pepper or do you have any suggestions?
I was sorry to hear about her daughter's reactions.
Although I am not a licensed health care practitioner and
therefore cannot diagnose, prescribe, cure or treat any disease,
I did offer her information on what I know has happened
with others in similar situations and what they did.
First, it's important to understand her lead poisoning diagnosis
meanst she had a super-abundance of toxins in her body. (The
definition of "lead poisoning" is too much lead—a
toxin—in her body.)
Second, detoxification is not a single action—first the toxins
are here and then they're gone. No. Detoxification is a two
step process—first they are mobilized from where the body
has stored them to protect itself. Then they are neutralized
and eliminated through the liver, colon, kidneys, skin, and
lungs.
If a person brings toxins out of storage faster than the
body can neutralize and eliminate them, she/he will get a
detox symptom or reaction because the toxins can be reabsorbed
before they are eliminated.
The Master Cleanse is perhaps the second fastest
method of detoxification. (A pure water fast is the fastest.)
However, "fast" isn't always best for the above
reason that it may be more than the body can handle. People
with poor elimination or people with too many toxins need
a slower method so their elimination system can keep up.
I talk about people who should take it easy on the Master
Cleanse in Lose
Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days.
I also say on our Master
Cleanse Bulletin Board that people undergoing chemotherapy
or with several-year histories of taking strong medical drugs
should not do the Master Cleanse without doing slower
types of detoxification first. They have too many
toxins to try to detoxify quickly. It may cause too many seriously
unpleasant reactions and, in the case of those on or just
off chemotherapy, possibly even cause harm.
One of the things cayenne does is dilate blood vessels and
dissolve mucus. It acts like an accelerator pedal for the
Master Cleanse. So, it's possible her daughter "double-whammied"
herself when she did a Master Cleanse lemonade with double
the amount of the cayenne.
I know a lady in New York who had a several-year history
of strong medical drugs and was surprised that she was doing
so well on the Master Cleanse until I discovered that she
was using bottled, and thus pasteurized, lemon juice. (Pasteurization
kills enzymes and severely reduces the effectiveness of the
lemon juice.)
When she tried fresh squeezed lemon juice, she had much stronger
detox symptoms and had to switch to a slower method of detoxification.
(By the way, this incident convinced me that bottled lemon
juice is not acceptable for the Master Cleanse.)
Here is my scale of detoxifying actions ranked from fastest
(1) to slowest (10). I recommended she
choose one of these slower methods.
The Detox Diet Scale
from Fastest to Slowest
- Pure water fast
- The Master Cleanse
- Fruit juice fast (fruits are detoxifiers)
- Vegetable juice fast (Veggies build up the body with vitamins,
proteins and minerals.)
- Enemas (Can be combined with all these other methods except
the Master Cleanse.)
- 100% raw vegan diet
- Predominantly raw vegan diet with the rest of the diet
being cooked vegetarian food.
- 100% vegetarian diet without sugar or artificially preserved,
colored, flavored, sweetened, or prepared foods.
- Drinking at least a pint of freshly made green smoothie
every day.
- Soaking in a hot Epsom Salt bath (2 cups to a regular
sized tub) at least 3x a week for at least 12 minutes. (Note:
this method can be combined with any of the others.)
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