Healthy digestion is so important for overall health and wellness, but did you know that it also supports our body’s ability to detoxify?
Before we dive into digestion and detoxification, let’s first get a better understanding of what toxins are and where they come from.
Every day we are constantly being exposed to environmental toxins. Where do these toxins come from? Well…everywhere! From the food and water we consume, to the personal care and cleaning products we use, the medications we take, the air we breathe, to the hidden toxins we may not even realize we have (mold, parasites, infections), and more!
The good news is, our body’s are incredibly smart. They are beautifully designed with a process that eliminates waste, toxins and pathogens. This process is known as detoxification. It is the way in which the body heals and repairs itself.
Your body is constantly working to detoxify, but in order to do so, it requires some help from you!
It also requires drainage pathways to be open in order for detoxification to take place. Learn more about why opening drainage pathways is the first step to healing in this post + download my FREE guide to drainage with the tools you need to support this process!
Digestion and Detoxification Go Hand in Hand
One of the ways you can best support your body’s ability to detox is to focus on healthy digestion.
You may be asking…what does digestion have to do with detoxification? A whole lot! Optimal digestion is essential for the body to efficiently detoxify.
By the end of this post, you will feel empowered with the tools to best support your body’s natural detoxification process, by focusing on digestion.
The digestive system plays a very important role in detoxification. Some of its responsibilities (besides digesting food) include:
- Scanning your food for invaders
- Detoxifying poorly digested, fermented toxins
- Filtering food and intestinal bacteria
- Eliminating toxins and other unusable substances from the body
Let’s start by looking at a few key reasons why digestion is so important for detoxification.
Detox Pathways Require Nutrients
Without the proper digestion and absorption of nutrients, our detoxification pathways can become clogged. This can lead to dysfunction in either Phase 1 or 2 liver detox, or both. These are the phases that allow the liver to perform its detoxification functions.
Specific nutrients and amino acids also play an imperative role in the proper functioning of these detoxification pathways.
Examples of nutrients required for detox include:
- Essential fatty acids (such as nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconut oil)
- Fresh fruits (especially citrus fruits which are rich in vitamin C)
- Cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cabbage)
- High-quality protein from eggs, fish and meat
Without the ability to digest and absorb the foods we eat, our body won’t have the nutrients required for detoxification to take place.
Are you Digesting Fats?
We learned above that eating essential fatty acids nourishes our detox pathways, but if you aren’t absorbing the fats, they aren’t doing you much good!
Poor fat digestion (the inability to absorb fats) clogs the lymphatic system, which in turn burdens the liver. When the liver becomes burdened, we can begin to see a dysfunction in our biliary ducts and the mobilization of bile.
Bile plays a BIG role in digestion and waste removal. It is released from the common bile duct into your small intestine, where it breaks down fats into fatty acids and helps with the absorption of nutrients.
In order for the body to remove toxins through the digestive tract, bile must be able to move freely. Otherwise, the bile will become sluggish and reabsorbed in the body, adding to the body’s toxic burden.
This is one reason why we must be able to properly digest and absorb fats from the food we eat.
The Role of the Microbiome
For detoxification to take place during digestion, two things in the intestines must be in tact:
- A healthy gut lining
- A balanced microbiome
A healthy microbiome supports the integrity of the gut lining. An imbalanced microbiome (not enough good bacteria and too much bad bacteria) can injure the gut lining, making it permeable. This permeability allows undigested food and other contaminants to leak into the bloodstream, which can contribute to the overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria and Candida, and can lead to food reactions and autoimmune responses, which further impairs the digestive system and the body’s ability to detoxify.
Eating foods that nourish a healthy microbiome, and ensuring our ability to properly digest and absorb those nutrients, can positively impact the health of our microbiome and in turn support detoxification.
Some of these microbiome loving nutrients include:
- Probiotic foods (such as high-quality yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, and apple cider vinegar)
- Prebiotic foods (such as garlic, onions, asparagus, oats, and apples)
- Fiber-rich foods (such as high-fiber fruits and vegetables, legumes, seeds, and sweet potatoes)
- Supplementing with a high-quality probiotic – work with your practitioner to find one that works best for you
Avoiding or limiting foods and other substances that feed pathogenic bacteria and lead to an imbalanced microbiome are equally important.
