Cleaning Your Colon and Removing Toxic Waste
With the onslaught of foods we subject our body to, it’s no surprise that many people suffer from digestive issues, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic constipation, bloating, irregular bowel movements, and out-of-whack gut flora. They even increase our risk of serious bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and colon cancer.
Naturally, we seek out quick fixes to remedy these issues.
There are a ton of pills, tonics, colonics, and all kinds of products out there advertising they’re the best product for cleansing the colon and ridding the body of toxins and all kinds of other nasty things. Others may even go to extremes and suggest the use of an enema bag.
Most of those products are expensive, ineffective, or just plain unnecessary.
When you cleanse one thing, you cleanse everything inside your body. If your objective is to get your gastrointestinal tract or at least your colon clean, the answer is not a pill, supplement, stimulant, or herb that makes you go to the bathroom more often.
It may even not be a complex step such as an enema or colonic hydrotherapy. The solution is correcting and healing your digestive system and giving it the nutrients it needs to function more efficiently.
If you suffer from occasional constipation, want to lose weight, or just feel like you’re hanging on to excess toxins and wastes (which most people are), there are three completely natural ways on how to clean your colon naturally, safely, and effectively.
1. Increase Dietary Fiber to Rid the Body of Toxins
The first thing I suggest is to increase your soluble and insoluble fiber intake. You can start by adding more vegetables and fruits, among other foods that clean your colon, to your diet.
Ground flaxseed is an excellent source of dietary fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. Add it to your smoothies, breakfast cereals, yogurt, and other recipes.
Natural fiber from plants is indigestible. It passes through the digestive tract and absorbs toxins and chemicals, preventing problems such as constipation, enhancing the role of beneficial bacteria in metabolism, and cleaning out your colon. Aim for about 30 or 35 grams a day to keep the colon clean.
Another tasty way to cleanse the colon is to add vegetables and fruits into your meals.
For example, instead of having cupcakes and milk for dessert, you can drink a cup of herbal tea while eating a small bowl of apples, bananas, and strawberries. Also, replace high-carb bread and rice with leafy greens and vegetables.
2. Drink Up for Improved Digestion
Now that you have all that fiber going into your system, and it has accumulated all this bulk in your stool, you need plenty of water to move it out of your body.
Otherwise, you’ll end up feeling constipated or bloated with that much fecal matter in your system.
A simple rule of thumb is to divide your weight in pounds by half. The result is the number of fluid ounces of water you need to drink each day, but that’s a minimum, though, when cleaning the colon.
So, if you weigh 160 pounds, you need to drink a minimum of 80 fluid oz of water daily.
If you’re eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, the water they contain goes toward this total, too. This also evens out the electrolyte imbalances in the body when passing stool.
Coffee, tea, soda, and commercial fruit juices do not count. They are more of sugar and caffeine than water.
Sadly, many people say they dislike drinking water, and for some, that may be true because they prefer drinking something else. The fact is, though, pure water is what you need.
If you’re really attached to your iced tea and coffee, try to cut back and take in extra water to make up for the dehydrating effect caffeine has.
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3. Increase Omega-3 Intake to Reduce Inflammation
The third thing to do when you’re on a natural colon cleanse is to increase your intake of omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fatty acids are amazing colon cleansers because they’re incredibly powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents.
Inflammation is blamed as the culprit in many serious conditions, including heart disease and colorectal cancer. Acidic inflammation in the body is especially harmful, so you want to do things other than taking pain relievers, which increases the acidity in the body.
Taking several doses of fish oil per day helps to reduce inflammation in the body and also helps cleanse your colon by lubricating your intestinal system.
Benefits of Having a Clean, Healthy Colon
Here are some of the benefits you’ll enjoy when you clean your colon naturally.
1. Faster Weight Loss
Cleansing the colon through adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle is perhaps the fastest way to jumpstart your weight loss journey.
You get to cut out junk foods, which are excessively high in calories. Not only are they terrible for the colon, but they’re also the culprit behind those extra inches around your waist.
On top of that, eating foods high in dietary fiber is a solid way to get rid of the extra fats and toxins inside the body. Once you flush all of these out of your system, you’ll have a flatter stomach that doesn’t seem bloated anymore.
2. Lesser Risk of Colon Diseases
If the idea of colon cancer treatments and bowel preparation scare you, then you need to clean your colon. Getting rid of the junk in your diet already decreases your chances of developing colon-related diseases exponentially.
Of course, keep in mind that the body isn’t a machine that simply needs regular flushing. You need to maintain a colon cleansing lifestyle if you want to reap the full benefits.
3. Increases Fertility Among Women
Are you and your partner trying to start a family? Then you should start cleansing your colon regularly if you want to increase your chances of getting pregnant!
Firstly, a fat, unhealthy colon presses against the uterus and other reproductive organs. This causes an unnecessary amount of stress on these body parts, limiting the chances of a fetus developing in the womb.
Secondly, a high body fat percentage almost always leads to higher estrogen levels. If you’re trying to get pregnant, you need to keep these hormones at bay.
Lastly, the colon is responsible for getting rid of toxins and chemicals that negatively affect the functions of the sperm and egg cell. If your colon cannot function properly, then the chances of getting pregnant decreases.
4. Better Vitamin and Nutrient Absorption
A clean, well-maintained colon creates a pathway for the essential vitamins and nutrients to enter the bloodstream. It becomes easier for the colon to do this if there are no obstructions and it’s well-lubricated with plenty of water.
If there’s too much fat around the liver and colon, it also allows the harmful fats and cholesterol to enter the bloodstream along with the nutrients.
5. Higher Energy Levels
Stop relying on coffee or energy drinks for your daily source of energy. If you want long-lasting high levels of energy, then you need to clean your colon.
If the colon is in tip-top shape, it gets rid of the harmful toxins and chemicals in the body. This means blood flows easier throughout the body.
And when that happens, the body feels lighter, the brain feels more focused, and the heart is able to pump blood through the organs better. The combination of these effects gives you the long-lasting energy levels you need.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, here’s a reminder of the three tips for cleaning your colon, naturally.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables,
- drink water ounces half your body weight,
- and take a couple of tablespoons of omega-3 fatty acids, whether it’s flax oil or fish oil.
The combination makes a huge difference in your digestion and mood.
Also, these foods are so much safer, cost-effective, and healthier for you than those colon cleansing products you see in ads. Don’t blindly trust some generic supplement brand to clean your colon, and go for natural solutions instead.
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on December 26, 2015, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.