What if the exhaustion isn’t you—but what you’re carrying? You’re eating better. Drinking more water. Trying your best to care for your body. And still…your energy is low. The inflammation lingers. The spark feels just out of reach. Sometimes, what drains us isn’t a lack of effort—but an unseen burden. Alcohol. Pesticides. Plastics. We’ve all heard these aren’t great for us—but what do they actually do once inside the body? These hidden stressors quietly disrupt hormones, damage the gut, block detox pathways, and drain the nutrients your body needs to function and heal. Understanding the science behind their impact brings conscious awareness—and with it, the power to change. This post reveals what these everyday toxins are really doing—and how their release can begin clearing the way back to wholeness.

Every single day, your body is working quietly and powerfully to protect you. With every breath you take, every bite of food, every sip of water, your cells are assessing, sorting, and transforming what’s needed—and what must be let go. This is detoxification: your body’s innate ability to process, neutralize, and eliminate harmful substances. But in today’s world, that natural process can become overwhelmed. The air we breathe, the foods we eat, the products we put on our skin—all contribute to a growing toxic burden. A Detoxification Diet offers a way to reduce that load while nourishing your body with the nutrients it needs to restore balance and resilience.

Your body has exquisite detoxification systems—your liver, kidneys, lymph, gut, and even skin are constantly working to eliminate what you no longer need. But those systems can’t function optimally when they’re overwhelmed by sugar, alcohol, pesticides, plastics, and synthetic chemicals. Remove what burdens the body and replenish what nourishes. This is the guiding principle in functional medicine and behind the "remove and replace" phase in our 12 Gifts of Health journey this year. Month 5 is about removing dietary and environmental toxins—a sacred pause in which we clear space for healing by gently and intentionally removing the substances that burden our bodies. And at the top of that list? Refined sugar.

What is one way to decrease inflammation, improve gut health, upregulate detoxification, and increase insulin sensitivity? It is to consume more brightly colored fruits and vegetables daily! Sometimes the busyness of life prevents us from adding in the recommended number of servings of fresh fruits and vegetables we need each day. That's where smoothies come in. Adding everything to a high-powered blender makes it much easier to consume what you need in a delicious way! This red antioxidant smoothie is something I make several times per week. The smoothie contains raw red cabbage, several different types of low-glycemic frozen berries, avocado, citrus, and a red polyphenol powder to help boost the overall phytonutrient content.

A "detoxification diet" is actually something you can do everyday by incorporating certain foods into your diet. Think of it as an inclusion diet where the focus is to bring in a variety of detoxification-supporting foods each day. Kohlrabi is an excellent food to support detoxification! It is a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, cabbage, radishes, and kale, and it's part of the Brassicaceae family of vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables contain compounds that can upregulate biotransformation pathways in order to transform and excrete toxins.

This flavorful green soup uses simple ingredients to create a nourishing meal that can help support natural detoxification. It is designed for Phase 1 of our Elimination Diet, but of course is a wonderful addition to your weekly meal planning even if you are not on the elimination diet! The Elimination Diet is not a diet that tells you what is good for you and what is not. It is a process that helps you discover what foods work best for you. We are all unique. There is no one way of eating or one perfect diet that is right for everyone. Even Hippocrates noticed this well over 2000 years ago.

Sometimes when the weather cools it is easy to get into the habit of eating more dense, cooked foods. For some people this is just what they need. But for others, a balance between raw and cooked is best. We each are unique, and so should be our diets. This colorful and nutrient-dense salad provides some key ingredients to support healthy detoxification. The dressing is delicious and can be used as a dip for raw veggies or used to top your favorite salads! I've even used it to top steamed vegetables! In functional medicine, detoxification is often considered "biotransformation" because our bodies will transform harmful substances into less harmful substances and then excrete them from the body.

You are going to love this nutritious raw kale slaw. It's full of detoxification and antioxidant compounds, and just bursting with the fresh, bright flavors of basil, mint, and cilantro. All tossed in a slightly spicy and gingery, creamy almond butter dressing. What I love about this salad is that it lasts up to 5 days in the refrigerator! Once it's made, you can take out portions as needed to easily fulfill part of your daily raw veggie needs. I've been serving a large plateful of this Thai-style kale slaw with fried eggs for breakfast, or tossed with leftover rice and garbanzo beans for lunch. It's also delicious served with a thai-style main dish for dinner, such as Thai Coconut Fish Sticks, Thai Fish Curry with Garden Vegetables, or this Vegan Thai Green Curry.

Even though it may be winter, you can still eat the colors of the rainbow and give yourself a hearty dose of powerful phytonutrients! Consuming these deep red, magenta, and orange colors you see in this salad means that you are flooding your body with plant chemicals that prevent DNA damage, stimulate the immune system, reduce inflammation, block substances we ingest from becoming carcinogens, and of course mop up free radicals. If you haven't worked with fennel before then you are in for a treat. This delicious vegetable adds complex flavors to this salad. I love eating it raw but it's also delicious braised or roasted!

This is a recipe that anyone can do. Yes you. You can make this. It's so simple and yet so delicious. Winter squash is an excellent, easily digested carbohydrate that's packed with antioxidant-rich carotenoids like beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lutein, beta-cyrpto-xanthin, and zeaxanthin.