DeTox: The Healing Crisis

Now that you are eating beets, carrots, strawberries, olive oil, hummus, organic corn chips, guacamole, garbanzo beans and honey - your body will change!

Your body has a complete internal system for trash removal. Here it is in simple terms.

Food enters your mouth and travels to the stomach. The pancreas determines which enzymes and secretions are necessary to mix together with the food in your stomach in order to break the food into usable substances. The usable food travels into your blood stream and ultimately into your muscles and major organs. The detritus flows through your gall bladder, kidneys and liver where it is once again gleaned of usable nutrients. Then it passes to your small intestine, large intestine and into the colon where it is pooped from your body.

"Normal bowel transit time (the number of hours between eating food and excreting the waste products) ranges from twenty to forty-eight hours. However, for many people in Western society, transit time is two, three, or even five times longer. Bowel movements among those eating a typical American diet are significangly lighter and smaller in volume than those of people in many third-world nations who consume diets higher in fiber. It is also interesting to note that cancer is almost nonexistent among people in these cultures. The urge to have a bowel movement should occur about twenty minutes after eating, a sort of in-with-the-new, out-with-the-old reflex."
7-Day Detox Miracle
Bennett & Barrie

The more days you spend eating "clean", the faster the detox. What does a healing crisis look like?

"When all goes well, the anus is the colon's
only exit. Except for what leaves through that portal, whatever is in the
large intestine stays in the large intestine."
The Second Brain
Gershon

You will poop often. Let's face it: there is one main passageway out of your body, your body will utilize this passageway most often. There are other passageways. Other ways that waste exits the body include sloughing dead skin cells, peeing, blowing your nose and even exhaling.

"The basic foundation of natural hygiene is
that the body is always striving for health and that it achieves this by
continuously cleansing itself of deleterious waste
material."
Fit For Life
Harvey Diamond

Brace yourself: here is the nitty gritty. You will poop often. Stools which are black and oily have blood in them. Alcohol, beer and wine can make the stomach bleed causing a bloody stool. Healthy poop is light brown, slightly soft, very large, exits easily and floats. There is only one way to lose weight, cure cancer and rid your body of toxins and disease: go to the bathroom.

"Retained debris in the colon leads to the
absorption of toxins, resulting in systemic intoxication (poisoning).
Symptoms of this condition can include mental confusion, depression,
irritability, fatigue, gastrointestinal irregularities, and even allergic
reactions such as hives, sneezing and coughing. Many nutritionists and
researchers believe that this toxicity can eventually lead to more serious disorders."

Prescription for Nutritional
Healing
Balch & Balch

Give your body 30 days to clean itself out. Work through it, keep eating whole foods, count the days it takes to clean your body out, keep a journal, blog!, stay true to what you know feeds your body and you will get through it. It may take a headache or two to get off caffeine but it will be worth it. The worse the detox, the more sure you can be that your body truly needed it.