Some of these microbiome disruptors include:
- Processed or packaged foods
- Sugars
- Refined carbohydrates (such as white flour and white bread)
- Refined oils and fats (such as soybean and corn oil)
- Antibiotic medications (unless medically necessary)
Why Pooping is a Must
Let’s just get this out in the open…everyone poops! But do you poop daily, or is it more like once every few days? Are your poops formed, or are they loose or rigid?
These questions might make you feel a little uncomfortable, but they’re so important to ask yourself on your healing journey!
Why?
Healthy poops are a sign of healthy digestion and a well functioning colon. Your colon has a BIG job to do every day. It’s responsible for removing waste and toxins out of the body through you guessed it…your poop!
Pooping daily (ideally 1-3 times per day) is essential for detoxification, and it’s especially important if you are tackling pathogens (Candida, SIBO, mold, Lyme, parasites, etc.) with a healing protocol.
If your digestion is suffering, your colon will struggle to do its job, which means that all of the toxins your body is working so hard to eliminate will instead recirculate and reabsorb, leaving you feeling like…you guessed it…poop!
Ways To Support Digestion for Optimal Detoxification
We talked about all the ways digestion impacts our ability to detoxify. Now let’s talk about some ways to boost healthy digestion.
Drink plenty of water – Pro Tip: Add some fresh lemon or cucumber slices and herbs to make drinking water more fun. You can also invest in a stainless steel drinking cup with a straw (the straw will make you want to drink more water – I promise!). I also recommend adding a pinch of celtic sea salt to increase trace minerals and boost absorption.
Eat fiber rich foods – Enjoy a wide variety of colorful, plant-based whole foods. This increases microbiome diversity and prevents constipation.
Make mealtime sacred – Sit down, don’t rush, put distractions away and chew your food. These practices will put your body into a parasympathetic state which is necessary for optimal digestion and detoxification.
Take the time to chew your food – I can’t tell you how many people experience better digestion just from making this one small change! You might be thinking chewing is overrated because you have a stomach to digest your food for you, right? WRONG! We need to thoroughly chew our food (ideally 30 times before swallowing) to help it break down before it enters our stomach.
Movement – Daily movement will help get your blood flowing and stimulate your colon to get things moving.
Reduce stress and heal emotional traumas – Did you know we can hold onto emotional trauma in our tissues and organs? This can hinder our ability to heal! Pro Tip: Create daily rituals to practice self care and gratitude (such as breathwork, journaling, and meditation).
Supplement when needed – Work with a practitioner to identify a supplement protocol that’s beneficial for you.
Some of my favorite supplements that promote digestion and relieve constipation include:
- Organo King Coffee – Organic, mold/mycotoxin free coffee infused with reishi spores which support the microbiome and crowd out pathogens (reishi spores are anti-bacterial, anti-candida, and anti-parasitic). FAQ with more info.
- Organo Black Coffee – Mold/mycotoxin free coffee infused with reishi lucidum (body of the reishi mushroom) which is beneficial for balancing the microbiome (supports dysbiosis and SIBO). FAQ with more info.
- TUDCA – Helps improve healthy bile flow and digestion.
- Intestinal Mover – A one-of-a-kind natural supplement that promotes digestion and detox support, and relieves constipation.
- Digestive Bitters – Use before meals to encourage digestive juices and promote digestion.
Supporting Detoxification by Opening Drainage Pathways
Along with ensuring healthy digestion, opening drainage pathways is also necessary for detoxification to take place.
Learn more about why opening drainage pathways is the first step to healing in this post + download my FREE guide to drainage with the tools you need to support this process!
The information provided in this post is based on my own personal experience and research. It is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, heal, treat or cure disease and should not be a replacement for medical advice. Always consult your doctor before trying a new diet, lifestyle or supplement protocol.
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