Time for an End of Summer Detox

The summer is a special time of the year for nature. Life is on full display. Most plants give their most beautiful flowers and fruits during the summer. What started in spring as an awakening from a quiet winter became an explosion of life.

For us humans, summer is the time where we socialize the most and are more active than the rest of the year. Parties, barbecues, celebrations, and drinking are a staple of so many these days. Often it’s a little bit too much. We overdo it. That is why so many of us feel like we need a vacation from our vacation.

This is why cleansing and detoxing is especially good at the end of the summer. It allows us to get rid of the excesses of the summer and recalibrate for the autumn. It is the perfect way to wind down from a busy-active summer and realign with nature. It is the perfect vacation from your vacation.

You are still benefiting from the warm weather of summer, during which it is easiest to detox. You are simply not that hungry to begin, with and it makes perfect sense to replace any meal with a liquid one. You are also still on the wave of all the goodies nature has been providing in the form of fruits and vegetables which make it easier to make things tastier, interesting and fun. It is easier to ‘eat the rainbow’ in the summer. The more colors and species of plants that you add to your detox foods, the more chances of a biodiverse microflora and a sturdy immune system.

By the end of summer, nature will have already had her fun and will be ready to shed — to let go in autumn. We should be doing the same. Having enjoyed the excesses of spring and summer, it is time to let go and prepare to shed, and there is nothing better than a well-designed, nutritionally supportive detox program. This is what I have been prescribing to many of my patients for decades now, with the most incredible results. 

One of the most remarkable benefits that I often observe is that those who detox by the end of summer have fewer upper respiratory infections in the following flu and cold seasons. It is no surprise to me, since a sound detox program strengthens the immune system’s ability to deal with infections. When you detox at the end of summer you will enter a harder time of the year (autumn-winter) with much more resilience and a better chance of a sniffle-free winter.

Most toxic chemicals that we are exposed to are lipophilic. That means that they dissolve in fat and NOT in water. Once in our circulation, if our livers are in overload, we won’t be able to ‘biotransform’’ these toxic molecules into hydrophilic, water soluble substances, that can be eliminated through urine, sweat, feces, and breath. Since they remain in the circulation, your body retains and even generates fat in order to defend itself from their irritation. So it is harder to lose fat by exercise and just eating healthier. You need to go the extra mile and really create the conditions for the fat to release the toxins and for those to be neutralized and eliminated. This should be behind the understanding in any cleanse or detox program that you choose.I highly recommend end of summer cleanses as the perfect transition to the colder seasons.