September 2016
Detoxing from unhealthy foods is great for your body but health experts say things like a juice diet or a colon cleanse can actually be dangerous.
Teresa Spano, a naturopathic consultant on staff at Lee Memorial Health System, says whether you’re using supplements or healthy food, detoxing twice a year is good for your body. “A good detox is really providing you with just really good foods. So 10 days is usually a good amount of time.”
During a detox patients should avoid things like alcohol, fried food, junk food, and sugar. “A detox is really when you focus on the foods you’re eating as well as what you’re exposing yourself to,” said Spano.
But not every kind of detox is recommended. “We like to make sure people don’t do ones that are a big colon cleanse or just a juice fast or anything really strict. If you’re someone who has a lot of symptoms going on, you really don’t feel well, you’re on a lot of different medications, or you have a big health history that’s not the best person to do a detox,” said Spano.
A detox that acts as a colon cleanse can flush out some of the good bacteria your body needs. Instead Spano recommends patients focus on organic food and things like tea, berries, citrus fruits, and vegetables. “People will notice a lot of differences in their energy, their joint pains, things like that. It also helps people to get on a healthy track eating,” said Spano.
If you’re using a supplement to help you detox make sure it says GMP on the label, which stands for good manufacturing practices. “You want to make sure it supports both phase one and phase two detoxification because there are different phases otherwise you can get clogged so to speak,” said Spano.
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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.
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