Water sounds like a magical drink in so many ways. It is no-sugar and a calorie-free beverage with countless benefits. Could one of these benefits be keeping us protected from toxins?
Water is an essential component for nearly every single process in our digestive tract. From consumption to transport to excretion, without water – these would be near impossible.
So, let’s learn about how water helps remove harmful toxins from the digestive tract and also its role in the detoxification of our body.
Table of Contents
Understanding Detoxification
Detoxification is the removal of toxins from your body via physiological process or medicinal intervention. The name itself seems quite positive. After all, who doesn’t want to be rid of harmful toxins in your body?
However, most detoxification techniques involve using laxatives, diuretics, or minerals that are believed to have detoxing properties. The targeted impurities are usually unwanted pollutants, heavy metals, synthetic chemicals, and so on. These techniques are also used heavily by people to lose weight.
Several reports have failed to confirm that these diets actually contribute to detoxification. Your body is naturally equipped to keep you protected against unwanted toxins. Your liver, kidneys, and digestive system are already capable of detoxification.
This is why the most effective way you can aid this detoxification is by making your body’s job easier. You can do so by preventing things that slow down your body processes. These things include high alcohol consumption, irregular sleeping patterns, eating heavily processed foods, and an unhealthy lifestyle.
Do You Need Detoxification?
While clearing off all the toxins in your body sounds excellent, the question is, is it really necessary? Believe it or not, there is such a thing as too much detoxification. During detoxification, you might end up losing minerals and vitamins that are actually useful to you. The loss of these essential minerals can cause adverse effects such as fatigue, dizziness, or even worse.
So, how can you know if your body actually needs detoxification? To begin with, here are a couple of signs to look out for:
- Inexplicable fatigue
- Feeling sluggish
- Skin irritation
- Puffy eyes
- Feeling bloated
- Confused mental state
- Minor infections
If these symptoms seem familiar to you, then it might be an indicator that your body needs a bit of assistance in detoxification.
How Does Water Help Remove Toxins From The Digestive Tract?
A typical detoxification process works by merely enhancing your body’s detoxifying processes. This can include stimulating the livers and kidneys to work faster or improving the blood circulation to speed up the overall process.
Water can help remove toxins by aiding in both. First and foremost, drinking water helps to prevent toxin build-up in your body. Water is the essential component in flushing out excess sugar, caffeine, and impurities. You can check and feel this merely by remembering how dehydrated you tend to feel when you consume these high saturated foods without enough water.
The digestive system simply would not exist without water. The saliva that our mouth produces is mostly composed of water. It is vital to break down the food components right from the get-go. Similarly, water is required to move the nutrients gained from this food as well as to transfer the food into your intestines.
A lack of water can also cause your colon to dry out and cause constipation. It is equally essential to help kidneys filter out the waste from your body. On average, your kidneys filter nearly 200 liters of fluids every day. Consuming ample amounts of water is vital in maintaining your body’s overall water balance.
How Much Water Should I Drink Daily?
There is quite a lot of contradicting information on how much water we should be drinking. We must have all seen the circulated information on drinking eight glasses of water every day. The following table is the data given by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and medicine.
| Population | Recommended water intake |
| Less than eight years old | Approx. 40 ounces or 5 cups |
| 9-13 years old | Approx. 56-64 ounces or 7-8 cups |
| 13-19 years old | Approx. 64-88 ounces or 8-11 cups |
| Adult Females | Approx. 91 ounces or 11.5 cups |
| Pregnant or breastfeeding women | Approx. 80-104 ounces or 10-12 cups |
| Adult Males | Approx. 125 ounces or 15.5 cups |
If these values seem unnecessarily high to you, that is because this value represents your overall water intake. This includes the water you get from fruits, vegetables, tea, juices, and so on. Disregarding these amounts, the amount of water you need to consume consciously comes down to about 100 ounces or 12.5 cups for men and about 73 ounces or 9 cups for women.
Water for Detoxification – Beyond Drinking
Water is excellent at removing harmful toxins from your digestive tract. But there are also other ways it can help in detoxification. One of these is external cleansing. Hot baths and saunas are not only good at getting rid of dust and pollutants but also at enhancing other functions.
For instance, hot water can help promote better blood flow. It does this by reducing blood pressure and improving blood circulation. This is precisely why hot water is used to ease stiffened muscles. Another plus is that these hot waters and saunas help open up your pores for better exfoliation.
These pollutants may not be internal, but they can affect your skin, and you might also end up ingesting them. Therefore, water can be great for external detoxification as well.
How to Help your Body Detoxify?
While water can be an easy way to detoxify your body, prevention is always better than cure. One of the main things you can do to prevent a toxin build-up is to watch your intake. Try to limit the consumption of alcohol, coffee, and foods that have high sugar or saturated fat content. Similarly, try not to consume cigarettes. These are all known to slow down your body’s processes and, in turn, slow down your body’s ability to detoxify.
Another step you can take is to try and reduce the chemical contact. This reduction can involve minimizing the excessive use of household cleaners as well as health care products. Switching to more natural versions of your daily shampoos, cleansers, and so on can also be a conscious decision.
Finally, to keep your body ready to fight off any unnecessary toxins, you should incorporate exercise in your daily routine. Living a more active lifestyle is going to make you better prepared to heal. Similarly, living a low-stress life will make it easier for your body to deal with toxins. Make sure that you get plenty of sleep so that your body gets the time to repair and keep you healthy.
How to Drink More Water?
As much as we love to read about the various benefits of water- let’s face it, drinking plain water is just not an attractive proposition. Especially when multiple energy drinks and soft drinks are continuously bringing out new and exciting flavors. You know it’s important to drink water, but how can you ensure that you drink it. Well, we have a few ideas:
Jazz Up Your Water
To make your daily water consumption more effective, add a slice of lemon to add some taste. Lemon can also further enhance detoxification due to its acidic properties. Some people also prefer to add cucumber slices or drink sparkling water.
Other Sources
While plain water is miles better than any sugary alternative, you do have some other options. Try to incorporate healthy soups into your diets. Fresh fruit juices with no added preservatives or refined sugars can also be a great choice. Other than that, try to eat fruits and vegetables that have high water content such as cucumber, tomatoes, Brussel sprouts, spinach, and so on.
In Summary,
Water is a tremendous no-calorie drink that helps you remove the harmful toxins from your digestive tract. Rather than using laxatives or diuretics that may cause an imbalance in your body’s natural process, opt. for clean water that simply helps your body detoxify naturally.
(Last Updated on June 15, 2020 by Sadrish Dabadi)
