Detox for vitality & superhealth

Feeling sluggish, bloated and lacking in energy - even after a good night’s sleep? Toxic overload is a grim reality in today’s polluted world. Pollution, stress, food and environmental factors can leave your liver, kidneys, lungs, colon and other important systems of elimination exhausted from the battle to restore and maintain balance and harmony within the body. With £50 million spent each year on laxatives in the UK, it is clear that elimination is a big problem. Colon and colorectal cancers and diseases of the digestive tract are on the increase. An over-consumption of ‘bad’ fats and red meat, combined with a low intake of fibre foods, will severely reduce the body’s ability to properly absorb nutrients and eliminate toxins.

Give your body a chance to recover and thrive with a sensible detoxification programme. By cutting down on red meats and fats, increasing your fruit and veg intake and using vitamins, essential fatty acids and effective herbs each day, you can detox your body to restore vitality, enhance weight loss and improve mood.

There are some fabulous books available including Leslie Kenton’s Ten Steps to a Younger You (Vermillion, 2000) and The Carol Vorderman Detox Diet (Virgin Books, 2001). For more one-to-one support, pop into your local health food store.

According to author and health guru Leslie Kenton, the liver—the body’s organ of inner cleansing—is most active between midnight and mid day. She recommends a breakfast of raw fruits and vegetables and green foods to help support the liver’s morning clear out.

Leslie Kenton Ten Steps to a Younger You published by Vermillion, 2000.

 

Begin the day with an energy-boosting detox Super Smoothie

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 bananas
• 2 apples
• 2 cups Frozen or Fresh Berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries – depending on availability)
• 1 cup apple juice

Break open four capsules of Viridian High-Five Multivitamin and Mineral
2 tablespoons of Viridian 100% Organic Green Food Blend
2 tablespoons of Viridian 100% Organic Golden Flax Seed Oil
2 tablespoons of Viridian 100% Organic Hemp Seed Oil

Whizz all in a blender and drink immediately.

Serves 4. Adults: 1-2 cups.
Children ½ cup.

 

What’s in the smoothie, and why?

Fruit

Bananas add that delicious creaminess to a smoothie. Apples contain malic acid, helpful in weightloss. Berries contain fruit polyphenols and antioxidants. All fruits supply fibre, helpful for digestion. If you prefer, you can change the recipe to include carrots, beetroot and tomatoes to add extra carotenoids.

Multivitamin & Mineral

The evidence indicates that for many people, it makes good sense to use nutritional supplements regularly. For many population groups the regular use of supplements is a cost-effective strategy for achieving both short- and long-term health benefits. The Government has identified the following groups of people as being especially at risk from low vitamin and mineral intakes: highly active people, menstruating women, vegetarians and vegans, the over 50s, slimmers, pre-conceptual, pregnant and breast-feeding women, smokers, drinkers and faddy eaters.

There is significant research demonstrating that generous intakes of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients confer health benefits, including protection against diseases and conditions such as osteoporosis, some birth defects, heart disease, infectious disease, cataracts, macular degeneration and cancer. Substantial savings in NHS health care costs could be realised if more people took nutritional supplements.

Nutritional supplements are safe within a broad range of intakes, and adverse effects are uncommon.

Typical Western diets generally fail to provide levels of nutrient intake that meet nutritional goals.

Wheatgrass, barleygrass, alfalfa and bilberry

Excellent superfood combination, rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and easily digestible carbohydrates.

Golden Flax Seed oil

Flax oil is omega 3 rich (even more potent than fish oils) and so is highly beneficial in keeping all parts of the cardiovascular system maintained and lubricated. Excellent for joint maintenance, skin health and children’s brain health.

Hemp seed oil

Hemp has similar applications for Flax Seed, however Hemp is the only edible seed containing GLA thus it makes a suitable choice in PMS conditions.

Add Calcium, Magnesium and Boron to boost bone protection

These important minerals offer bone support and the inclusion in the formula of malic acid and vitamin C can boost energy production and immune support. Simply add a teaspoon or two to your daily smoothie.

De-stress and liver health herbs

For adults, add Milk Thistle and Rhodiola to aid liver detox, de-stress and boost mood and libido.

Green foods

Chlorophyll, the green pigment found in green foods such as wheatgrass and barleygrass, increases peristaltic action thus relieving constipation and normalises the secretion of digestive acids. The chlorophyll-rich alkaline effects of cereal grasses and other green foods help overcome cases of hyperacidity, control the growth of unwanted micro-organisms, detoxify the liver and deodorise the gastro-intestinal tract.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, aids the detoxification process in several ways. Just as it recycles glutathione, it does this with other antioxidants, including vitamin E. Studies have shown that glutathione attaches to toxic compounds in the liver, neutralizing toxins or enabling them to be excreted. Glutathione is too large a molecule to effectively pass through the intestine into cells, so supplementing with glutathione alone is not helpful.

Vitamin E

The major fat-soluble antioxidant in the body, vitamin E is the most studied free radical quencher. Vitamin E and water-soluble vitamin C work symbiotically to recycle one another in the fight against free radicals. Vitamins C and E, as well as beta-carotene, protect the liver from damage and help support detoxification mechanisms.

Zinc

Zinc is a mineral antioxidant that works with the sulfur component of the antioxidant enzyme SOD (superoxide dismutase) to protect tissues. Zinc also improves liver function.

Selenium

Selenium makes zinc more effective and works closely with vitamin E to maintain not just a healthy liver but a healthy heart, too.

Milk Thistle

Milk thistle is beneficial to the liver because silymarin, the active component of the herb, inhibits liver damage and stimulates the growth of new liver cells to replace damaged cells.

Dandelion

Dandelion comes under the category of a bitter herb. It is believed that the bitter principles stimulate the initial phase of digestion, this involves the release of salivary and gastric juices. It is also involved in stimulating the release of bile from the liver and gallbladder.

The effect of Dandelion on bile flow is two fold. Firstly, the cholerectic effect, which affects liver directly by causing an increase in bile production and flow to the gallbladder. Secondly, the chologogue effect, which exerts a direct effect on the gallbladder, causing contraction and the release of stored bile. The high choline content of the root may be a major factor in dandelion’s ability to act as a tonic to the liver.

Diuretic and weight loss effects – Dandelion has a confirmed diuretic action. Because dandelion replaces potassium lost through diuresis, it does not have some of the potential side effects of othodox diuretic drugs, such as hepatic coma and circulatory collapse.

Burdock

Burdock is a digestive herb used primarily as a cleansing and an eliminative remedy, especially effective when there is a build up of toxins.

 

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These documents are reproduced with kind permission from Viridian-Nutrition.