Detoxing: Ridding your system of summer's overindulgences

With summer’s (almost) end comes the migration from outdoor barbecues and beer-filled weekends to a busier time filled with work events, running the kids around and trying to handle the sudden change of pace. Before the craze of the Thanksgiving season (it'll be here in no time), give your body some well-deserved TLC with these detoxing tips from Janine Bowring, ND, the formulator of VitaTree Nutritionals and one of Canada’s leading manufacturers and distributors of whole food vitamins and supplements:

1. What’s the most common thing people over-indulge in during the summer? I think that most people over-indulge in barbecued meats, fatty salads and desserts and alcohol during the summer months. As with all things, a little is okay, but too much of anything is not healthy. I worry about the carcinogens in barbecued foods, especially if they are overcooked. The saturated fats in the meats and in a lot of tasty salads and desserts are also hard on the cardiovascular system, not to mention an expanding waistline. People start to feel heavy and sluggish by the end of the summer and many are looking for quick and easy ways to detoxify their bodies to undo some of the damage they’ve accumulated over the last few months.

2. What do most women look for when wanting to detox? Most women are looking for improved energy, weight loss and a feeling of vitality when they are looking to detoxify their bodies. Many women tell me they just want to feel “clean” inside, and improve their digestive function when they consider detoxification.

3. Your company specializes in whole food vitamins. What’s the difference between these and other vitamins? Whole food vitamins are made from whole foods, typically fruits, vegetables and herbs that are known to have specific health benefits. Whole food vitamins are easily assimilated and absorbed by the body and their nutrients utilized to the highest benefit, because our cells recognize the DNA of fruits and vegetables and herbs because they are directly from nature. Conversely, synthetic vitamins (95 percent of the vitamins on the market) are chemically derived nutrients that “look” like our own inherent vitamins and minerals, but are often not well absorbed and lack all the important phytochemicals, or plant chemicals that work synergistically with vitamins to increase their cellular utilization as found in whole food vitamins. Whole food vitamins contain the right amounts of trace nutrients...for perfect absorption by our cells.

4. In your practice, what’s the most common complaint you hear from women? In my practice, most women have complaints about stress, lack of energy and hormonal imbalance as well as a lot of digestive complaints.

5. If you had to pick one supplement everyone should be taking what would it be? There are no quick fixes or one magic pill that can give you everything you need when it comes to vitamins and nutrients. The best combination that I can recommend is what I call the “daily essential supplements”, what people should take daily to stay healthy and prevent disease and this includes a whole food multi, VitaFruits and VitaVeggies, VitaFish Oil for the important omega-3s that are natural anti-inflammatories and the brain chemical DHA, probiotics and whole food calcium and vitamin D3.

6. What is a lymphatic cleanse and why should people know about them? Lymphatic cleansing can be done manually or with herbal medicines to improve lymph flow. The lymphatic system helps the immune system by clearing up cellular debris, toxins, pathogens and dead blood cells. It is a system that doesn’t have a natural pump, as does the circulatory system, meaning it needs to move with either exercise or manual massage. Certain herbs such as burdock root and parsley, both found in VitaDetox, help cleanse the lymphatic system. Lymphatic cleansing is important for the prevention of diseases such as cancer, but also helpful for people who are overweight due to toxicity. Lymphatic cleansing helps chronic allergies, sinusitis, frequent colds, and people with chronic pain and inflammation due to arthritis and fibromyalgia.

7. What do you see people doing wrong when it comes to detoxing/cleansing and how can they ensure they do it properly? Most people who try detoxing or cleansing often target just one organ system. For instance, most cleanses on the market focus on the digestive tract. It is important to detoxify all the internal organs of toxicity at once, so that you do not filter toxins to an organ system that is not ready to handle it.

A great analogy is cleaning your house; you wouldn’t sweep all the garbage into the living room and expect to have a clean house. The same is true for our body; we need to clean the toxins out of all the organs at once for better health. This is why I formulated the VitaDetox to cleanse all the internal organs at once, in a gentle, yet very effective manner. The great thing with the VitaDetox program is that you don’t have to follow a special diet in order to get results. It is totally up to you if you choose to eliminate certain food groups or not, which we will send you, during the program.

Have you ever done a cleanse before? How were the results?
You can catch Bowring September 20 on The Shopping Channel.