Your Skin, Body and Mind

Your Body

The natural, everyday detox.

Detoxing the body is something that should be a constant process rather than something that is done after an extended period of overindulgence. The simplest way to detox is to eat a balanced, healthy, varied diet and drink plenty of water to let your body do what it is designed to. Simply give your body what it needs the most to cleanse your system and get rid of waste products and toxins – pure, fresh water.

Every minute of every day, your body is constantly working towards a state of dehydration. Even if you did nothing all day except lie down, blink and breathe – you’re still using fluid and therefore losing fluid. Your body is always heading towards dehydration and it’s up to you to prevent that from happening.

You lose fluid from your body as moisture when you exhale, which is most noticeable on a cold winter’s day. Even if you’re completely stationary and doing nothing, you’re still going to lose water as perspiration. And you don’t just have to be competing in the London Marathon to work up a sweat. Your body also uses water to help get rid of toxins and waste products, which happens when you visit the toilet.

So you see, this constant fluid loss happens all day, every day. If you start adding in factors like physical activity, a warm environment and diuretic agents such as alcohol or caffeine – the dehydration gauge will be rocketing towards ‘empty’ very quickly. It’s at this point the body’s ‘warning light’ comes on – and you experience thirst.

However, there is a problem with what nutritionists call the ‘thirst mechanism’ – the point at which you feel thirsty. This mechanism is the body’s last resort to get you to drink something and, by the time you’re thirsty, you are in fact already dehydrated. So remember to keep topping up during the day. Around two litres per day is a good rule of thumb. Another great tip is to check you are producing large quantities of clear urine – the darker the urine, the more dehydrated you are.

Constantly running your body with the water tank empty means all the toxins and waste products aren’t effectively being flushed out of your system. In fact, most of the systems in your body will be struggling to cope, including your digestive system. So, you’ll not be absorbing the food you eat, leading to more waste, lethargy and headaches. Additionally, oxygen is carried in the red blood cells to the muscles, and water is needed to carry those cells in the blood plasma. So, being dehydrated can affect your body systems in all kinds of negative ways.

The most widely accepted amount of water to drink in a day is two litres. It can be a lot easier to keep track of what you are drinking by using bottled water – so, if you go through 4 x 500ml bottles of Highland Spring in a day, you know you are on track. And, with Highland Spring available in a range of handy bottle sizes, you can carry your water with you when you are out and about.