Detoxification & Elimination Explained: A quick deep dive

Having experienced digestive issues from bloating to pain and IBS, I feel understanding the process of elimination can help you to make decisions that will support your body in this work.

Smooth digestion is also crucial for optimal detoxification. Our bodies face a lot of physical and mental stressors every day and this can impact organs like the liver.

Detoxification is so vital for removing toxins but also in strengthening the immune system, rejuvenating skin and boosting our overall well being.

Elimination

Elimination is a subject many people feel shy about but it’s a natural process of the body.

Think about it logically -regular elimination will help prevent disease and keep your body clean.

Recently I had the chance to dive deep into this subject and love understanding how these systems work because it helps you make lifestyle choices that will support your health.

Understanding Digestion

Digestion plays a massive role in the quality of someone's life. Digestion has an effect on energy levels, the quality of sleep, hormone health and more.

Digestion begins the moment you put food in your mouth. Food travels from the mouth down into the stomach where it will sit for about 30 minutes. The stomach is about the size of a fist and has to expand to allow all of the food you eat to sit there.

The stomach makes acid to support digestion and break down the food but it is so important to support this process ourselves.

You can:

Chew your food. How many times have you wolfed through a plate of food because you were hungry? If your stomach is the size of a fist and you don’t chew your food that is going to be extra taxing on your system.
Avoid water at mealtimes. Stomach acid has a PH of about 1.9. Water has a PH of +7. By drinking water with meals you reduce the PH and digestive power of the stomach acid which is so important.
Drink water between meals instead. Diluting lemon in water can support healthy digestion.

The Small Intestine

Food will then move into the small intestine. Any little pieces of food are chopped further by the enzymes in the small intestine and pancreas. The nutrients from the food move into the blood. This process to absorb the nutrients is so critical.

The Large Intestine

Food then moves across into the large intestine. And to do this it moves through something called the ileocecal valve. In the large intestine we house 3-4 kilos of bacteria. There is good bacteria and bad bacteria and obviously we want more of the good bacteria. Our gut bacteria plays such a huge role in our overall health.

When food arrives in the large intestine the good bacteria will ferment it, that is their role. So if you eat something large in size without chewing that could result in large food particles being fermented. If this happens gas is excreted and someone will feel bloated.

So in summary it is really important to eat consciously and think about this process outlined above as your reminder as to why.

The Liver

The liver plays a key role in the detoxification of substances we do not want to keep in our bodies. The liver transforms substances into something less harmful so that we can excrete it. It is a process that happens all of the time but lifestyle choices influence the effectiveness of this process.

What kind of substances affect the liver? Alcohol, caffeine, trans fats, refined sugars, viruses and synthetic substances like chemicals and pesticides.

Another interesting thing at play here is the fact that it’s not just the substances we consume that need the liver's help; Some substances created in our bodies like estrogen and cholesterol both require detoxification before they can be excreted.

The process of detoxification in the liver

There is actually only one entry point into the liver and there are two phases to detoxification.

Phase 1 is where something is added to the substance. Then it goes through a second phase and once this is carried out it can be taken out of the body forever.

Phase 2 is where we can run into some trouble… This area can get congested. One thing to note is the liver is always going to prioritize what’s happening in the moment over any substance created by the body.

Let’s take the example of some processed food with lots of refined sugar. Imagine the liver is already in the process of cleaning out cholesterol from the body and it’s about to go through phase 2 of detoxification but we eat something ultra processed. What happens is the liver will make room for the processed food and release the cholesterol back into the blood supply. That means we recycle cholesterol and that’s one way blood cholesterol can increase.

A healthy liver means a better quality of life and not just that but a longer life. By minimizing our exposure to harmful chemicals, by eating whole foods and reducing refined sugar, caffeine and alcohol we can really help our bodies keep well.

What you put into your body matters, not only what you eat but your environment too. The biggest changes start with the smallest steps. Slow down, chew your food and crowd out any foods that aren’t supporting your digestive health.