• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup Brazil nuts (selenium source) or macadamia nuts
• 1/3 cup sunflower seeds (cysteine source)
• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (zinc, magnesium sources)
• 1 cup fresh cilantro (corriander)
• 1 cup parsley
• 2/3 cup cold pressed olive oil
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice (Vitamin C source)
• Big pinch of sea salt and or dulse flakes to flavor

Chlorella Recipes

Mix in Chlorella with your favorite foods to enjoy living healthy even more! Here are some tips on how to add Chlorella to your daily diet.

Six Easy Ways Detox in Our Toxic World

It Might Be Time For A Detox?

The material in this chapter has been reprinted with permission from GaiamLife.com.

Feeling sluggish or out of sync? Having skin problems, aches and pains, or digestive problems? Straying from your healthier habits lately? It might be time for a detox.

Practiced for centuries by many cultures around the world — including ayurvedic and Chinese medicine systems — detoxification is about resting, cleaning and nourishing the body from the inside out. By removing and eliminating toxins, then feeding your body with healthy nutrients, detoxifying can help protect you from disease and renew your ability to maintain optimum health.

“The body has its own natural healing system,” says Peter Bennett, N.D., medical director of Helios Clinic in Victoria, B.C., and co-author with Stephen Barrie, N.D. and Sara Faye, of 7-Day Detox Miracle (Prima Health). “Detoxification enhances this system,” he explains.

How Does Detoxification Work?

Basically, detoxification means cleaning the blood. It does this mainly by removing impurities from the blood in the liver, where toxins are processed for elimination. The body also eliminates toxins through the kidneys, intestines, lungs, lymph and skin. However, when this system is compromised, impurities aren’t properly filtered and every cell in the body is adversely affected.

A detox program can help the body’s natural cleaning process by:

1. Resting the organs through fasting;
2. Stimulating the liver to drive toxins from the body;
3. Promoting elimination through the intestines, kidneys and skin;
4. Improving circulation of the blood; and
5. Refueling the body with healthy nutrients.

“Detoxification works because it addresses the needs of individual cells, the smallest units of human life,” says Bennett.

How Do You Know if You Need to Detoxify?

Bennett suggests that everyone should detox at least once a year. A short detoxifying program is generally safe; in fact, scientific studies show that a detox is beneficial for health. However, Bennett cautions against detoxifying for nursing mothers, children, and patients with chronic degenerative diseases, cancer or tuberculosis. Consult your health care practitioner if you have questions about whether detoxing is right for you.

Today, with more toxins in the environment than ever, “it’s critical to detox,” says Linda Page, N.D., Ph.D., the author of Detoxification (Healthy Healing Publications). Page recommends detoxing for symptoms such as unexplained fatigue, sluggish elimination, irritated skin, allergies or low-grade infections; bags under the eyes; a distended stomach even if the rest of your body is thin; menstrual difficulties; or mental confusion.

Where Do You Begin?

First, lighten up your toxin load. Eliminate alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, refined sugars and animal based saturated fats, all of which act as toxins in the body and are obstacles to your healing process. Also, minimize use of chemical-based household cleaners and personal health care products (cleansers, shampoos, deodorants and toothpastes), and substitute natural alternatives.

Another deterrent to good health is stress, which triggers your body to release stress hormones into your system. While these hormones can provide the “adrenaline rush” to win a race or meet a deadline, in large amounts they create toxins and slow down detoxification enzymes in the liver. So it’s a good idea to detox stressful life situations along with detoxifying your body. Yoga and meditation are simple and effective ways to relieve stress by resetting your physical and mental reactions to the inevitable stress life will bring.

Which Detox Program is Best for You?

There are many detoxification programs, depending on your individual needs. Many programs follow a 7-day schedule because, as Bennett explains, “it takes the body some time to clean the blood.” His program involves fasting on liquids for two days, followed by a carefully planned five-day diet to allow the digestive system to rest. He also advises supplements, herbs, exercise, and practices such as dry-skin brushing and hydrotherapy to enhance circulation.

Page recommends a 3-7 day juice fast (drinking only fresh fruit and vegetable juices and water) as an effective way to release toxins.

Other popular detoxing programs include:

• Cleansing supplement packages (which generally contain fiber, vitamins, herbs and minerals). There are several safe products on the market, with easy-to-follow instructions.
• A routine of drinking only water one day each week — an ancient practice of many cultures.

10 Ways to Help Your Body Detoxify

After a detoxification program, you can cleanse your body daily through diet, supplements and lifestyle practices.

