Marked by the start of the vernal equinox, when light and dark are in perfect balance – everyone is ready for renewal. The return of color is often enough to bolster the spirits after the long months of grey skies and snow. But the sun is warm, the blue skies and birds return and the aroma of fresh grass and early spring flowers become an intoxicating awakening of the senses, jolting us with energy and wakefulness.
Improve Your Body and Mind
Winter often leaves us feeling sluggish and sick, in part due to colds and viruses, but also because the foods we traditionally eat in winter are packed with fat – creamy soups, casseroles, gravies – or are grabbed from a drive-through on the way home since darkness arrives so early that even 5 p.m. seems late.
Inevitably, that drive-through diet – combined with short days that make exercising outdoors a seemingly impossible challenge – can cause all kinds of negative feelings.
The warmer weather means a wealth of nutrient-rich veggies - asparagus, spinach, baby peas – that can restore our energy by providing feel-good nutrients that are just the thing for sparking a kick-start.
A Better Body from the Inside Out
According to Chinese philosophy, if we don’t clean the toxins from our bodies as part of a spring ritual, we run the risk of becoming rigid like the trunk of a tree, trapped in a stagnant self that loses fluidity and flexibility.
That’s especially true for our liver, which is tasked with the big role of helping to remove toxins from our blood. When our liver isn’t working properly, those toxins hang around, generating a sense of general imbalance and sluggishness.
There are several foods that can help boost the health of this busy organ, including:
- Garlic. It helps trigger enzymes that flush out toxins.
- Grapefruit and other citrus fruits. The breakfast staple and its cousins are all packed with antioxidants that target free radicals.
- Leafy greens. Beet greens, kale, dandelion greens and spinach can help neutralize toxins, essentially sharing some of the workload so the liver can catch a break.
- Beets. The ruby-red root of the beet has flavonoids that help the liver function better.
- Avocados. Eating ‘avos’ helps the body produce glutathione, a necessary component required for the liver to filter out harmful substances.
- Omega-3 fatty acids. The Omega-3s in our fish oil supplements can help support the liver’s cleaning process.
While eating a diet rich in fruits and veggies is an important first step, cleaning the body so it can readily take in all the nutrients those foods offer is an integral part of the process as well.
Erasing toxic buildup in the body’s digestive tract with a supplement such as Kiwi-Klenz provides the mechanism for taking in those nutrients more efficiently.
Made from whole kiwifruit, Kiwi-Klenz provides digestive enzymes to break down food, prebiotics to feed and stimulate the growth of good bacteria (probiotics), phenolics to keep bad bacteria in check to keep the digestive tract healthy and soluble fiber for healthy bowel function.
Kiwi-Klenz essentially helps your entire digestive system function well.
It may help support:
- The increase absorption of nutrients from food;
- The potency of nutritional supplements since your body will be better able to utilize the nutrients provided;
- Better digestive health with less gas, bloating and constipation.
Health Beyond Your Plate
Our bodies are constantly changing, so taking good care of ourselves all through our lives can make a big difference.
We know experts recommend that we eat a rainbow of food colors every day, but for even the most diligent, that can be a tricky task.
To fill the void, consider our Total Balance products, available in versions targeting men’s health and women’s health as well as unisex formulas. Each is packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, as well as a wealth of special ingredients that support liver health including turmeric and milk thistle extract.
By treating your body well now – with our three Core Wellness products (Total Balance, Kiwi-Klenz and Omega-3 fish oil) - you can help support your whole body so that next year, when cold and flu season starts again, you’ll be ready.
References:
- Arti Patel, Foods for a Liver: 10 Foods for a Healthy and Clean Liver, Huffington Post, Sept. 13, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/09/13/foods-for-liver_n_1880715.html