what's the diff? Detoxing vs gradually improving the diet.

[DoggyLady]

I'm exploring eating healthier foods. Gradually, i'm cutting down on meats. I'm increasing veggies (cooked and raw) intake. and increasing fruit intake.

i have already successfully cut out caffeine totally from diet. I did it by diluting my coffees, using cocoa , avoiding starbucks and eventually stopping caffeine altogether. now, i don't need cocoa or coffee at all.

I'm easing myself into healthier diet, cos i feel that i need time to build up new ideas on how to eat, new recipes, and explore new vegetarian places to eat, etc. i didn't even know how to make salad in the past. (i'm asian, we eat everything cooked.)

I feel the hardest part for me now is salt in diet. I find that when i eat out, there's so much salt in everything.

Does gradually improving diet help in detoxing?

or is detoxing something by itself ?

Eating healthy is a challenge!!! A lot of creativity required to change a whole lifestyle.

[Clint Cora]

Eat out less often then and many restaurants should have low fat/lower sodium dishes. Don't even touch the salt shaker whether out or at home. No need to add salt during cooking either. That's how I keep my sodium intake to a minimum.

[DoggyLady]

Originally Posted by Clint Cora

Eat out less often then and many restaurants should have low fat/lower sodium dishes. Don't even touch the salt shaker whether out or at home. No need to add salt during cooking either. That's how I keep my sodium intake to a minimum.

Salt shaker?? that's a western thing.

hello, i'm chinese. I live in asia.

you know chinese cooking.

everything cooked here are served to the table alreasdy loaded with sodium, be it MSG, soy sauce, etc.

i don't need a salt shaker to be pumped full of sodium.

Even mom regularly put MSG in her cooking.

when I told mum that Monosodium glutamate is bad, she scoffed and said, "i brought two children up on MSG. you both are fine, arent you?"

even if i turn vegetarian, the vegetarian food stalls serve the food full of sodium

and here in my country, it is almost imposible to buy salads in the regular food stalls, because salads are a foreign thing.

There is no way I can escape sodium, unless i make my own food.

it is gonna be a huge transition for me to go into low sodium diet. i'm only starting to embark on this new lifestyle.

[javed]

I have been to China a couple of times (thrice this year) and throughout I had been eating out. I am not Chinese so can't challege you, but I have seen a very wide avriety of chinese foods served in restaurants. There are so many foods that are almost raw, hald boiled, boiled or slightly tender. In fact, in many a cases, absence of salt or other spices was the problem for me.

May be that I was dining in 4 / 5 star hotels where the menus are different (tailored for foreigners) than those offered in other hotels.

I think low salt foods must be available in other hotels as well. Perhaps it is the social/pier pressure that u order the same food as others, and others are not that bothered about healthy food, so they choose food rich in salt.

I am on the same journey as u r. I have gradually omitted coca, reduced meat to minimum, increased salad, water, vegetables etc. But interestingly, salt is my weakness as well. I like salt in my food, though I am decresing it gradually.

Best luck to your slow and gradual journey to a healthy diet.

[KBaYogi]

Originally Posted by DoggyLady

Does gradually improving diet help in detoxing?

Yes, it does. Too many people come here thinking they must fast to detox. That is completely untrue. The body can take care of itself, if you eat healthy. That's the best way to do it, without putting undue stress on the body.

[janicelou]

Originally Posted by KBaYogi

Yes, it does. Too many people come here thinking they must fast to detox. That is completely untrue. The body can take care of itself, if you eat healthy. That's the best way to do it, without putting undue stress on the body.

Eating healthy will help to detox the body but eating healthy and detox are two completely different things.

I'd recommend getting a detox product if you have been eating a horrible diet for years. Eating healthy is better than nothing though.

[Clint Cora]

Originally Posted by DoggyLady

There is no way I can escape sodium, unless i make my own food.

This is EXACTLY what I started doing when I was in my late teens still living at home. I knew that I wasn't going to change the dietary habits of the rest of my family but was determined to change for myself. So the only option for me was to prepare my own meals the way I saw fit.

Then of course when I finally moved out in my early 20s, it was much less complicated to do all of my own cooking.