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POSTED: Wednesday, January 4, 2012 – 6:09pm
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 4, 2012 – 6:33pm
TYLER — Shedding the pounds is always a popular new Year's resolution.
While some may try to jump start weight loss with a detox diet or cleanse, there may be certain risks involved if you don't do it right.
some recipes involve depriving yourself of certain foods for a period of time, like "the Master Cleanse," which involves drinking nothing but water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup for a few weeks.
Michael Polczynski of Nutrition Destination in Tyler says those types of cleanses are not healthy.
"If you get low in nutrients, you'll get more unhealthy blood cell production," Polczynski said. "everything is connected in the body and it just snowballs one after the other."
Polczynski says cleanses should always involve proper nutrition.
"Anytime your body starts using all of its' own natural resources as the only source of nutrients, your body doesn't make all the nutrients that it needs," he said.
Other risks of detoxing the wrong way include dehydration and loss of body mass.
Though you may temporarily lose weight, it's not good for you in the long run.
"there is a safe way to do it: what you really want to do is try and get a nice balance of enzymes and bacteria in your small intestines to help break down your food naturally," Polczynski said.
Carla Hardaway is 14 days into a 21-day cleanse.
She's taking a pill on top of eating healthfully that helps cleans out her intestines and replace the good bacteria she's losing.
she says it is working for her.
she has already lost inches in her waistline and notices her clothes fitting differently.
"It'll make u feel better it'll give you energy … it's also curing my appetite," she said. "It's causing me to want to eat healthy and less."
Polczynski recommends cleansing four times a year.
he also says you shouldn't try cleansing when you are sick, and drinking your weight in ounces of water everyday.
For example: If you weigh 200 pounds, strive for drinking 100 ounces of water everyday.
more tips from Polczynski:
Women need on average about 25 grams of fiber daily.
Men need 35 grams of fiber or more.
another fun fact about fiber: Each gram of fiber is equivalent to burning seven calories.
So … say 30 grams of fiber is 210 calories burned that you didn't even have to work off.
If you eat fruit, eat the whole fruit and not just the juice, because it has fiber in it.
any type of substance that is a glutenous-type material is what needs to be flushed out of your body, because that's what absorbs water and becomes sticky on the intestinal walls' finger-like lining, called villi.
"what damages villi is drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, eating high fat foods, and stress," Polczynski said. So you want to promote the growth of the villi and cleansing of the food that gets stuck down in there to have healthy villi."
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