How Healthy Fats and Oils Help Your Body Naturally Detox

Foods to Eat to Support Your Body’s Detoxification System:

1. Salmon, mackerel, and halibut
2. Sardines
3. Hemp oil
4. Walnuts
5. Flaxseeds

Supporting Role:

Foods high in omega-3 fatty acids support your body’s detox efforts on two levels. First, they help keep systemic inflammation in check. Your immune system is adept at fighting off invaders by creating inflammation in the body; chronic inflammation, however — often driven by diets heavy in refined carbohydrates, highly processed meats, and sweets — kicks off reactions that create oxidative stress in the body. This leads to the production of free radicals, unstable compounds that can start a chain reaction and cause cellular damage that contributes to diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.

“When we have oxidative stress in the body, we have more free radicals,” says Minich. “That’s one more thing to detoxify, and that adds stress to the detoxification process.”

Reducing intake of omega-6 fatty acids (present in most commercial meats and processed foods) while increasing omega-3s is crucial to decreasing this “silent inflammation” that underlies chronic disease and leads to a runaway train of free radicals.

Omega-3s may also target toxins directly. According to University of Kentucky researchers, these fats prevent damage to the circulatory system caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), manmade chemicals once used widely in commercial and industrial applications, and still found in the environment despite being banned in 1979.

Good to Know:

The form of omega-3 found in fish is the most effective; plant-based omega-3s found in walnuts and flaxseeds get converted in our bodies to the more powerful form, albeit in smaller amounts and at a relatively slow rate.

For more whole foods to support your body’s innate ability to detoxify on a daily basis, see “Everyday Detox: Whole Foods to Support Your Body’s Natural Detoxification Processes” from which this article was excerpted.