Re­fu­el your body with healthy nu­tri­ents with these nat­ur­al detox foods. Tox­ins can end up in our body de­pend­ing on one’s di­et, bac­te­rias al­ready ex­ist­ing in one’s body and one’s en­vi­ron­ment. By con­sum­ing these foods you can re­duce the work­load of or­gans like the liv­er and kid­neys and stim­u­late them to a jump in per­for­mance which can lead to im­proved blood cir­cu­la­tion and boost tox­in elim­i­na­tion. These six ex­ot­i­cal­ly lo­cal foods can help your body nat­u­ral­ly detox and give you a healthy re­set your body needs.

Roucou

Roucou or An­nat­to seeds of the achiote tree na­tive to trop­i­cal re­gions are used in many cul­tures as a food colour­ing ad­di­tive im­part­ing a bright red colour and some­times al­so for its flavour and aro­ma. To­day they are ground in­to a pow­der and used as food colour­ing, al­though in Trinidad and To­ba­go it’s usu­al­ly seen as an or­ange-red liq­uid in a for­ev­er un­la­belled bot­tle. Roucou is used to add colour to lentils, stews and even pelau, and boasts many heal­ing prop­er­ties as well! It has an­tiox­i­dant prop­er­ties that re­duce the risk of cel­lu­lar dam­age by harm­ful mol­e­cules called free rad­i­cals. It de­stroys in­testi­nal worms and harm­ful bac­te­ria in the gut and even helps clear spu­tum from your air­ways.

Sea Moss

Sea Moss is a spe­cial type of al­gae found grow­ing on rocky coasts and can now be con­ve­nient­ly pur­chased at your su­per­mar­ket. Sea moss can be bought as a light-coloured jel­ly and is fa­mous for its use in milk­shakes. Met­als like mer­cury, alu­mini­um and lead en­ter our bod­ies from the cook­ware we use, and some nat­u­ral­ly oc­cur in fish like salmon. Sea moss con­tains nat­ur­al detox­i­fy­ing com­pounds that help re­move met­als from the body. It even stim­u­lates your thy­roid to in­crease me­tab­o­lism.

Co­conut Wa­ter

Peo­ple have been go­ing crazy over co­conut wa­ter be­cause of its claims to aid to reg­u­late the body’s pH is good for prop­er im­mune func­tion and re­duc­tion of lin­ger­ing stress hor­mones. You’ll be hap­py to know that co­conut wa­ter is nat­u­ral­ly al­ka­line. It’s al­so a good source of an­tiox­i­dants that re­duce tox­ins in the liv­er and helps ex­pel mi­crobes and tox­ins in the blad­der for uri­nary health.

Span­ish Thyme

Span­ish thyme, lo­cal­ly known as "podi­na" is a healthy herb with leaves that are vel­vety to the touch and smell like a cross be­tween mint and cit­rus. Po­d­i­na can pre­vent or treat gas and bloat­ing as well as re­duces in­testi­nal ab­sorp­tion of po­ten­tial­ly harm­ful sub­stances from food. It’s a com­mon in­gre­di­ent in lo­cal­ly blend­ed green sea­son­ing for meat and fish, how­ev­er, it can even be brewed as a tea which ac­ti­vates its nat­ur­al men­thol prop­er­ties that help in treat­ing coughs.

Av­o­ca­do

A big ripe Av­o­ca­do (Zabo­ca) should be on your detox menu as well. Zabo­cas are high in fat­ty acids that re­duce in­flam­ma­tion and help pro­tect against pow­er­ful tox­ins in the liv­er. While you detox its al­so im­por­tant to en­sure you are get­ting the nu­tri­ents you need. Many nu­tri­ents like vi­t­a­mins A, D, E and K as well as some an­tiox­i­dants are fat-sol­u­ble, mean­ing they are used best by the body when there is a healthy amount of fats present. Zabo­cas help you ful­ly uti­lize these nu­tri­ents and keep you feel­ing great.

Noni

Noni, some­times called the cheese fruit be­cause when ripe it smells like pun­gent fer­men­ta­tion and has a sharp taste to boot but don’t let that scare you away from this su­per­fruit. Noni’s pos­sess nat­ur­al com­pounds called an­thraquinones that re­duce the for­ma­tion of can­cer cells. It al­so stim­u­lates sero­tonin to im­prove mood and sleep. On top of that Noni of­fers more an­ti-ox­i­dants than pome­gran­ates and acai, al­though it’s not as ap­pe­tiz­ing. On­ly those with stom­achs of steel can eat the noni fruit as is. Luck­i­ly you can get Noni juice blend­ed with oth­er fruit juices that mask its taste.

Writ­ten by Noor-ud-din Mo­hammed

Noor-ud-din Mo­hammed is a lin­guis­tics and com­mu­ni­ca­tions stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine. Mo­ti­vat­ed by his pas­sion for healthy liv­ing, Noor shares de­li­cious recipes and ar­ti­cles fo­cused on Trinidad and To­ba­go’s di­verse cul­ture and cui­sine.