Wholistic Jen

By Jennifer Whitmire MS, MEd, MH, CHES, NEP

Why do I need a Cleanse?

Does your car have an oil filter?  How about your vacuum cleaner, does it have an air filter?  Maybe your air conditioner in your house; do you need to replace it or clean it?  We don’t have a removable filter, ours is on the inside.  This “Filter” was created before all of the man-made chemicals that we are surrounded by today.  It was made before car exhaust, before we were closed up in well-insulated homes and offices, before we were stuck in traffic breathing car fumes and recircling the air in our car, before our water became contaminated by chemicals, cleaners, and discarded pharmaceuticals.  Even when we live as cleanly as possible, we can’t get away from the air and water.  And, we don’t want to have to be constantly worrying about the chemicals, either.

Our cleansing organs work most efficiently when we eat as seasonally and locally as possible.  It was designed for that.  In the colder months of winter, January, February, and March, what foods are available locally that are in season?  Now, if you live in tropical or sub-tropical areas, you can get citrus fruits and vegetables that are not available to some of us.  Here, I would have to rely on foods I have in storage.  I wouldn’t have much available that is fresh except my winter greens like hardy collards.  I’d be eating root vegetables that have were harvested months ago, maybe some dried fruits and vegetables, maybe some frozen vegetables from last summer’s harvest. I’d have nuts and seeds and dried beans. If I ate meat, I may have some left over from the fall slaughter. Maybe I would have some canned foods? But, how long would these last? These foods are warming to the system.  The starchy vegetables and healthy fats are easily stored for longterm energy and keep us warm.

In April, May, and June, the spring herbs would be leafing out, and I would be able to start having herbal teas and spring greens and early vegetables.  These early vegetables are very low in starches and very high in minerals.  These foods are light. They aren’t very filling, and they allow us to naturally shed some of the heaviness of the winter season.  The raw greens are exactly what we need to clean our “filters.” By eating these foods in spring, we are allowing our body’s systems to clean out.  All of these foods are high in vitamin C and antioxidants.  They are exactly what nutrients are needed by the kidneys and liver to cleanse and work most-efficiently.  The liver needs sulfur-rich foods which are the alliums, garlic and onions, and the cruciferous vegetables.  Wild onions and garlic start in early spring, then comes asparagus which is extremely nutrient-dense, then comes the radishes, spring mix, and spinach full of minerals with the nettles and other spring herbs. Peas, sugar snap beans, and snow peas provide protein. And then it is berry season. It’s time for the birds to lay eggs, and the weather is right for fishing.  For omnivores, this is the time to gather eggs and fish. All of the spring fruits and vegetables are very cleansing and hydrating and provide exactly the same nutrients that the liver needs to work optimally to cleanse. We are no longer eating fatty foods, so the bile ducts and gall bladder are getting a break to clean up the bile that’s be recirculating and building up.

In July, August, and September, we start off with the fruit-vegetables. Squashes, zucchini, peppers of all types, more fruits, eggplant, tomatoes, and green beans.  These are all very cooling and hydrating and extremely colorful, exactly what we need to be eating during these months. These colors show us that we are getting all of the phytonutrients that our body needs to stay strong and healthy during the summer heat. Most of the nutrients in these foods are easily destroyed by cooking, so this is the time of year when we should be eating mostly, if not all, raw foods. It’s too hot to hunt and fish, and those foods will weigh us down in this heat.  If we stay closed up in the air-conditioning, we forget that these are what our body needs at this time.  

In October, November, and December, we have our winter squashes, our root vegetables, and our nuts, seeds, and dried beans. These foods are heavier, higher in complex carbohydrates, and higher in fats.  Now is when we need to have plenty of energy to dig roots and gather nuts and hunt for meat.  We start cooking and roasting our foods, making soups and stews. This is a time of storage. We need to be gathering herbs and seeds for drying, canning, and freezing vegetables, and steaming and stewing the hardier greens like collards, mustard, and turnip greens.  We start eating foods that will warm us as the temperatures begin to fall.

Our body is made to detox on its own, and it can as long as we avoid chemicals in our air, in our food, in our clothes, in our building materials, in our bath and body products, in our cleaners, and we eat seasonally and locally. This is how our body naturally takes care of itself. Unfortunately we are living in a very toxic world.  

I don’t want to be all “gloom and doom.” There is a lot we can do to keep ourselves healthy. Read labels. Research cleaner products.  Don’t drink tap water. Eat as seasonally as is reasonable for you choosing organic or organically grown as much as possible. Plant your own garden, or partner with a neighbor. 

If you have headaches, skin rashes, fatigue, irritability, constipation, brain fog, inability to lose weight, these are all signs that you are need to work on cleansing, especially if you’ve made changes to your diet and lifestyle and STILL have these symptoms.

Want to do a gentle 14 day cleanse? The Jen Twins are offering theirs April 29-May 10. Click here to learn more.