WHY SHOULD WE CLEANSE?
©Wild Oats, Inc. 1996
Everybody's doing it!
When early humans felt sick, they instinctively stopped eating in order to give their bodies a chance to cleanse and heal. Animals have this same instinct. Historically, doctors have prescribed cleansing to prevent and treat illness, and in most religions - from Judaism to Christianity - periodic fasting enabled followers to keep their "temples" clean. Philosophers from Plato to the Eastern yogis used internal cleansing to keep their minds sharp and their spirits attuned to the universe. Today, cleansing is still extremely popular in Europe, especially in Sweden, where spas and clinics abound; even in America, many high-priced spas are popping up. But you don't need to pay a lot for a cleanse. You can do it on your own with a little time and a personal commitment to feeling better,
You already know how to cleanse: your body undergoes a mini-fast every night as you sleep. That's where the word "breakfast" comes from. Your first stop in the morning is usually the bathroom to shed toxins and wastes from the previous day. Your body has perfected its own internal cleansing system, and it continuously detoxifies itself through the colon, the lungs, the skin, the liver, and the kidneys.
Our refined tastes are killing us.
When whole foods like wheat are refined, they’re stripped of nutrients that aid digestion, and of fiber that helps sweep food through the colon. Food like white bread and pasta tend to stick and putrefy in the folds and pockets of the intestines. When your colon isn’t eliminating wastes properly, toxins are reabsorbed into the blood, poisoning the entire system and weakening your eliminative organs. Meat and dairy products are also fiberless, "sticky" foods that gradually build up in layers on the colon walls. These extremely acid-producing foods change your lymph fluid from clear and watery to thick and mucus and render it unable to carry as many toxins out of your body.
The average person uses only 10% of the nutrients in their food.
We rely on the villi – little hair-like projections in our colons – to absorb nutrients and carry them into the blood. When the colon walls are encrusted with stagnant waste, the villi can’t do their job. As the physician Deschauer noted centuries ago, " We live not by what we eat, but by what we digest, absorb, and assimilate." Even the healthiest organic diet won’t keep you vital and healthy if you’re not absorbing it! After cleansing, many people find that they can eat 1/3 to ½ the amount of food as before, yet feel more energized because of better absorption and assimilation.
We are all backed up: Laxatives top all other over-the-counter remedies in the U.S. sales.
What are normal bowel habits? Optimally, you want to eliminate wastes as often as you take in food (2-3 times per day). Observe a baby’s habits: you’ll see that he or she eliminates immediately after eating! When you do not, your colon becomes so layered with old wastes over time that it can’t maintain its natural peristaltic, or wave-like, motion that carries waste from your body. Laxatives may force your bowels to eliminate the meals you just ate, but what of all the ancient meals still encrusted on your colon walls? If you rely on laxatives to create your "waves", eventually you’ll develop permanently lax muscles in you colon. Cleansing gets to the root of the problem by cleaning out the old layers of wastes and unfreezing the peristaltic muscles so you can once again "self-cleanse" as nature intended.
Pollution means a toxic "inner environment."
Since World War II, the amount of pesticides, pollutants, and toxic waste in our environment has increased dramatically. Your liver can only detoxify so many of these poisons before it becomes overloaded and weak. In some cases, the liver stops functioning altogether, leading to serious diseases like jaundice. A weakened liver also keeps toxins circulating through your blood longer, making it difficult for your body to detoxify its cells and to create new ones. Aging is partly an accumulation of toxins in the cells; these toxins gradually slow down cell regeneration and increase breakdown.
Unhealthy colons cause most illnesses and diseases.
Colds, influenza, cancer, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and allergies are all examples of "congestive" diseases, that is diseases caused by excessive amounts of poor-quality food combined with bad elimination. When you’re not eliminating properly, food may stay in your colon for days, weeks, months, even years, putrefying [rotting] and then poisoning your entire system. 99% of the time, a disease’s seriousness corresponds directly to the level of toxicity. The increase of food born and waterborne intestinal parasite infections may be responsible for many illnesses, including recurring stomach flu and chronic fatigue. As many as one in six people have intestinal parasites.