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Flushing toxins that make you sluggish, slow your metabolism and dull your thinking jump-starts your health. And these tricks make it easy!
Speed fat burn. “Your liver is a fat-burning machine,” says nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., and eating two handfuls of red grapes daily supercharges its ability to convert fat into energy. University of South Florida scientists say the fruit’s ellagic acid boosts fat burn by 25%, and a study in Foods found that grapes make your metabolism as robust as if you were five years younger.
Erase brain fog. Up to 80% of folks over 40 have sluggish bile, and bile flushes toxins and helps the body break down dietary fats into energy for the brain. Gittleman’s advice: Sip 2 cups of dandelion root tea daily. It cuts liver congestion and boosts bile flow. This erases brain fog in two weeks, making thinking as sharp as it was up to 10 years ago.
Flush ‘false fat’. The liver shrinks by up to 40% as we age, making it harder for the body to flush toxins that cause bloat. To trim your waistline, sip a citrus spritzer (3 oz. of sparkling water and 1 oz. of lemon, lime or orange juice) three times a day for a week. Its d-limonene speeds the breakdown of toxins by 30%, says Gittleman. Your newly happy liver will make you noticeably slimmer in under 24 hours!
Tip! Swishing teeth with coconut oil stimulates the production of salivary enzymes that absorb toxins and pull them from your body, say Indian scientists.
Calm constipation. Feeling “backed up” is a sign the body is having trouble detoxing. But Gittleman says placing a warm castor oil pack over the abdomen boosts bile flow to lubricate the intestinal tract and get things moving. To do: Apply castor oil to your stomach; top with a wool flannel washcloth. Circle your waist with plastic wrap, then lie on an old towel. Place a heating pad on your belly for 10 minutes. Remove and rinse. Do once daily for three days.
Pampering Rx Canadian research suggests a 10-minute warm bath is one of the best ways to remove environmental toxins your body stores in fat cells, like hormone-disrupting phthalates and BPA from plastics and heavy metals like mercury, which can cause headaches and insomnia.
Tip: Add grapefruit peel to your bath to help dissolve fatty deposits.