First off, foods don’t actually detox the body.

The intelligence of our life force detoxes the body.

Each organism’s body has an innate intelligence. This intelligence enables health. When this innate intelligence is impeded by diet or lifestyle the organism’s health suffers. (By diet and lifestyle I include overeating, eating processed foods, stress, pharmaceutical drug toxicity, recreational drug toxicity, etc.)

During a detox, we ingest foods to make it easier for the body to move the accumulated waste or toxins out. We facilitate this already natural process and inner intelligence. Interestingly, water fasting is also very effective for highly conscious individuals with greater mental strength.

However, for us mere mortals, we eat while we cleanse. Therefore, what we eat while we cleanse is of utmost importance. We want to facilitate the body and create a calm ease in the mind during our detox.

Top 5 foods for detox

These 5 groups of foods encompass the 6 tastes of Ayurveda. The six tastes account for the 20 gunas, or attributes of matter. Using the 6 tastes during cleansing decreases cravings and increases satisfaction. The six tastes have therapeutic effects on the tissues of the body, enabling nourishment of tissue and release of ama (toxic waste). Here are the Top 5 foods for detox:

• Dark Leafy Greens (kale, collards, nettles, dandelion greens, turnip greens, etc) have a bitter and astringent taste which stimulates the action of scraping and squeezing, respectively. Used to scrape excess waste and toxins on a cellular level, greens create lightness with their high nutrient portfolio. Greens are rich in chlorophyll which oxygenates and alkalizes your blood. Celery is an additional green that consumes calories with digestion and has a salty taste to add moisture during detox. Greens detox your lymph, blood and fat cells.
• Lemons & limes have sour taste which gently stimulates digestion. Lemons stimulate the release of enzymes and helps convert toxins into a water-soluble form that can be easily excreted from the body. Drinking lemon water, which is alkaline-forming, first thing in the morning balance your appetite and transform the acidity in your blood. Lemons and limes are foods that detox your liver.
• Sprouts! are baby plants. With bounding new born energy, sprouts have exponentially more nutrients than the adult plant they become. Sprouts are in the sweet taste phase of the plant, (even if it’s a pungent sprout like daikon radish). This sweet taste helps build muscle tissue and maintain high energy levels during detoxing. Sprouts give you energy during detox and repair tissue.
• Spices (turmeric, ginger, cayenne, cinnamon, fennel) improve circulation, aid detoxification, and stimulate the digestion of toxins both in the digestive tract and on a cellular level. Spices detox your lymph, blood, kidneys and bowels.
• Sweet Juicy Fruits are sweet taste and help those with sweet cravings cleanse with ease. Fruits are high in fiber, and some, like apples, are high in pectin, which serves an intestinal broom to clear out the toxins. Juicy fruits contain the purest, most absorbable form of water for our cells, giving your body energy to detox in pace with modern life.

Wild leafy greens like thistle, dandelion, lambs quarter and nettle will detox the body much faster than leafy greens from the store. More on this in another post.