Lady LUX

It sounds almost too easy. Drink some juices or eat raw food for a while, and you could … lose inches, feel great and have more energy—even if you’ve been struggling to get results. Want to hear more? LadyLUX got the lowdown on what cleansing could do for you.

Cleansing is about giving your body a fresh start; it’s about reprogramming you both physically and mentally. The consequences of years of ingesting processed foods, together with toxins from food, synthetic medicines and the environment, can take a toll.

“People live their whole lives eating all kinds of things and putting chemicals and all kinds of things in their body so cleansing is a really awesome way to (restart),” Katie Watson, a store manager at Nekter, a store in Costa Mesa, Calif., that sells a juice cleanse, said.

These toxins, Arnoux Goran, founder of Total Health Mastery, warns, are not removed through the body’s normal elimination system.

“The most detrimental cleansing myth to our health is that there aren’t any toxins to remove because the liver and kidneys get it all out,” Goran said. “Anyone who has done a good cleanse knows that there are years and years of buildup of toxic matter of all kind.”

If these toxins are not eliminated, they interfere with the body’s ability to assimilate and absorb nutrition, as well as to detox itself. Over time, toxicity can be devastating on your health.

“So the body weakens more and more and more, making it hard to achieve ideal health,” said Shawn Tene, clinical nutritionist at Seeds of Life Detox Center in Corona Del Mar, Calif.

During a cleanse, the body releases as much as it can of your stored toxins.

When cleansing, toxins from the liver and fat cells are released and dumped into the large intestine, where they are hopefully removed when you relieve yourself rather than remaining stuck in your system.

Most people have built up pasty mucoid plaque along the intestinal wall, full of nonorganic matter and undigested food which are being stored in the lining of the intestines. When this plaque is swept away, it’s much easier for the digestive system to break down food, enabling you to feel full and satisfied while eating less.

“Cleansing is the preventative medicine for the body, allowing it to clean things out before they lead to disease in the body,” Jenny Ross, owner of raw food restaurant 118 Degrees, in Costa Mesa, Calif., said.

These experts are unequivocal on one point: Toxins lead to disease in all cases. Some, Goran reports, even believe autointoxication is the cause of all illness.

“Toxicity is fully responsible for all the deficiencies that are occurring in the body,” Tene said. “Definitely all of it.”

Perhaps health is not the number one goal on your list. The benefits of cleansing are much greater than better-functioning organs. Most people have incredible energy at the end, as harmful toxins can slow you down.

“When your digestive system is assimilating properly and your kidneys are working properly and your liver is working properly, you have a really balanced body and that leads to all the sub-reasons people cleanse, like losing weight and increased energy and increased stamina,” Ross said.

Goran says cleansing may not only cause fat loss, but increased energy, dramatically improved skin, better memory, increased athletic performance, feelings of happiness and more.

“(Cleansing) can be incredibly life altering … to how you feel emotionally, mentally and spiritually,” Goran said. “It’s all connected.”

Many cleanses do not bill their programs as for weight loss, but shrinking that waistline is definitely on the menu as a positive effect.

“We don’t want to list losing weight as one of our main goals, but you definitely do lose it in the process because your body is just totally flushing all organs and everything out,” Watson said.

While Ross believes many see cleansing as a “hippy dippy thing to do,” it could change your entire overall health. Taking prescription medication, she said, is not going to heal the body’s ailments.

“(Medication is) just going to treat the symptoms,” Ross said. “If you want to remove the ailment altogether, you have to heal the body at a deeper level. And that’s what cleansing does. It’s a healing process.”

You may feel intimidated and hesitant to jump in. Fears of constantly running to the bathroom, spending time and money, and feeling rundown may make you nervous. These experts, however, claim that if done properly, cleansing is safe and healthy – and will make you feel better, not worse.

As Ross points out, the bigger risk is not going through the cleansing process.

Hooked? Stay tuned for LadyLUX’s article on different cleanses out there to try.

Tagged in: weight loss, raw food, cleanse, total health mastery, 118 degrees, juice, cleansing, nekter, lose weight,