The Ultimate Detoxifying Salad

February 5, 2017
| Recipes, salads

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The word detox is a hot word in the world of nutrition, but what does it really mean? In the nutrition industry, the word detox has become an all encompassing word that can be loosely used to imply you are removing toxins from your body or going to lose weight. This could look involve changing the way we eat (i.e. a juice cleanse), changing a lifestyle habit (switching to all green cleaners), or just the regular use of a consumer product. Today, if you slap the word “detox” on it, the implication is you will be healthier.

In some regards, this is true and in others, it’s no more than large corporations jumping on the bandwagon to make money. Even within the industry of nutrition, some practitioners use detoxification as a crucial component within their protocols, while others call it total BS. So what are you as a consumer suppose to do?

Your body every day is actively detoxifying. You lungs, skin, kidney’s, digestive track, and the liver are always working at removing toxins and keeping the body healthy. In an ideal world we are all healthy, our ideal body weight, and consume the recommended intake of water, fruits, and vegetables. However, in North America, the statistics of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer, and mental health diagnosis is on the rise showing that we need to ensure our body’s get the nutrients they need in order to function optimally and perform the detoxification jobs they want to perform every day to keep you healthy. Therefore, you don’t need to embark on a crazy 7-day juice cleanse, but you also don’t want to think you can just do whatever and your body will fix it for you. Balance!

Consuming nutrients we know our liver can use to perform its natural detoxification functioning every day, is a great safe and gentle way to support your body to do all the amazing things it knows how to. Our liver performs two stages of detoxification, Stage One and Stage Two. Each stage requires the right vitamins and minerals to break down toxins but then we also need to ensure it removes them which is where stage 2 comes in.

In looking at both phase one and two detoxification pathways, along with top liver supporting foods, I construction this yummy salad. To be clear, I am not saying that you will eat this salad and everything in your body will be squeaky clean inside as the “detox” claims can often imply. I am saying that by consuming the right foods, we can obtain the required nutrients for our amazing body to detoxify itself naturally.

Our dressing contains apple cider vinegar which can improve HCl production in the digestive system, which will help by breaking foods down effectively before they reach the liver. Reds onions and lemon contain flavonoids which are potent antioxidants and onions are also sulphur-containing foods that support overall liver detoxification. Garlic contains allicin and the mineral selenium, both antioxidants. It assists the removal of heavy metals from the liver. Parsley and Cilantro contain B-complex vitamins which improve liver function and promote liver decongestion.  Cruciferous vegetables such as kale and radishes contain glucosinolates which help the liver produce enzymes for detoxification. Fennel is rich is folic acid and Vitamin C, and is known for helping the breakdown of fats. Bitters such as dandelion greens help the production of bile to break down fats and toxins. You will see the only fat is a light grapeseed oil, animal proteins and higher fats (even avocado) requires more energy and resources for our liver to detoxify.

I hope you love this salad as much as I do. I also hope this has been useful to you and maybe next time before you buy some pre-packaged $20.00 detox tea you will think about out bodies detoxification systems and that simply providing our body with the right nutrients it will do a good job of keeping you healthy and well.