Gut cleansing, also known as colon cleansing, is a way of removing waste and toxins from your body. It is beneficial to your health as it helps some issues such as constipation, irregular bowel movements, and it can also reduce the risk of colon cancer. Practitioners claim that it can provide many health benefits such as weight loss, better digestion, clear thinking, and increased energy. But despite the result, colon cleansing may lead to colon damage, so it should be approached with caution.

Along with helping with the issues mentioned, it may also reduce bloating, allergies, depression, mood swings, fatigue, headache, and joint pain.

Your body’s ability to detoxify is a complex process that requires a lot of energy from nutrient-dense detox foods, including organic whole fruits, vegetables, and high-quality protein. 

Gut cleanses should include the following foods: 

• Psyllium Husk:  treats constipation.
• Dark Leafy Greens & Vegetables: help cleanse the gut.
• Probiotics: – improves health by cleansing the gut for it to be healthy. 
• Fruits: helps maintain good bacteria in the gut and improve digestive health.
• Apple Cider Vinegar: stimulates and improves digestion.
• Turmeric Powder: contains anti-inflammatory properties that can help with gut inflammation and permeability.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF AN UNHEALTHY GUT

Some symptoms of an unhealthy gut are obvious, like diarrhea, constipation, bloating and gut pain, along with conditions like Celiac disease, Crohn’s disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Conditions such as leaky gut and dysbiosis are associated with many conditions both inside and outside the gut.

An unhealthy gut can make you feel generally unwell, with no specific condition or disease. Symptoms can fluctuate, so you may feel well one day and rubbish the next. Other signs your gut health may be in need of support include bad breath, low immunity, headaches, sugar or carb cravings, difficulty urinating, vaginal or rectal itching, rash, brain fog, anxiety, and Candida overgrowth.

It is important to note that these symptoms are all anecdotal, which means that they’re commonly reported alongside evidence of dysbiosis shown on a comprehensive stool test. There’s not currently any hard proof that dysbiosis causes them, so your doctor is unlikely to investigate dysbiosis as a cause.

Even if you’re not overly concerned about having gut issues, a gut cleanse may help your overall stomach health. 

We live in a world where we are exposed to hundreds of toxins each day, so detoxification is part of our biology. Without it, we wouldn’t last very long. It functions continuously to keep us safe from the toxins in our environment and the ones our own body produces naturally. 

Although detoxification happens naturally, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to worry about it. Your body’s own detoxing mechanisms don’t work properly without the right fuel: the nutrients in whole foods. So while it’s not accurate to claim that certain types of food will detoxify your gut directly, a healthy diet definitely enhances the detoxification processes your body does by itself.

PROTEIN IS A CORNERSTONE OF DETOXIFICATION

Foods that are "bifunctional modulators" of detoxification address both phase I and phase II pathways in the liver. These are mostly derived from plant-based compounds found in cruciferous vegetables, alliums (garlic and onions), artichoke, citrus, berries, pomegranate, turmeric, and green tea.

But you can’t optimize detox on fruits and vegetables alone.

Many cleansing diets (like juice fasts) are deficient in protein, which inhibit the body’s ability to get rid of toxins via phase II conjugation. Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are essential to the six pathways of phase II detoxification mentioned above. 

You can’t effectively conjugate toxins without amino acids that bind the transformed toxins in the liver so they can be carried out of the body. And if phase II conjugation is impaired, imbalanced detoxification may allow phase I free radicals to build up and cause damage. To put it more simply: Protein contributes to dragging toxins out of the body, and without it these toxins are more likely to build up.

All proteins are essential for detoxification, particularly those that contain high amounts of essential amino acids. 

QUALITY INGREDIENTS FOR CLEANSING

When talking about detoxification, it is important to emphasize high-quality, organic proteins that have a low toxic burden. Avoiding pesticides, hormones, and heavy metals is especially important.

One way to easily incorporate clean protein in your diet is through protein shake supplementation. Transformation Protein’s powder contains a premium blend of egg white, collagen peptide and plant proteins, including all nine essential amino acids, MCT Oil, probiotics, and digestive enzymes. 

Pairing protein with Super Greens powder can enhance your gut cleanse even further by helping to boost your immunity and optimize the cleansing cycle What’s more? Super Greens also helps you absorb protein better, and it also provides the nutrition equivalent of a full day’s servings of vegetables, with great taste.