Maharishi AyurVeda recommends cleanses from time to time to help your body clear out ama (accumulated toxins), and improve your body's natural waste removal systems. Ripe, sweet, juicy fruits are naturally cleansing. They’re bursting with nutrition—fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants—that support detox, while giving your digestive system a break. Fresh fruit requires practically no digestion, and helps to increase ojas—the finest by-product of digestion that enhances immunity, happiness, and strength.
Favor whole, fresh fruit which comes packaged with fiber—not fruit juice—which is stripped of its fiber content. Fiber acts like a broom, helping to sweep toxins out of your body, and is crucial for digestive health. Most plant foods contain a mix of water-soluble and insoluble fiber, both of which benefit digestion in unique ways. Specifically, fiber encourages regular bowel movements which is essential during a detox.
Stewed seasonal fruit, such as apples and/or pears, makes an excellent detoxifying ‘break-fast’ that gently stimulates the digestive fire and elimination in the morning without being too heavy. Cooking fruit makes it even more digestible and suitable to combine with other foods. Cooked chutneys and compotes are delicious additions to any meal that provide satisfying sweet flavor and an extra boost of nutrition.
Choose seasonal, local fruit to cleanse aligned with the season. Here are some delicious options to get started!
Apples and pears contain pectin—a type of soluble fiber—that helps regulate blood sugar, and usher toxins like heavy metals out of the body.
Figs and prunes are plentiful in fiber (15 grams and 12 grams per cup, respectively), and contain high levels of free radical scavenging antioxidants.
Juicy, water-rich pineapples and papayas are also fiber and pectin superstars, and contain important vitamins and minerals like B vitamins, vitamin C, zinc, and magnesium which support energy production, the immune system, and much more.
The next time you cleanse, reach for fruit! They’re fiber-filled gems that will help you flush out toxins from your body while being kind to your digestion—and your tastebuds. Bon appétit!