There’s no need to do a course of colonic irrigation to flush out your colon (although for some individuals with long-term, chronic constipation, it can sometimes really help get things moving)
Maintaining healthy digestion and regularity is particularly important during a detox because during this process you will be eliminating many toxins through the bowels.
For most people, they can get similar results simply by eating a high fiber diet full of fiber-rich vegetables.
Whether your digestion leans toward being too fast or too slow, each can have its own negative implications. For example, if food is moving too quickly through the bowels, then you may not be absorbing many nutrients from it and may subsequently end up partially malnourished. Conversely, if food is sitting in the bowels for too long, you are at greater risk for increased fermentation by fungal bacteria. This can, in turn, lead to the increased absorption of toxins back into the bloodstream, potentially making you feel even worse.
If you suffer from particularly slow digestion and transit time, you should be careful to monitor this during the detox phase of this plan. During this phase, you will be consuming lots of high fiber vegetables, especially green vegetables that may slow down your digestion even further. Constipation can worsen the fungus, so it’s something that you definitely want to avoid.
Doing a bowel transit time test before starting your detox is a great idea. This is a useful marker of digestive health and enables you to see how long it is taking for food to move through your bowels. There are doctor-ordered tests that involve indigestible pellets and x-rays, but there is a much simpler test that you can do at home. First, choose a food that is usually poorly digested (like kernel corn). Make sure that you don’t eat this food at all for a week. Then, eat a reasonable amount of it at a single sitting. Note when it first appears in your stool and when it last appears. This will give you your bowel transit time range (e.g., 18-24 hours). There is a wide variation in healthy individuals, but if your transit time stretches much beyond 48 hours this is might be indicative of digestive problems.
Eating lots of high fiber vegetables is just one part of the detox process. If you want to avoid feeding your fungus overgrowth, you will also need to cut out as many sugars as possible from your diet. During the initial detox, we recommend avoiding all added sugars and many natural sugars too. With this in mind, you will be avoiding fruit entirely during this initial phase.
Lastly, you can aid your detoxification by temporarily cutting out all meat and fish. Protein-rich foods such as these, while very important to a healthy long-term diet, tend to be acidifying, slow down bowel transit time, and also make it harder for the body to flush out toxins. We want to give your digestive tract a break, speed up the elimination process, and minimize any issues with constipation. That’s why you need to eliminate slow-digesting proteins during the detox phase.
Remember that this is a temporary, colon-cleansing diet that you will follow for a short period of time. It is certainly not the kind of diet that you will be following long term. Although during the Detox phase you will eat very little protein and carbohydrates, your body will not become deficient in these important macronutrients within such a short period.
It is natural to feel a little hungry during the Detox phase. Your body may be craving some of the foods that you cut out, particularly sugar and high-sugar foods. If you are struggling to stick to the diet because you are too hungry, try eating some organic eggs. Eggs are an amazing source of protein and nutrients, and they are easier to digest than meat so they won’t typically clog up your intestines during the detox phase. They also help tremendously with your meal planning for breakfast (cereals and bread are off the menu!). Making a vegetarian omelet is a perfectly acceptable way to start your day during the Detox phase.