CLEAN 7's TAKE ON Weaving Ayurveda Into Your Detox

Similarly to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the ancient practice of Ayurveda centers around chasing your balance. Ayurveda also recognizes that, because our daily, modern lives are so varied and complex, balance is not something to simply be achieved, once and for all. Instead, finding our bodies’ balance is a moving target — and that’s the beauty of it.

But because things can get so far outside of a healthy balance, sometimes we require more than just a minor adjustment. Maybe we’ve been overworked or keep reaching for less healthy choices, like pre-packaged foods where inflammatory free radicals from hydrogenated oils run rampant. Maybe we’ve been binge drinking, stressing, not hydrating, smoking — or just living in a fast-paced big city. Life comes atcha fast.

When we need to get things back on track in a major way, we may feel the desire to do something more intensive than eating a meal for our Dosha. We might fast-track our way back to internal balance by offering more support to our bodies’ way of cleansing and detoxing.

There are many Ayurvedic cleanses, such as panchakarma, kitchari cleanses, and drinking certain spices brewed into a tea — but there are always ways to weave an Ayurveda cleanse into your detox with other principles. Dr. Alejandro Junger, the founder of The Clean 7 (and now, the more intensive Clean 21) Reset program knows all about this.

1. Biotransformation: Freeing up our bodies’ natural pathways for detoxification and elimination.
2. Energy: Pumping up the body’s natural cellular energy supply, sans stimulants.
3. Communication: Opening up the pathways of communication between our body’s systems. According to Dr. Junger, “This can include hormones, neurotransmitters, and cell signalers called cytokines, which can help control inflammation and immune function…all to ensure hormone balance, clear minds, and proper inflammatory messages.”
4. Defense: Clearing out the old and making way for consistent detox, which our immunity relies on. Dr. Junger says, “When this system isn’t functioning well, we can see it manifested in colds and flus, autoimmune disorders, food sensitivities, hormone imbalances, and chronic infections.”
5. Transport: Transporting oxygen and nutrients through our blood to every cell in our body, while the lymph takes out the trash by moving waste in and out. Or, simply think of our circulatory and lymphatic systems. These are vital to total well-being.
6. Assimilation: Breaking down food in our gut, absorbing nutrients, and passing the waste.
7. Structure: Focusing on the repair and maintenance of our structural tissues. These are incredibly important matrixes — like um, hello, our skin! But this also includes our subcellular membranes, collagen, gut lining, fascia and more — all systems that we need to thrive for the long haul.

The Clean 7 Reset Program is not necessarily one of the Ayurvedic cleanses aforementioned, but he inserts elements of Ayurveda in, along with intermittent fasting and functional medicine, which Dr. Junger explains as “an integrative medical practice that addresses the root cause of bodily issues to provide whole-body wellness.” This is, in and of itself, an essential principle of Ayurveda.

While intermittent fasting isn’t for everyone, at any given time — as we’ve expressed in detail before — The Clean 7 approach is gentle. Still, for the ladies, we don’t recommend this practice right before or during menstruation, as we need to honor our bodies’ request for carbohydrates and eating when we’re hungry during this time. (Hey, it’s a hormonal thang.)

Dr. Junger goes on to express that, “At Clean, we like to utilize facets of ancient Eastern Medicine, in the forms of Ayurvedic cleanses and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and Western Medicine to address the body holistically. Traditional Chinese Medicine focuses on balance, harmony, and energy in the body; Ayurvedic Medicine’s focus is that each individual is one-of-a-kind, with a unique blueprint for health. Blending these forces gives us a powerful toolkit.”

But before we go into thinking that this detox is a weight-loss fad, we can slow our roll. We aren’t a fan of get-skinny-quick schemes here at Amé — and we aren’t even into “getting skinny” on the whole. True wellness is about embracing our own body type, eating healthfully, and feeling satiated and our most energetic. That’s why we take cleansing and detox programs with a grain of salt (or like, as much flavor as we can get) — because too often, they mean going hungry. And when it comes to wellness, starving ain’t it.

But the best part? Even the Intermittent Fasting portion of the program doesn’t require any amount of starvation. We get to eat real meals on this cleanse, and that includes lean meat if we’re not veggie. It’s about eating clean, not less, and supporting our systems with herbs like neem, tulsi (aka Holy Basil), turmeric, triphala blends, and teas — all of which are important for an Ayurvedic cleanse. The Clean 7 methodology also suggests eating the first meal a little later in the morning, and supporting the body in the morning with herbal teas. Shake packets with herbs and greens that we can mix with simply water or with fruits and vegetables are included, encouraging whole foods during the detoxification.

Because a lot of Ayurvedic herbs and foods are based in Indian culture, it’s not always feasible for many people to eat that way 100% of the time. But weaving them into our diets has a major and lasting impact. Anti-inflammatory foods and spices help condition the body’s own detoxification processes without overwhelming it, so that the detox doesn’t make us feel weak or sick, but energized and supported.

Modern life is rife with pollution, environmental stressors, and poor quality foods — all of which contribute to impaired digestion (an all-too-common complaint), and potential toxic overload for our bodies. Giving your body’s detoxification processes some support on an ongoing and/or periodic basis is smart.” We agree — making this program Ayurveda and Amé approved.