Everyone knows the importance of a healthy diet—but only a few put their knowledge into practice. In fact, studies have shown that almost half of US adults have a poor-quality diet consisting of too much salt, sugar, and processed meats. On top of that, about 42% of all the carbohydrates Americans consume come from foods of lower nutritional quality, such as refined grains, cereals, added sugars, and potatoes.

If your diet sounds similar to most Americans’, you can improve your health by flushing these foods out of your system and resetting your body. You can start your detox diet by incorporating the following food in your meals:

Broccoli

Broccoli is hailed as a superfood because it is rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. However, this vegetable is also helpful in resetting your body because it contains sulforaphane, a substance that promotes the production of detoxifying enzymes in the liver.

You can reap the benefits of this superfood by following tips for buying broccoli in the right condition. It’s recommended that you buy broccoli that is tight and firm to the touch and dark green in color. It would be best to avoid limp, yellowish, or wilting pieces because their taste and nutrient value have already changed. This method can help you ensure that you’re getting detoxifying benefits from your broccoli soup or smoothie.

Brown rice

Instead of eating cereals or potatoes, you should get your carbohydrate fix from brown rice. Unlike highly processed white rice, brown rice contains detoxifying elements in its outer bran and germ portions. The bran in brown rice contains fiber and gamma-oryzanol, which can increase the antioxidant levels in your liver and flush out toxins from your body naturally.

However, you should learn how to wash rice properly to avoid ingesting any pesticide, dirt, dust, or excess starch from the ingredient. You have to submerge the rice in water, stir it around the bowl, and drain the water to remove any traces of unhealthy substances from the rice. Once you’ve washed the brain rice, you can start making dishes to help reset your system, like roasted broccoli rice bowls or burrito bowls with rice, black beans, and avocado.

Oats

Brown rice is great for savory dishes. But if you’re craving sweet meals, you can use oats as a healthy carbohydrate source. Oats contain fiber and antioxidants, which are both helpful for discharging toxins from your body.

There are plenty of ways to cook oats, but it’s most recommended that you soak them overnight. Preparing your oats overnight can help the starches break down and reduce the oats’ natural phytic acid. As a result, it’ll be easier for your body to digest the oats and reap all its nutrients. You can even add fruits and chia seeds to your overnight oat mixture to increase its detoxifying effects on the body.

Blueberries

Blueberries are one of the best fruits that you can pair with oats. This fruit contains dietary fiber, which can boost the functions of your digestive system. Blueberries also have anthocyanin pigments that can reset your body by reducing any damage to your DMA.

The good news is that it’s easy to incorporate blueberries into meals. You can get the health benefits of
blueberries by juicing it for a detox cleanse. You’ll need to blend blueberries, along with other detoxifying ingredients like apple and cucumber, until it turns into a purée. You can also eat raw blueberries as a snack to make the most of the nutrients from the fresh fruit.

There are plenty of foods that can help detox and reset your body. However, these four ingredients can serve as the building blocks of your diet because they offer multiple health benefits and can easily be incorporated into meals. If you want to learn more about detox diets, you can check our cleansing tips here at Adventure in Well Being.

Written by: Lisa Sinclair