Most patients at CAM start out their health journey by doing a detox diet, also known as The Cleanse. But what is this diet about, and what’s the reasoning behind what is included or prohibited?
What is the CAM detox diet?
This program focuses on eliminating those foods that are most likely to be problematic, as well as providing optimal nutrition to enhance the body’s own detoxification abilities.
What are the benefits of this detox diet?
The detox diet is recommended as a starting point for several reasons:
- Food, both good and bad, is a major factor in health and illness.
- The diet is simple and relatively inexpensive as well as risk-free.
- Over 60% of the patients at CAM show at least some improvement in their symptoms from this diet alone.
- Your reactions to the diet can provide clues to where your problems may be based, such as the small or large intestine, or what they may be due to, such as allergies, fungus, or parasites.
- It can help relieve allergies, including those you didn’t know you had.
- It can help reduce harmful microorganisms such as yeast.
- It can help relieve cravings, such as for sugar, putting you back in control of what you eat.
What is involved in the diet?
This detox diet is short-term, eight days. During the first four days of the diet, you eat certain vegetables along with healthy oils such as olive and flax, and take supplements. This is primarily to clean out your system, since it takes 3-4 days for previously consumed foods to exit the body. On the second four days you add in non-gluten or low-gluten grains. Rotating the foods eaten lowers the possibility of an allergic response.
Any specific food allergies or sensitivities that you know about should guide your food choices. You may need to be cleared for food or supplement allergies before starting the diet; this can be done at CAM.
The specifics of the diet are provided by your CAM health practitioner. Much more detail about the diet and its purpose are in the book Detox or Disease, available at CAM.
The detox diary
Your reactions to the diet – improvement, temporary worsening of symptoms, new symptoms, and on which days you have these changes – give your practitioner valuable clues as to the causes of your health problems. Even a lack of change gives the useful information that your problem is probably not primarily dietary. In order for this information to be evaluated, you should keep a day-to-day detox diary of health changes correlated with foods eaten that your practitioner can review.
Since it is an elimination diet, what is eliminated, and why?
Foods that are most likely to cause trouble in one way or another are eliminated:
- Foods that are most likely to be allergenic in the general population are eliminated, such as wheat, other gluten grains, dairy products, soy, nuts, corn, citrus fruits, eggs, and tomatoes.
- Yeast – Many people with health problems have an overgrowth of yeast in their bodies, and this diet eliminates those foods that contain, are related to, or feed yeast. These include bread, mushrooms, pickled and fermented foods, vinegar, alcohol, and sugar.
- Sugars, for a variety of reasons. This includes fruit, juices, and sweet vegetables.
- Nightshade vegetables – tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant – can contribute to arthritis symptoms.
- Legumes, such as lentils, beans, peas, and some nuts such as peanuts, can be hard to digest, causing bloating and gas.
- Meats can be hard to digest and are sometimes allergenic.
- Toxic drugs that are consumed as beverages, such as alcohol and caffeine.
- Unhealthy oils.
- Food additives such as colors, flavors, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners. Pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones are found in some conventional foods; eat organic where possible.
What foods can be eaten?
So what’s left? The foods that can be eaten include:
- All green vegetables except nightshades (peppers), sweet vegetables (peas), soybeans (allergenic), and lima beans.
- Oils are necessary nutrients, and they aid in removing toxins from the body. It’s best to use organic and/or cold-pressed oils. Never cook with oils, since heating changes them chemically from food to toxin. Olive oil is recommended, as are flax, fish oils, and coconut oil; avoid canola.
- Non-gluten and low-gluten grains are added on days 4-8 of the diet: brown and wild rice, buckwheat (unrelated to wheat), quinoa, millet, and amaranth. These should be cooked only until chewy.
- Some seasonings are permitted, including good quality salt, lemon and lime juice, and some others.
- Herbal teas.
- Lots of good quality water, about 64 ounces per day.
Supplements
Specific supplements are part of the detox diet. These keep up your nutritional needs and help with detoxification.
Hunger and cravings
A common concern is: what if I can’t stick to the diet because of hunger and cravings? The diet itself along with the recommended supplements helps to eliminate sugar and other cravings, as well as general hunger. Although the foods eaten are limited, quantities are not, so true hunger is very unlikely. You will likely find that your tastes change for the better during this brief period, changes that can continue long after the diet is completed.
What can you expect from the detox diet?
The possible symptoms and improvements in symptoms are quite varied, depending on the individual. Some possible unpleasant symptoms can be alleviated with certain supplements, or they may be part of a detox reaction that is worth waiting out to get to better health at the end.
Weight loss is common, and in those who don’t want to lose weight, temporary. Some people are overweight because they are retaining fluid to try to dilute toxins and allergens, and when these are eliminated, dramatic amounts of water weight can be lost.
Adjunctive therapies
Other detoxification therapies, such as colonics, sauna, liver/gallbladder flush, lymphatic exercises and massage, allergy desensitization, and mineral IVs, can be part of your protocol.
After the detox diet
After you complete the 8-day cleanse, there is a maintenance diet that, along with prescribed supplements, can help you to maintain your health benefits.