1. Eat plenty of fiber, including brown rice and organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables. Beets, radishes, artichokes, cabbage, broccoli, spirulina, chlorella, and seaweed are excellent detoxifying foods.
2. Cleanse and protect the liver by taking herbs such as dandelion root, burdock and milk thistle, and drinking green tea.
3. Take vitamin C, which helps the body produce glutathione, a liver compound that drives away toxins.
4. Drink at least 2 quarts of water daily.
5. Breathe deeply to allow oxygen to circulate more completely through your system.
6. Transform stress by emphasizing positive emotions.
7. Practice hydrotherapy by taking a very hot shower for five minutes, allowing the water to run on your back. Follow with cold water for 30 seconds. Do this three times, and then get into bed for 30 minutes.
8. Sweat in a sauna so your body can eliminate wastes through perspiration.
9. Dry-brush your skin or try detoxifying patches or detox foot spas / foot baths to remove toxins through your pores. Special brushes are available at natural products stores.
10. What is the most important way to detoxify? “Exercise,” says Bennett. “Yoga or jump-roping are good. One hour every day.” Also try qigong, a martial arts based exercise system that includes exercises specifically for detoxifying or cleansing, as well as many other exercises with specific health benefits.

Tools and Tricks

TED Talks: “Your health depends on where you live” (http://bit.ly/cQedZY)Where you live impacts your health as much as diet and genes do, but it’s not part of your medical records. At TEDMED, Bill Davenhall shows how overlooked government geo-data (from local heart-attack rates to toxic dumpsite info) can mesh with mobile GPS apps to keep doctors in the loop. Call it “geo-medicine.”

GeoMedicine (http://www.esri.com/industries/health/geomedicine/index.html)How does your environment impact your personal health? GeoMedicine produces a new type of medical intelligence that leverages national spatial data infrastructures to benefit personal human health and improve the quality of the care medical professionals deliver. GeoMedicine’s mobile app “My Place History” is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store.

Top 10 Plants for Removing Indoor Toxins (http://bit.ly/hmL2Zn) This list of common indoor plants provides valuable weapons in the fight against rising levels of indoor air pollution.

Household Products Database (www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov) What’s under your kitchen sink, in your garage, in your bathroom, and on the shelves in your laundry room? Learn more about what’s in these products, about potential health effects, and about safety and handling, all at this one site.

DIY Nontoxic Household Cleansers (http://bit.ly/d2GpAI) Make your own nontoxic cleansers with these simple recipes for cheap green cleaning.

“What’s on my food?” iPhone app (www.whatsonmyfood.org/iphoneapp.jsp)Pesticide residues are on your food, even after washing. What are the dangers of these pesticides? How much of this stuff is really on the food we eat? This app puts these answers at your fingertips.

Gasland DVD (http://amzn.to/fVnXN9) Josh Fox’s award-winning documentary, which was created after he refused a $100,000 offer from a gas company wanting to drill on his land. The film presents a frightening scenario in which tens of thousands of drilling rigs take over the landscape, gas companies exploit legal loopholes to inject toxins into the ground, and residents living nearby contract severe unexplained illnesses.

Rather than lamenting over past toxic exposure to yourself or your family it is far healthier to take control over that which you can positively influence, such as your diet, your physical fitness, your emotional state, your neurological health and your current and future exposure to toxins.

You can limit your exposure to environmental chemicals as much as possible with the following tips:

1. Buy and eat, as much as possible, organic produce and free-range, organic foods. 

2. Rather than eating fish, which is largely contaminated with PCBs and mercury, consume a high-quality purified krill oil.

3. Avoid processed foods -- remember that they're processed with chemicals!

4. Only use natural cleaning products in your home. Most health food stores will have these available or you can search online for them.  See Seventh Generation Products or check out Greenstar's selection.

5. Switch over to natural brands of toiletries, including shampoo, toothpaste, antiperspirants and cosmetics. Same sources here, either your local health food store or you can search online.

6. Avoid spraying insect repellants that contain DEET on your body. There are safe, effective and natural alternatives out there.

7. Remove any metal fillings. Amalgams are a major source of mercury and any metal, including gold, can cause biogalvanism. Be sure to have this done by a qualified biological dentist. Although nearly any dentist is technically qualified to replace your amalgam fillings, far less than 95 percent have any clue on how to do it properly so your risk of mercury exposure is minimized.  Let me know if you are looking for a Mercury Free Dentist as we know of 2 great ones in the area.

8. Avoid using artificial air fresheners, dryer sheets, fabric softeners or other synthetic fragrances as they can pollute the air you are breathing.  Here is how you can tell if something is artificial: If it doesn't smell natural, smells too strong or too powerful, it is most likely not natural and most likely toxic. e.g. glade plug-ins. 

9. Avoid artificial food additives of all kind, including artificial sweeteners and MSG.

10. Limit your use of drugs (prescription and over-the-counter) as much as possible. Drugs are chemicals too, and they will leave residues and accumulate in your body over time.  Remember many medication are to lower symptoms but not to treat the cause of the problem.  Often the body gives symptoms as warning signs of chronic toxic stress, emotional stress, nutritional stress or nerve stress.  To artificially lower these signals/symptoms with chemicals is sometimes necessary but to do this for months or years is often more harmful than helpful.