Springtime is here again and some of you still may be feeling the winter blues. One way to get back on our feet following winter is to engage in the therapeutic practice of spring cleaning, which is when we clean our homes to get a fresh start with the sunny weather and to prepare for the highly anticipated summer time. With that though, many of us are trying to get something else summer-ready this spring – our bodies.
Now when we talk about “cleaning” our bodies, I bet the first thing that comes to mind is the ever-so-popular detox, right? And you’re probably expecting a list of foods that can help you clean out all of those pesky toxins from your system. Well, to my knowledge, there’s no one food or herb that has ever been able to “detox” our organs. Most of us have functioning skin, liver and kidneys that are extraordinarily complex in their function and also good at their jobs of clearing our body of toxins naturally. To keep these organs functioning optimally, all you have to do is nourish them with a variety of fruits and vegetables. But why?
Fruits and vegetables are nutrient-dense foods, rich in antioxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals that can help all of your body systems to function at its best for a prolonged and natural detoxifying effect. Therefore, I’m proposing a nutrition reboot rather than a detox. In my private practice in San Francisco, I’ve helped thousands of clients reboot their bodies to feel great and energized.
There are three steps to my nutrition reboot:
1) Eat up antioxidant and anti-inflammatory foods: Free radicals can lead to chronic inflammation and over time can cause chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and even some cancers. The phytonutrients and antioxidants from fruits and vegetables protects cells from damage caused by free radicals. And that, my friends, is detoxing!
2) Be colorful: I can’t say this enough. The colors in fruits and vegetables are caused by phytonutrients, which have a range of health benefits, so a key to good nutrition is to eat the rainbow of fruits and vegetables. I recommend eating all colors of fruits and vegetables within a week so, when your building your plate or buying fruits and vegetables for dinner, make sure to eat the rainbow!
3) Make smoothies. Eating whole fruits and vegetables is best, but a simple way to start incorporating fruits and vegetables into your diet is by making nutritionally balanced smoothies. Only 1 in 10 Americans meet their fruit or vegetable recommendation, so smoothies can be a quick and simple way to help you get at least 3 serving of the nine servings of fruits and vegetables you need. It’s also a great way to utilize frozen fruits and vegetables that are typically more affordable and can be kept in your freezer for long periods of time for whenever you’re ready to use them.
