Detox
Detox - short for 'detoxification' - is possibly the biggest health topic of the 21st century. Studies have shown that we're feeling sicker and lower in energy than ever before. According to UK health magazine. Top Sante, 51 per cent of British women are tired all the time.
Other research from the government-run Office of National Statistics has shown that British workers are taking 300,000 more sick days a year, with women suffering more than men. In the USA, a nationwide survey from the National Sleep Foundation showed that 63 million people, one-third of the population, are exhausted during the day, and 22 million working days a year are lost due to the increased incidence of colds alone.
We know we have a problem and we know what we believe to be the reason: we are filling our bodies with toxins. These include the caffeine that we use to fuel our energy deficit, the fumes we breathe in trying to get from A to B in the rush hour, the junk food we eat because we're too tired to cook and the alcohol we drink trying to tackle stress.
The result is that most of us have tried, at some point, to detox our bodies in some way. We've tried giving up coffee for a week, or living on grapes for the weekend. We've rubbed in lotions, drunk potions and done things with hard-bristled brushes that left our skin rubbed raw for weeks. But nothing seems to work. Why?
Toxic Overload
The reason is that what most people understand as 'detoxing' simply doesn't work. You can't atone for a year's worth of toxic overload by eating grapes or raw food for a weekend. The body just isn't designed that way. We are exposed to an enormous toxin load - each year, the population of the UK alone consumes:
- 200 million alcoholic drinks
- 83 billion cigarettes
- 1 million tonnes of pesticides on food. We are exposed to up to 5,000 new chemicals a year, and even the average beauty regime exposes us to up to 150 potentially toxic ingredients on a daily basis. The result is that the body gets overwhelmed and can't cope.
But we are not defenceless. There is an approach to detoxing your body, described in this book, that will make an efficient and long-term difference to your health and the way you feel. This book works with your body to fight against toxic attack. You'll still have to alter your diet to cleanse your system, but you'll work with foods and other elements to help reinforce your natural detox processes. This means that when you expose your body to toxins it will be able to process them more effectively.
The approach accepts that exposure is inevitable. It realizes that you're human, life is harder than it's ever been before, cars are going to belch pollution, ready meals exist and that sometimes it's fun to go out and drink too much. Rather than telling you that all toxins are evil and that you should avoid them at all costs, this book will show you how to tackle toxins so they cause less damage; or, should you decide you want to eliminate them completely, how to do so without losing your mind or your ability to live a normal life. It will give you control over your body, control that modern life often takes away. It will give you strength, energy and the power to be at your best.