For those coming off the standard American diet, colon cleansing is one of the most important first steps on the road to vitality. The colon works with the liver and lymphatic system to keep our entire bodies free from toxic accumulations. It’s the first organ you’ll want to cleanse, so that there is a clear pathway out of the body when you finally decide to do a liver or gallbladder cleanse, etc.
You see, every time we’ve eaten mucos-forming food like pasteurized dairy products especially melted cheese, refined flour products, meats, and heavy fats/oils (sound like the standard American diet?), a thin layer of sticky matter adheres to the walls of our colon. These layers (called peutrifecative matter, which is literally decaying food that houses parasites) builds up, and the passageway through the colon gets smaller and smaller. Over time, the layers get harder and dryer as the colon is constantly working to dry out feces so that they’re solid and thusly passable. These layers block the body’s cleansing action of the colon, liver and lymph, and we then experience lethargy, headaches, distended abdomens, irregular bowel movements, acne, and a whole host of other symptoms of systemic toxicity. The colon’s peutrifecative matter can get very thick over time. There has actually been a 40lb colon removed from a man!
Intense colon cleansing is usually most needed when initially getting off years of eating the standard American diet. A whole foods diet is gently cleansing over time, so, those who have been mostly off refined/processed/fast foods for several years, won’t need intense colon cleansing, but gently cleansing the colon, at least yearly, benefits everyone.
A whole food diet, by the way, looks like this:
- seasonal, regional vegetables (some raw, some cooked) as the base of the diet (50-70% of diet)
- either soaked or cultured, low-glycemic, whole grains
- grass fed/organic animal proteins when needed for warmth or building strength (during pregnancy, for people who work hard physically, or according to ancestry – type O blood)
- getting 60-100oz per day of re-mineralized water
- unrefined (extra virgin) oils and moderate amounts of saturated fats
- whole sea salts like Celtic, Himalayan pink, or Real Salt
- small amounts of unrefined sweeteners like grade B maple syrup, raw honey, coconut sugar, sucanat/rapidura sugar, etc.
Colon cleansing is NOT a fasting cleanse, and can be done comfortably from 1 week to 3 weeks. But you don’t want to eat any mucos-forming food (mentioned in the second paragraph above) while cleansing your colon, because the herbs you’ll be taking need to be able to reach the walls of your colon to break up and help you pass out the old matter, instead of those valuable herbs getting caught up in mucos-forming foods.
“But where do I get my protein during the cleanse?” you may ask. What I’ve found works best is 1-2Tbsp spirulina or chlorella powder daily. You see, these blue-green algae have everything your body needs. That’s why they call them superfoods – you could live well on them exclusively. They will give you enough protein and other nutrients while on your cleanse to curb your appetite for building foods, and the chlorophyl they contain is VERY cleansing. Midway through your colon cleanse, when you start getting the old matter out and you’re feeling lighter, more energized, and your belly is flatter than ever, you’ll get excited and want to keep doing it for whatever length of time feels right to you. Your body will tell you when it’s time to quit the cleanse.
I have done various cleanses, and I wholeheartedly believe in the revitalizing and re-balancing powers of cleansing. I’ve come up with step by step recommendations and guidelines for this first and most important cleanse, the colon cleanse, which I give participants in my information-packed class, “Whole Food Cooking for the Optimal Woman”. If your intuition is telling you that you need to colon cleanse, I hope you’ll join me for this class on Sunday February 7th, 2-4PM at Whole Foods, SLO to hear my personal experience with colon cleansing, as well as diet and lifestyle tips for natural hormone balance, calcium and iron uptake through various combinations of whole food, strategies for getting off sugar, and to receive support and guidance on your path toward reaching your highest health potential.