Do we need alcohol detox after drinking too much alcohol?
There has been lots of focus on the benefits of doing an alcohol detox program to help your body recover from the after effects of drinking too much alcohol. There is no doubt that stopping the over-indulgences of the festive season is a good idea. What is less understood, is whether we need to physically detox, in order to make ourselves healthy again.
Does Alcohol detox really work?
Many of the recommended detox programs are actually a good idea! Setting the general intention to stop drinking alcohol, cut out junk food. Get some physical exercise – this is the best way to get healthy! No surprises there. But have you ever wondered about detox programs that involve strict diet control? How about diet supplements, or gluggy green smoothies, or even paying for fancy potions?
Well, it turns out that there was a thorough review done in 2015 by the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. This study covered several of the popular alcohol detox diets of the time. The review found that most detox diets are fundamentally the right thing to do. All of them recommended cutting back on alcohol and unhealthy snacks. No surprises there.
Cut back on alcohol and unhealthy food
If you cut back on alcohol and unhealthy food, you will definitely feel better. In a very short space of time, your body will feel better from the reduction in toxins and unhealthy food. And your mind will feel better from the reduction in alcoholic brain fog.
But do we really need to cleanse our body of toxins?
The jury is still out on this one. There is no evidence that we actually benefit from various methods of eliminating toxins. The introduction of supplements, or detox powders, or overdosing our diet with massive amounts of kale may not be enough.
The benefit of a healthy diet is that our body will cleanse itself
That’s right, by cutting back on alcohol, for example, our liver can focus on cleansing the blood of toxins and free radicals. This is instead of trying to metabolise the alcohol and fat. When we eat junk food, the liver cops the full dose of sugars and fats. These unwanted elements accumulate in the cells of the liver. Too much of these can damage the ability of the liver to cleanse the blood. We all know that drinking too much alcohol can cause liver cirrhosis. Even in moderate amounts, the liver has to work overtime to clean up the mess. If we could see the mess that we create, we probably wouldn’t do it in the first place!
Let’s take a closer look at toxins
Most foods contain a range of healthy and unhealthy chemicals, which is simply the natural way. For example, some perfectly normal fruit and vegetables contain chemicals that we need to live. And perfectly healthy foods also contain substances that we don’t need. For example, plants have built up an array of natural insect repellents. Otherwise how would they be able to survive and grow to maturity, and grow seeds to procreate?
But our body has designed its own defenses to deal with those natural chemicals. Because we are not insects, and those repellents don’t hurt us.
So what happens to the unwanted chemicals?
Our healthy digestive systems are designed to break down both the necessary and unwanted chemicals in our food. The good bits are absorbed into our bloodstream and shared all around the body. The nasties are broken down and neutralised in the kidneys, the liver, and by the immune system. The unwanted elements are simply passed as waste products in the normal way. We don’t need the addition of detoxification supplements to encourage this process. Our bodies already have a natural process to do this and it is at work every day.
What about drinking water?
It is true that drinking a healthy amount of water each day is important to the operation of our internal systems. But the suggestion that we should drink copious amounts of water to help with detoxification is not necessarily correct. Too much water can flush too many of the salts and minerals from the body. This can lead to a deficiency in the essential vitamins and minerals.
Beware of taking too much of anything!
We don’t need to add more chemicals. In fact, there is a risk of undertaking additional alcohol detox programs. By adding supplements or following overly strict diets could have a negative effect on the normal metabolisation of food. Adding more chemicals is simply not necessary. The body is perfectly capable of dealing with the waste products every day.
Help the body to alcohol detox naturally
The best thing that we can do to detox, is to help and assist the body to detox naturally. When we clog up the liver with fats and sugary foods, it is no wonder that it struggles with the day to day process of metabolising our food. Pile in the alcohol on top of the poor fatty liver, and you can see almost sense the already overloaded organ straining under the load. Why would we want to do that?
Instead of chemical detox, go for lifestyle
The best long term solution to the so called fad of detoxification is instead to choose long term lifestyle changes. Instead of looking for short term fixes to our poor lifestyle choices, we would be better off making lifestyle choices that avoid the problems in the first place.
What is the best way to achieve alcohol detox?
If detox makes you more aware of your health, then that is a good thing. But looking for a quick fix so that you can continue with bad habits is not helpful. Here are the best tips for undertaking detox and improving your health:
- Stop drinking alcohol
- Stop smoking
- East more fruit and vegetables
- Get more exercise
- Get more sleep
If you want to learn how to stop drinking, be sure to follow our blog at Love Being Alcohol Free.
