My current housemate is a naturopathic doctor and we’ve had interesting discussions about food, nutrition, and various diet regimens.  I was surprised to learn from her that dairy is a contributor to many health ailments.  Two other foods that can worsen conditions or cause people to generally feel unwell are gluten and refined sugar.  I have been looking for a new food challenge, and since I almost always feel fatigued, my housemate inspired me to try a detox diet for one month.  Although there are detox powders and pills available on the market, I believe that avoiding the “bad” foods is more beneficial to your health than consuming a lot of [unproven] supplements, assuming you’re regularly on a balanced diet.  In fact, a Chinese medicine-practicing doctor cured me of my Grave’s disease (an autoimmune thyroid condition) simply by giving me an extensive list of dietary restrictions.  I adhered to her list strictly for almost 2 years and have been off medication for longer.  So I’ve chosen to follow a basic and simple detox diet for this challenge (see rules below).  If you’re interested in doing something like this, I recommend speaking to a health care professional to find a safe detox diet that will suit your lifestyle and health concerns.

Although the following month will prove to be difficult (giving up dairy especially), I am really looking forward to it, because I will likely feel better, I’ll probably lose some weight, and I’ll have the opportunity to learn about new ingredients and develop new cooking skills.  As well, this will further reduce the amount of processed foods that I consume.  I will be posting bi-weekly updates about this challenge and will hopefully have some share-worthy recipes too.  Looking through my old recipes, I realized that many of my recipes (especially the Asian ones) are actually gluten-free.  Just be sure to check the labels of all of the ingredients and sauces that you use, because the gluten content of common products depends on the brand (ie. oyster sauce, ketchup, worcestershire, kecap manis, dijon mustard, etc.).

The 6 Rules to my Personal Detox Diet

No dairy

No gluten

No refined sugar

No soy

No caffeine

No alcohol

See the Day 7 update and recipes here.

See the Day 15 (halfway) update and recipes here.

See the Day 31 (last day) post and recipes here.