Planning Your Detox Diet Meals

Any time that you make a change in the way that you eat, it’s always in your best interest to plan ahead. By planning your detox diet meals, you can make sure that you accomplish two goals.

You can eliminate toxins in foods that can make you ill and you can create a way of eating that’s healthy for you. A detox diet doesn’t have to mean one that’s complicated or overly restrictive in what you can and can’t have.

It simply means making better choices for healing health. You’ll want to look at organic foods, because an organic diet can eliminate foods that can cause an allergic response in the body.

Plus, you won’t get foods that have been sprayed with chemicals like pesticides. You’ll get a greater amount of nutrients and no genetically engineered foods, as well.

If you’re someone who suffers from intestinal issues, choosing an organic detox diet is probably a good choice for you. On an organic detox diet, the food is tasty, too.

You can have things like a salad made of quinoa, berries, spinach and arugula. Or you can add peas, sesame seeds and yellow squash. Greek yogurt and watermelon are good on an organic detox diet.

Some people think that in order to detox your body, you have to go completely without food - and that’s not true. You can use an organic detox diet by choosing foods that have natural detoxification properties.

Organic vegetables, especially in their raw state, are powerful detoxification agents. Choose vegetables such as carrots, onions, beets, and broccoli. If you eat broccoli, make sure you eat the top part – the crown.

It’s packed with antioxidants. Cabbage is also a natural toxin fighter. These vegetables contain high levels of sulfur, which can naturally get toxins out of your body.

If you use oils in your organic diet, choose olive oil or flax seed oil. These are rich in omega 3 and omega 3 is known to fight toxins, too. When you’re choosing to eat a detox diet, you need to have some protein.

Your body depends on it - especially your muscles. But you also need it to keep your cells healthy. What some people choose to do is get their protein from grains.

However, when you eat protein, it needs to have all of the necessary amino acids. Without it, your body can’t function the way that it’s supposed to because you’ll be robbing it of necessary nutrients.

If you absolutely must have your protein from grains, then choose quinoa, because it contains the most protein. You can mix certain grains to form the amount of protein that you need, but you’ll be eating a lot of food this way.

On a detox diet, some people decide to get protein from good meat sources, like fish. If you decide to go with this choice, you’ll want to avoid fish that are high in mercury.

These are ones like tuna and grouper. Fish that are low in mercury are ones like trout and salmon. A detox diet meal can include protein from other sources such as from beans.

Always choose fresh over canned ones. Beans that are good sources of protein include kidney beans and dried beans. Pinto beans and black beans are both good sources of protein and they’re packed with fiber.

Protein can also be found in nuts and seeds. But you want the ones that are loaded with the good fats, not the bad. For this, you’d want to choose ones like walnuts or almonds.

If you’re looking for seeds to have as part of your detox diet, stick with sunflower or pumpkin seeds. And when you’re buying nuts, don’t buy the ones in a package that have any extra ingredients, such as preservatives, because those contain toxins - and that defeats the purpose of a detox diet.

Some detox diets advocate the use of protein powder for the duration, but some don’t. It depends on the one that you choose. In a lot of diets, including some detox diets, there’s a ton of advice listing carbs as a bad thing, and this simply isn’t good advice.

Carbs are necessary for the function of your body’s organs. Without it, your body can’t work the way the way that it’s supposed to. Now, it’s true that there are carbs that you should stay away from.

Most of these are high carb foods that are high calorie and high in sugar. These kinds of carbs can contribute to a toxin build up in your body, so you don’t want to put these in your body.

Unfortunately, these high carb foods are the ones that the body often craves. This is because these carbs can be addictive - especially if they’re full of sugar or salt.

The reason these foods are addictive is because when you eat them, they release the feel-good chemical in the brain. You should have at least half of your calories from carbs in order for your body to function well.

But what you want to do is to choose carbs that are natural instead of ones that are refined. That means look for carbohydrates in the plant family. Choose carbs that have a good fiber content.

That means picking ones such as sweet potatoes, beans, whole grains, and vegetables like carrots and tomatoes. When you plan your detox diet meals, you also have to include fats.

You won’t have the energy that you need without them. You also won’t be able to get the nutrients that you need and your body will struggle to create the hormones that help it function.

Of course, the kinds of fats that should be in your diet matter. Some fats can cause toxins to build up and you don’t want that. Choose fats such as canola oil. This oil is made from seeds and is low in saturated fat.

Olive oil is one of the best fats that you can choose on a detox diet. The reason for this is because this oil is a heart helper. It contains monounsaturated fats, which studies have shown can cut your chance of developing heart disease.

Not only that but it can cut your cholesterol level and it’s good for your digestive system. Not all fats are in liquid form like oils. Some are found in foods in their natural state such as avocados.

The fat in avocados helps fight inflammations. They also contain monounsaturated fat just like you find in olive oil that benefits your heart. They contain carotenoids, too - which are good for your eyes.

Plus, they’re loaded with numerous vitamins, such as folate and vitamins B, C and E. They’re packed full of fiber, too, which makes them a great choice when choosing fats for your detox diet. The amount of fiber contained in avocados can help stave off hunger, which is also useful if you’re trying to lose weight.