Stop Smoking Plan: Living the Detox Life
Once you've successfully stopped smoking, staying away from cigarettes is the main way to lead the detox life; however, you can also take some steps to help repair some of the damage smoking has caused in your body.
- Start taking multivitamins. A host of nutrients can help repair some of the damage that will have occurred in the body. Vitamin B12, for example, can help rebuild cells in the lungs, and vitamin B3 opens up cells that nicotine has damaged. You should not take individual supplements, however, since this can imbalance the body and has been shown to be dangerous in smokers; instead protect yourself by regularly taking a good multivitamin.
- Eat at least three tomato-based meals a week. The antioxidant nutrient lycopene found in tomatoes seems to offer protection against the damage caused by smoking.
- Start drinking green tea. Japanese researchers found less cell damage in smokers who drank green tea, and it's possible that the tea may help mop up damage after smoking.
- Avoid passive smoking. A night spent in a room full of heavy smokers is the same as smoking four cigarettes yourself - so why re-do old damage? If you can't avoid smoky places, at least do the next best thing and increase your consumption of orange juice and watercress; both of these have been shown to speed the rate at which the body excretes the harmful byproducts of smoking.