Benefit #1 of Cleansing

One of the biggest benefits to cleansing is that it strengthens your immune system. The job of the immune system is to get rid of all of the toxic wastes, viruses, bacteria, and any infectious materials. The problem is that we are assaulted with way more toxins than the body was designed to handle. Therefore the immune system is so busy trying to keep these toxins in check that it is working overtime to do it. The stores of the immune system become depleted and then you become more susceptible to things like colds and flus. Not to mention that if the immune system is really compromised, mutant cells occur which are cancers and are able to take hold because the immune system is not available to kill these mutant cells.

So the bottom line is we need to help out the immune system to help us stay well. Here's a thought you should ponder about all of this. Antibiotics are really not what cures the infection in our body. It is the immune system which has to cure the infection. All the antibiotic does is help control some of the organisms so that the immune system can do its job.

When you cleanse, what you are doing is using something to help the immune system get rid of the build up without you adding any more into the mix.

Detoxification

When I talk about detoxification, I am speaking about detoxifying the body but not about detoxifying from alcohol. Although alcohol causes toxicity in the body and we see the end result of drinking alcohol excessively ends with you developing liver disease because the liver becomes so toxic that it can no longer function.

You see a lot out there these days about cleansing and detoxification. And the question you should be asking is, is it safe and do I need to do it. The answer is that it can be safe if done properly and yes you should do it in order to detoxify and cleanse the liver. My first thought when I heard about cleansing was enemas to cleanse the bowel. This is not such a great idea. There are ways to cleanse the liver and other organs involved in detoxification and help you to become healthier.

Over the next few days I'll be talking about the benefits of cleansing and then I will get into how to do it.

Lemon Juice Diet

Here is another diet book that claims there is a magic bullet to weight loss. In this case it is lemon juice. Lemon juice is good for many reasons, not the least of which it stimulates metabolism, makes you feel full (less of the hunger problem) and helps regulate blood sugar.

But this book gives you calorie controlled and balanced meal plans which is far more likely to help you lose weight than just the fact that lemon is included. There is also a detox in this book, which I don't necessarily disagree with, but I think you need specific nutrients when you do a detox and you should understand what it is you are detoxifying.

The 9 Inch Diet

Here's another diet with some sound information, but nothing you haven't heard and not much in the way of teaching you what foods to eat. This diet basically is to get a smaller plate - a 9 inch in diameter plate. That way you will eat less. Good sound advice here, but hopefully not something that is new to you. A smaller plate can cut the number of calories by up to 1/3.

The other thing in this diet is that it really goes after the root problem which is portion size, or "portion distortion". I would love to see a menu at one of the restaurants that says "can I downsize that for you?" Probably not going to happen, but think about it.

While a smaller plate is helpful in cutting down on portions, you still should look at the foods that you are eating. Are they healthy foods, providing you the nutrients to feed not only your brain but also the rest of your body. And what about exercise??

Snacking Yourself Thin

This particular book on snacking constantly to lose weight may not be the most practical of suggestions. This book tells you to eat every hour, a small portion of whatever you want. Eating multiple times a day is a good idea. The practicality of eating every hour is not so great. If you have a job it will be difficult for your to eat something every hour while you are working.

Having 2-3 snacks a day is a great idea. Some of the snacks I recommend are things like 4-6 almonds. This gives you the sense of eating something and it has many benefits. See my posts starting on January 31, 2009. Diabetics in particular should be snacking with healthy foods like a few almonds and a small apple. This will help to keep the blood sugar regulated.

A 4 Day Diet

There is another diet book which talks about the 4 day diet. Now this is catchy, because you all would like to think that you could diet for 4 days and be done. Not going to happen. If fact, this book has 7 modules of 4 days each.

What this book does is give you different lists of foods for each 4 day period. It does not tell you how to put the foods together, or what a menu would look like. The idea here is that you have a list of different foods for each 4 days, so you won't get bored eating the same thing, but if you don't know how to put those foods together, it will be a struggle for you.

You would need to know what to eat and how to put that together before you could you use this book. There may also be a sense of deprivation here in that the list you are to eat from may contain foods you don't like and not many of the foods you like.

Diet Books

I've been asked to look at some diet books. As many of you know, the first thing about diets is they don't work. They will help you lose a few pounds, but they are usually not something you can continue to do with success. However, some of these books suggest things that have merit, but only if used with smart eating practices.

One of these is to reprogram the way you think about food. I believe the premise here to change the way you think about food especially around the aspects of emotional eating, decreasing the portions and the feeling deprived are valid. The reprogramming is done by hypnotherapy. I'm not convinced of the long term effect of hypnotherapy, ie. one or two sessions is not going to do it. I think you would need to continue this for a life time. Don't be discouraged by this, I just think you need to understand that hypnotherapy is not a magic bullet. In fact there are no magic bullets to dieting.