Spring Cleaning Series {For Your Health}
So you’ve just finished a healthy juice cleanse and you’re feeling great. Rejuvenated, with glowing skin and more energy, it’s important to ease back into eating solid foods with a clean, fresh diet that will help you preserve your newfound clarity and great health.
Listed below are some great foods that will help you maintain your newly detoxified body and sharp, clear mind:
1. Fresh Fruits and Vegetables—
Obviously you are aware of the many benefits of fruits and vegetables now that their juicy vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients helped you reach the pinnacle of glowing, good health you are enjoying today. Be sure to get plenty of organic green vegetables like spinach, kale, parsley and dark salad greens.
Remember that fresh fruits and vegetables should always be your first choice, but if you prefer to cook your food, lightly steaming will usually maintain most nutrients. Adding raw, organic, cold-pressed oils like olive oil and flaxseed oil can add heart-healthy Omega-3s to your vegetables, increasing their health benefits while adding great flavor. Never stop eating these wonderful, life-giving, cancer-fighting foods, and you will continue to enjoy the beautiful skin, euphoric sense of happiness and extra energy they offer.
2. Nuts and Seeds—
Nuts and seeds like almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds have protein and many other wonderful benefits to offer your body.
Almonds have long been touted for their ability to naturally lower cholesterol, reduce inflammation, and for their high magnesium and potassium content, both helpful in lowering blood pressure and risk of heart disease.
Walnuts are popular for their high heart-healthy Omega-3 content which can reduce inflammation and increase activity in the brain. Walnuts are also great for cholesterol reduction and can help reduce insulin sensitivity, making them an especially smart snack choice for diabetics.
Sunflower seeds, like walnuts, are also known for their ability to increase mental acuity. Also known to improve digestion and for keeping the cardiovascular system running strong, these little seeds contain immune system-strengthening minerals necessary for good health, such as selenium, magnesium, potassium, iron and zinc.
Remember that raw, soaked or sprouted nuts and seeds are always your best choice for ease of digestion so your body can focus its energy on maintaining overall detoxification rather than breaking down foods.
3. Healthy Grains—
Grains can be harder to digest, so gluten-free grains like quinoa and millet are recommended. Gluten is acid-forming and sticky, slowing down your recently rested-by-juice digestive system to cause constipation (and a myriad of other health problems in gluten-sensitive or allergic people), keeping bread permanently on the list of foods to avoid if you’re seeking cleansing or detoxification effects.
Vegetarians are known for mixing rice with beans to achieve a complete protein, but quinoa is beloved by those seeking healthy cholesterol-free plant-based protein because it is one of the few grains that is a complete protein all by itself.
Millet is an easy-to-digest grain that boasts serotonin to keep your mind calm, and magnesium to reduce migraines and maintain heart health. The high protein content of quinoa and millet makes them both great foods to eat for continued energy after a juice cleanse.
All of the foods listed above are alkaline-forming, rather than acid-forming, and that is exactly what your body needs to continue to detoxify and stay free of illness. Raw and fresh is always best because of the maximum vitamin and mineral content these foods contain, as well as containing helpful enzymes that haven’t been cooked away.
There’s no need to derail your detox after a juice cleanse: when you start back on solids, you can continue eating clean, fresh, raw foods to keep your mind clear and your body going strong.
