1 Week Detox

Detoxifying diets support your body and can lead to long-term diet changes. Any detox diet should have a preparation phase, the diet phase and a sequel phase where you ease your body back into normal eating habits. For one week before you begin the one week detoxification, you should prepare your body. For a few days after the one week diet, you should help your body begin to reintegrate certain foods.

The Preparation Phase

This phase is essential. Your actual detox diet will last one week, but for it to be effective, for at least one week before you being, you should stop using caffeine, alcohol, mast sugar and refined grains. This will ensure that you are not overly shocking your body by changing your diet too drastically too quickly.

Foods to Include

For one week, you will be eating foods to support the detoxification of your liver. Many of these foods are high in sulfur, which, as the third most common mineral in your body, is essential for detoxification, among other roles. Foods rich in sulfur include egg yolks, garlic and onions. You will also want to eat five to 10 servings of green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, citrus fruits except for grapefruit, fruits high in antioxidants such as berries and artichokes. Supplement your diet with flax seeds, sprinkled on your food or as a supplement. Eat at least one serving of cold water fish such as salmon daily, or take a high quality fish oil supplement. Oils for this week need to be olive oil, coconut oil, unrefined sesame oil or organic butter from grass fed cows.

Foods to Avoid

As in the preparation stage, during the week of the detox diet you need to avoid all alcohol, caffeine, sugar, refined grains such as white flour and white rice. You need to also avoid all processed foods during this week. You will need to cook your own food or know exactly how your food is prepared. Avoid hydrogenated fats, canola oil and most vegetable oils except for those listed above. This week, concentrate on eating mostly raw or lightly cooked fresh foods.

Water and Other Fluids

The week of your detox diet, drink at least eight glasses of filtered water per day. Also drink herbal teas such as milk thistle, which supports healthy liver function, and dandelion, which is a tonic helpful for detoxification. Drink pomegranate juice and cranberry juice as well. These juices all support the detoxification process. Pomegranate juice aids in eliminating parasites, and cranberry juice aids kidney function.

The Sequel

The best outcome of the one week detox diet is to continue most of the diet in the long term. However, after the week, you may reintegrate other foods back into your diet. Follow the guidelines from the preparation stage, and gently reintegrate foods into your diet. If you add foods back in too suddenly, this can shock your system and affect the detoxification process.