Detox Every Day 6: Take Your Vitamins

Time to be a pill popper for the sake of detox

If you want easy, this is easy. You don’t have to get off your butt, make a kale green smoothie, or stop drinking coffee. Well, maybe you should be doing all that. But if you’re going to do at least one of these ten things, and you’re looking for the pill-popping-American way out, this is it! Taking a quality multi-vitamin and mineral supplement is the simplest way you can detox every day. And it only takes two seconds, a few times a day.

By taking a vitamin and mineral supplement every day, you are giving your body the nutrients it needs to detoxify appropriately. Numerous vitamins and minerals support different parts of the detoxification processes in your body. To name all of them and exactly what they do would probably put you to sleep (although that might be a good thing in light of detoxing). Adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals in your body can enhance detoxification just as a shortage of them can hinder detoxification.

Remember when I went all nerdy on you and told you about phase 1 and phase 2 liver enzymes? These are the two main systems for detoxification in your liver. Phase 1 needs vitamin C, copper, magnesium, selenium, and zinc. Phase II needs stuff like vitamin C, B6, B12, folate, selenium, and molybdenum. Notice a trend with vitamin C and selenium? They are needed for both enzyme systems, so they must be important nutrients for detoxification. Of course, these vitamin and mineral lists are not exhaustive. I named a few so that you have some idea of the kind of nutrient payment your liver detoxification requires. Yes, it’s demanding.

I couldn’t end this post without mentioning a little something about quality, even though there are many, many things to say about quality natural supplements. It’s crucial that you take a quality multi-vitamin and mineral supplement.

One way to investigate a vitamin’s quality is by looking into the company’s quality assurance practices. Companies that have rigorous quality assurance standards are usually more expensive. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to natural supplements.

Another way you can easily differentiate a quality vitamin and mineral supplement is by the number of pills it takes to make a daily dose. I’m not a fan of the one-pill-a-day companies like Centrum or One-A-Day. How do they fit all you need in a day in one pill? Even if they do have all you need in one day in one pill, how can you absorb such a mega dose, all at once? Having more than one pill for your daily nutritional needs enables you to space out your nutrient intake, just like you space out your food throughout the day. You don’t have to take your daily dose in one swallow, which is why this detox step takes two seconds, a few times a day.

Two natural supplement companies I like are Thorne and Bioclinic Naturals (I’m receiving no endorsement or benefit from these companies for this opinion). Thorne makes a special multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, Basic Detox Nutrients, specifically aimed at detoxification (their other multiple vitamin and mineral formulas are also excellent). Bioclinic Naturals makes a multiple vitamin and mineral formula called BioFoundation-G. It has additional nutrients in it aimed at increasing your glutathione levels (glutathione plays a central role in your body’s ability to detox appropriately). There are other quality supplement companies that I didn’t mention here for the sake of brevity, but make sure you do some research on the company and the vitamin before you take it.