Our detoxification pathways are deeply connected to our hormone health, but new year diets and detoxes will likely cause more harm than good. Keep reading to learn how to detox your body through nutrition, without a juice cleanse.

a collection of citrus slices

The Best Detox Foods to Support Hormone Balance

January is around the corner, which means we’re all about to be bombarded with a lot of new year new me energy. After a season of slowing down, enjoying holiday foods and moving less, we take the new year as an opportunity to clean things up and start fresh. This is the time where the pressure to start the diet, sign the gym contract, and lose the weight kicks into high gear.

Don’t get me wrong – there is so much value and power in setting a goal and working towards it. But I think we all know at this point that New Year’s Resolutions typically don’t lead to sustainable lifestyle change.

One of the buzzwords that gets thrown around a lot this time a year is “detox”. There are so many teas, diets and supplements marketed toward helping you detox your body, which feels particularly tempting after a month or so of indulging. This makes it easy to fall down the pipeline of detox diets and juice cleanses. But if we back up and ask ourselves what the detox processes in our body truly entail, we’ll be able to sift through the noise and quickly realize how most of these products likely won’t do us any good.

Your body is actually working hard to detox every single day – and this involves much more than just helping you clear alcohol, medications and smoke when you encounter them. Your liver, kidneys, lymphatic system and gallbladder work together to tackle all the various toxins we encounter on a daily basis through our food, household products, cosmetics and the environment. So while a one-time cleanse isn’t really the answer here, sometimes we do need a little bit of support to bolster our body’s natural processes.

So today, let’s talk about what it really means to detox, how to know if your drainage pathways need support and how you can support your body’s natural detox processes through nutrition and lifestyle shifts.

a woman sitting on the floor with an arm wrapped around her legs

Signs your detoxification pathways need support

Your body is wise and has all of these amazing processes built-in to help you tackle toxins and foreign substances. But sometimes we can experience sluggish detox pathways that can leave us feeling less than stellar.

When drainage pathways are impaired, you might notice:

Acne or skin issues
Weight resistance or water retention
Autoimmune flare-ups
Histamine symptoms or allergies
Migraines or menstrual headaches
Environmental and chemical sensitivities
Constipation
Brain fog and mood swings
Fatigue and sleep issues

If these issues are coming up for you, it might be a sign that your body could use a bit of detox support.

And I know what you’re thinking – “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and you just said a juice cleanse isn’t the answer, so why does this matter?”

These days, our toxin exposure is at an all-time high, but not just from the typical sources that come to mind like plastics, alcohol, smoke, medication and pollution. Our lifestyle behaviors, daily stressors, dietary habits and products we surround ourselves with all come with their own micro-burdens that snowball into a bigger burden that weighs on our detox pathways and makes it harder and harder to process.

Chronic under eating gives your body less available energy to commit to digestion, and less food to process in the first place, which can lead to a decrease in bile flow, which will ultimately slow motility and create stagnation, making it harder to eliminate toxins
Stress coming at us from all directions can lead to chronically elevated cortisol, which adds to the burden on our liver leading to less efficient detoxification pathways
Low protein intake in your diet means there are fewer amino acids available for your liver to use during detoxification
Gut bacteria overgrowth can lead to the production of endotoxins within our own body, which adds to our overall toxin burden and puts additional strain on the liver

a woman holding a model of a human liver in her hands

How sluggish detoxification impacts our hormonal health

You’ve probably heard that many of the chemicals we’re exposed to on a daily basis are referred to as endocrine disruptors. In other words, there are many properties in our homes, products and food that can impair our hormonal function. This can include things like phthalates in our beauty products, pesticides in our food, BPA in cans and bottles and PFAS in our household products. While we can and should focus on minimizing our toxin exposure, we live in a world where it isn’t possible to eliminate 100% of our toxic burden, so we also need to think about doing what we can to better support our detox pathways to be better equipped to tackle the burden.

Not only can toxin exposure and ingestion impair our hormone health directly, but sluggish detoxification itself can also worsen hormonal imbalances. Your liver is also responsible for helping you process excess hormones and eliminate them from your body. For example, excess estrogen is broken down, methylated and removed from our body via bile, stool and urine.

So if our liver is constantly bogged down by external toxin exposures and it is lacking the “tools” for healthy detoxification (think important nutrients, amino acids, healthy bile, regular bowel movements, optimized lymphatic function, healthy cortisol balance), it may have a harder time helping to keep your hormones balanced and in check. When hormones aren’t in check – this can lead to other problems in your cycle and skin health. Your hormones are like the last dominos in the chain. If we knock down the first few dominos with lack of proper nutrition, poor lifestyle habits, environmental toxins and external stressors, eventually the whole string of dominos will collapse, including our hormone health.

a woman holding a picture of the GI tract in front of her abdomen

What are the detoxification pathways?

So before we learn how we can better support detoxification, we need to understand the systems involved and how they operate. When you think about detoxing, you probably think about your liver, but we actually have multiple drainage pathways and organs involved. Your liver, gallbladder, gut, lymphatic network, and kidneys all play a role.

1. The gut, gallbladder and lymphatic transport

You can think of your gut as being the beginning and end of the detoxification process. At the beginning of the process, any food, beverages, supplements, medications or toxins we ingest make their way through our GI tract to be broken down and absorbed through our small intestine. Our gut functions as a barrier to prevent any harmful substances from entering our blood stream. As food is moving through your GI tract, the gallbladder secretes bile into the small intestine, which plays a role in degrading mycotoxins and breaking down fat.

