New Year Reboot: January Detox by Chris Miller, MD

It’s a new year, and a great time to reset healthy eating. Call it a reboot, or a detox, but if the holiday decadence leaves you with food cravings, weight gain, fatigue, headaches, joint pains, and basically not feeling your best, it’s time to reset your eating. I’m talking about a healthy detox, and here are a few of my favorite tips to get back on track:

1.  Add in a green vegetable juice or green smoothie daily to increase nutrient load—I like to make them with different greens, celery, carrots, cucumber, lemon, ginger and turmeric. They’re purposely not sweet, but tart with a kick, are hydrating and refreshing, and really help jump start healthy eating. They are also helpful to break food cravings, which can be really ramped up after holiday extravaganzas.
2.  Enjoy lots of raw veggies and fruit from the color of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. These will provide the needed vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants necessary to facilitate your liver and kidneys to optimally remove waste and reduce inflammation.
3.  Eat 1-2 cups cruciferous veggies—from the cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower family—every day. Also eat sulfur-containing veggies, such as onions and garlic. These provide necessary nutrients to facilitate the liver to ramp up detoxification and clear out chemicals and waste products.
4.  Drink plenty of water—at least 0.5-1 ounces of water per pound body weight, or 0.5-1 gallons per day. Our cells are bathed in water, and being well-hydrated will help clear waste products and toxins more efficiently.
5.  Exercise and move your body—this is important to get the lymph system moving, as waste is more efficiently picked up and excreted from the body. Walking 10-30 minutes per day is helpful; more intense workout even more so.

Do we even need a detox?

It certainly can be helpful, as enduring a period of time where we eat less pro-inflammatory foods; reduce intake of food additives and chemicals; consume fewer overall calories; take in nutrient-rich, real whole foods; drink plenty of fluids; get proper movement and rest; and spend time in self-care can help increase cellular repairs, healing and rejuvenation. We can also end those food cravings and resume a healthier way of eating.