You’ve probably heard these two sayings before:

• You are as young as you feel
• You are what you eat

In other words, there is a direct correlation between what you eat and how young you look and feel. This makes detoxing your body as important to your anti-aging efforts as it is to the health of your body.

What is an anti-aging detox, though? How does it work, and what can you do? I’ll explain this and more in the following article.

What Does Doing a Body Detox Mean?

A body detox is about removing toxins from the body. It is also about living in a way that keeps you young and maintains your energy levels.

After all, many of the health benefits that detoxing brings also make you look and feel younger. For example, removing toxic chemicals from your system makes your tissues healthier, improves blood flow, increases oxygen levels, improves the health of your skin, makes your hair healthier, and improves your mood. All these things make you younger – on the inside and outside.

There are many methods of detoxing available, some of which I'll explore later in this article. They all have the same goal in mind – removing toxins from your body as well as anything else that doesn't help the body or provide nutrients.

What Is an Anti-Aging Detox?

An anti-aging detox is one that specifically focuses on removing toxins that speed up the biological and visual aging process. Removing these toxins makes you look and feel younger.

Doesn't Detoxing Happen Naturally?

Yes. In fact, some organs in your body are specifically designed for removing toxins, such as your liver. The rate at which your body can remove toxins, however, varies, and in most people, there is a build-up. The unhealthier your lifestyle, the more toxins will be in your body. As a result, regular manual detoxes are the best course of action.

Why Is It Important to Detox?

We've already mentioned that you are what you eat. So, if you eat healthier, your body won't have toxins that need to be removed, right? This is partially true – the healthier you eat, the fewer harmful chemicals, fats, toxins, and other things that have no nutritional value will get into your system. If they are not in there, there is no need to remove them.

There are a few things I believe you should remember when considering this. Firstly, you should, of course, eat as healthy a diet as you can. This will help your body in a range of different ways, including keeping it free from toxins and making you look and feel younger.

The second thing you should remember, however, is that modern living means it is almost impossible to avoid consuming toxins or chemicals of some sort. You would have to be extremely dedicated – and probably only eat food you grow yourself – to avoid consuming anything that is bad for you, particularly the chemicals and other non-nutritious substances that are in much of our food.

If you eat a more normal diet, even if it is healthy, you can still benefit from an anti-aging body detox.

Finally, toxins make their way into your body via methods other than the food you eat and what you drink. Toxins can build up because of stress or imbalances in your hormones. There are also toxins in the general environment that you breathe in on a daily basis.

Again, it is almost impossible to avoid these toxins in the modern world, even if you live a healthy lifestyle.

When Should You Detox?

Your body is pretty good at telling you when you need to detox. You probably have the feeling most strongly after a period where you over-indulge and don't exercise as much as you should. The best example of this is the holiday season. In fact, this is often why people choose health-related options for their New Year's resolutions.

Of course, you don't have to wait until the New Year to start a detox program. In fact, you can look and feel great during the festive season if you detox now, leaving you at your best and ready to go come January 1st.

The most important thing to remember, however, is to listen to your body. It will give you signs that you may need to detox. These include having irritated skin, despite your usual skin care routine. You might also feel bloated in ways you can't explain, or you might be regularly fatigued. Puffiness around your eyes and generally feeling sluggish and below your best are all signs too.

How Detoxing Helps You Look and Feel Younger

For a start, detoxing removes the toxins in your body that speed up aging. In addition, too many toxins in your body causes oxidation, damaging your cells, which in turn makes you age faster. Detoxing reduces the oxidation effect and allows your cells to function more efficiently, slowing the process of aging.

Detoxing also cleanses your pores, keeping your skin fresh and vibrant looking. Detoxing can help get rid of acne too, as well as making your hair and nails healthier.

It also boosts your immune system and increases your energy levels which, in itself, makes you look and feel younger. This also helps keep you active, which promotes anti-aging even more.

Detox Program Examples

You can detox by eating carefully selected foods, but there are also programs you can follow. One I like for this time of year is the Mid-Tox, but there are lots of options available. The Mid-Tox is designed to rapidly detox your body in the 100 hours between Christmas and New Year. In other words, you start it a day or two after your Christmas indulgences, so you are clear of toxins and other nasties for the New Year celebrations and on into the coming year.

It involves dropping all snacks, alcohol, and junk food between Christmas and New Year. Refined carbohydrates should be dropped too. What you should eat includes protein with every meal - meat, fish, eggs, and nuts. You also need lots of vegetables and wholegrain carbohydrates.

What Are Some Good Anti-Aging Detox Foods to Eat?

Eating the following foods will help with your anti-aging detox:

• Fresh fish – particularly salmon, sardines, and other fish that have high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. The essential vitamins in fish also help with the detox process.

• Red peppers – because they contain high amounts of vitamin C, carotene, and the anti-aging detox folate.

• Herbal tea – the herbs in herbal teas give your body an antioxidant boost, helping to remove harmful toxins.

• Leafy green vegetables – particularly broccoli and spinach. They are high in vitamins and minerals, including iron.

So, a Detox is a Diet?

Not exactly. Diets are often associated with losing weight and that is not what detoxing is about. In fact, you don't restrict calories when you detox, although this is an important part of most diets.

A detox is about the inside of your body and removing toxins to make you healthier and younger looking.

There are, of course, similarities. After all, eating truly nutritious foods is a part of most detox programs. There is a difference, however, between the two terms detox and diet.

Is It Okay If You Eat Plenty of Fruit Juices and Soups?

Off-the-shelf fruit juices and soups are good examples of foods that you should not eat when detoxing. This is because they often contain high amounts of sugar and salt as well as, sometimes, chemicals and other additives.

In other words, detoxing isn't just about eating fruit and vegetables. Instead, it is about eating the right fruit and vegetables and in the right way.

What About Detoxing Juices?

I’ve already mentioned that off-the-shelf juices are not a good option. What about juices you make yourself?

Firstly, you can't rely on juices alone to live healthily and keep your body free from harmful toxins. Drinking juices, however, is something you can do daily that will help. In particular, juices can help clear toxins from your gut.

This is ideal for many people as juices are so easy to make, you can design your own recipes, and they (usually) taste great. There is one thing you should remember, however – don't use too much fruit.

The juicing process does two things to fruit that are not good for your body. Firstly, the natural sugars in fruit juices become concentrated so there are higher levels of sugar in juices than in the original fruits.

Also, the fiber that is in the fruit doesn't transfer to the juice. So, you get more sugar than you need and not enough fiber – compared to consuming the fruit directly.

Juices that are made only from vegetable juices are hard to face, however.

I like following the 90/10 rule – 90 percent of the ingredients in your juice should be vegetable and the other 10 percent fruit. Doing this gives you all the goodness of the vegetables while adding the natural sweetness that comes from fruit.

Try This Anti-Aging Juice Recipe

Here an anti-aging juice you can make today to get you started. It is packed with antioxidants and is great for your skin. Blend the following ingredients together:

• 4 carrots
• 1 beet
• 4 kale leaves
• 6 florets of broccoli (the fluffy bit at the top minus the stem)
• Small bunch of spinach
• Half a cup of blueberries
• Half a cup of strawberries

Enjoy!

Whether you start a special program or take steps yourself using your own diet, anti-aging detoxing will be beneficial to the way you feel and how young you look.