As we continue to break down nutrients, supplements and medications, some toxins move along into the colon to be eliminated, and some are absorbed and travel through our lymph and bloodstream. Lymph nodes work to neutralize any foreign substances, which are then delivered to the liver to be processed, which we’ll talk about next.

2. Liver detox

We can think of our liver as the first pass at detoxification. Your liver is responsible for processing and converting toxic substances into special forms that are easier to clear from our bodies through two different phases.

The first phase of detoxification involves enzymes from a group called cytochrome P450, which help process substances like alcohol and caffeine.

The second phase of liver detoxification further neutralizes toxins through a process called conjugation, which uses antioxidants, sulfur and amino acids to make toxins water-soluble and easier to eliminate.

The liver also produces bile. Some toxins processed by the liver get packaged up into bile, which is transported to the gallbladder to be stored and eventually secreted back into the gut to be eliminated.

3. Colonic elimination

We talked earlier about how the gut is the beginning and the end of the detoxification process, so now let’s circle back to discuss the end of the process. As we just mentioned, bile contains processed toxins and gets secreted into the small intestine not only to help with digestion, but also to wrap up the process of toxin elimination.

After bile works to digest the fats in our food, it leaves behind any toxins to be eliminated. Anything remaining in our GI tract after digestion and absorption, including the toxins delivered by bile, move along to the colon to be formed into stool and excreted.

4. Kidney excretion

Not all toxins are eliminated in our stool. After your liver has processed toxins through the second phase of detoxification, toxins are now water-soluble and travel back into the bloodstream to be delivered to your kidneys. Your kidneys will filter your blood and drain any of these water-soluble toxins through your urine.

a woman seated cross legged doing a side body stretch with one arm overhead

How to open detoxification pathways

Now that we understand how our detox pathways work, you can probably see how something like a juice cleanse or magic supplement won’t be a magic bullet. The key to learning how to open detoxification pathways is actually much simpler than you might think.

For optimal detoxification, we want to tap into all the systems involved so we can efficiently clear waste. At a high-level, we want to:

Eat nutrient-dense, therapeutic foods that nourish the gut, liver, and bile output. We want to prioritize produce and fiber at every meal, incorporate bitter foods and ensure we’re getting plenty of bioavailable animal-based protein.
Hydrate to support kidney toxin elimination through urine. Aim for 80-100 oz of water daily!
Treat any constipation and keep digestion moving daily to clear out waste. Ensure you’re pooping daily, and if not, get curious on why by checking in with your fiber and water intake, dietary triggers or through advanced lab testing.
Move your lymph through practices like self-massage, castor oil packs, gua sha, daily exercise and lying on your back while resting your legs up the wall.
Reduce toxin exposure by pairing down any offending home products, fragrances and food sources.
Manage emotional stress that contributes to your body’s burden. Prioritize getting 8+ hours of sleep nightly, incorporating diaphragmatic breathing, journaling, meditation and gratitude practices.

a pile of carrots

Best detox foods to support drainage pathways

If you’re motivated to dig in on nourishment practices to bolster your body’s natural detoxification processes, there are some foods that can be powerful supports to lean on. But there isn’t one special magic food – it’s all about variety and consistency.

Our body requires many tools in order to keep our detoxification pathways functioning appropriately. We require nutrients like antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein to fuel our detox pathways, so if we’re chronically undernourishing or not incorporating enough variety in our diet, we may be unintentionally closing off these pathways.

Instead of focusing on restricting foods through diets or juice cleanses to support detox, we want to prioritize what we can ADD to upregulate these processes.

Some of the best detox foods to try incorporating regularly include:

Cruciferous vegetables: Foods like cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, collards, radishes, turnips and cabbage contain sulfur, which is a key player in liver detoxification.
Citrus: Foods high in vitamin C, which can support our immune system and serve as an antioxidant to help protect our liver from damage during the detoxification process
Green tea: The catechins in green tea are a special type of antioxidant that can help support the production of enzymes involved in phase 2 liver detoxification
Beets: Not only do beets contain lots of polyphenols and antioxidants, but they contain a compound called betaine, which can help support phase 2 detoxification in the liver and prejudice fatty deposits in the liver
Flaxseed: Seeds of all kinds are a great source of prebiotic fiber to support motility and keep our colon moving, but flaxseed in particular is rich in an omega-3 called ALA and lignans, which can help us metabolize and excrete excess estrogen
Garlic and onion: Not only do these two foods pack so much flavor into our meals, but they also contain a bioactive compound called allicin, which can help increase glutathione levels, our body’s most abundant antioxidant.
Carrot: All orange foods, including carrots, are rich in vitamin A, which serves as an antioxidant, supports our immune health and can promote the integrity of our mucosal barriers and protect against toxins and pathogens
Dark leafy greens and herbs: Parsley, cilantro, beet greens, bok choy, chard and kale all contain a phytonutrient called chlorophyll, which can bind to toxins and carcinogens and make your body less able to absorb them into your system.
Artichoke: Not only are artichokes rich in prebiotic fiber, but they also contain a nutrient called cynarin, which is a liver-protecting agent that can help stimulate the liver, gallbladder and kidneys to help break down and eliminate toxins.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information floating around online about how to detox, especially as we head into the new year, click here to schedule a free discovery call and discuss how we can support your health and set realistic goals without restrictive diets.