Your local farmers’ market, and the organic produce section at your grocery store, provide delicious options for eating your way to optimum health. Fruits and vegetables that cleanse, fortify and nourish your body, mind and spirit are there for the picking. Here’s a list of some of the best hard-working super foods to choose.
The old adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” has a lot more truth than you may know. Each apple is packed with the fiber pectin, which binds to heavy metals and cholesterol and leeches them out of the body. A single serving also helps to cleanse the intestines by eliminating toxic build up.
Go green with avocados! While technically a fruit, since it develops from the flower of the tree and contains a seed, the avocado has a rich, savory flavor and creamy texture, making it more similar to a vegetable. As far as helping the body cleanse, however, they definitely achieve “super hero” status. Avocados are rich in glutathione, which detoxifies the liver, cleanses arteries, lowers cholesterol and dilates blood vessels. Avocados also block more than 30 different known carcinogens.
To purify the blood and cleanse the liver, bite into a beet. The classic dark red, mild golden, striped and cylindra beets – which look more like carrots — are all proven detoxifiers.
One of nature’s antibiotics can also help block toxins from entering the brain. Blueberries are healing powerhouses that reduce inflammation, ease pain and help prevent urinary tract infections.
Cabbage neutralizes damaging compounds in cigarette smoke, including second-hand smoke, while cleansing the digestive tract and helping the liver detoxify.
Another multi-tasking cleansing food is celery, along with its seeds. Both help scrub the blood and detoxify cancer cells, while the seeds are packed with anti-inflammatory properties.
Sprinkling a spoonful of ground flaxseeds on your next fresh smoothie enhances the cleansing properties, while fortifying the body with Omega-3s and other essential fatty acids.
Pungent fresh garlic cleanses harmful bacteria, viruses and even intestinal parasites from your blood and intestines. It also scrubs the arteries and clears the respiratory system by flushing mucous from the lungs and sinuses.
The sweet-tart grapefruit gets right to work in the body, cleansing the blood, leeching out heavy metals and even attacking harmful viruses. It’s also great for detoxifying both the intestines and liver.
Squirting juice from a fresh lemon onto your raw foods and salads helps your body become more alkaline. Bursting with vitamin C, lemons are powerful liver detoxifiers, too. For people on the Optimum Health Institute maintenance diet, adding fresh lemon juice to your glass of water first thing in the morning also helps you alkalize.
See how delicious a diet of cleansing live, raw organic foods can be while spending a week, or two, or ideally three, at the Optimum Health Institute holistic health missions in San Diego and Austin, Texas. Come help us celebrate 40 Years of Holistic Healing. Our caring team will give you the tools, encouragement and inspiration to detoxify your body, quiet your mind and rejuvenate your spirit while you are surrounded in serene beauty. Visit our website at www.optimumhealth.org, and call us at (800) 993-4325 to make your reservation.