Encore: How To Do The 10-Day Detox

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Welcome to Dr. Mark Heiman's Pharmacy, I'm Dr. Mark Heiman, that's Pharmacy Nephew Place for conversations that matter. And I'm going to share with you today something that really matters because it's the cornerstone of my medical practice. It's the secret a lot of my success and it's how I get a lot of my patients better, which is something called the 10-day detox diet. Now, I do call it the 10-day detox diet, but sometimes you need to do it longer, like two weeks, three weeks, 10 months, maybe even 10 years, depending on the situation. But we're gonna talk about the 10 days and how powerful that can be to transform your health. And this today is part of our Health Bite series to improve your health. by taking small steps every day that can make significant changes in your health over time. Now, I find that most people have never connected the dots between how they feel and what they eat. They walk around with what I call FLSD syndrome. That's when you feel like crap. And that is a big problem for people. What do I mean by that? Well, you might be tired, sluggish, you might have brain fog, Maybe I have digestive issues, reflux, heartburn, ear, nose, and throat, nasal congestion, sinus issues, muscle aches, joint pains, headaches, insomnia. Should I go on? Rashes, acne, I mean, it goes on and on and on. And many of these things are caused by food. And the only way to know is to do a total body reset. It's like hitting the reset button on your commuter. when all the systems are jammed, it's a complete reboot. So how do you do a reboot? It's very powerful and most people have never experienced this and this is why I love to do it with people. And I actually run programs all around the world where people can come and actually experience this. We do programs where we have people do this just in five days, not even 10 days, people have a 70% reduction in all symptoms from all diseases. Now I'm gonna put in the show notes the medical symptom questionnaire that I use in my practice which essentially gives you a score based on the degree and frequency and severity of symptoms. So if you have a headache, is it zero, meaning never, or it's a four, I get it all the time, they're really bad, or some version in between. And then you get a score at the end and people have a score of 60, 70, 100. It should be less than 10, maybe even zero, ideally. I mean, we should have the symptoms, it's not normal for human beings to suffer this much. And that's really why I created this book and the program, the 10 Day Detox Diet, because I was doing this with my patients and seeing such incredible results. so I do this personally regularly. I do it at least two or three times a year, four times a year to really reset my system to kind of get my body back on track, to get rid of all the bad stuff, put in all the good stuff. I'm gonna walk you through how to do this. I'm gonna teach you how to hit the reset button, reboot your system, and to optimize your biology to help your gut, to help your detox system, to help your immune system, to help reset your nervous system. and it's powerful. So if you wanna really see how your body can feel and get rid of what we call FLC syndrome, I would do this. Most people are like the frog that's in cold water where you turn the heat up slowly and it starts to boil to death. We just kinda get used to it and think it's normal. These symptoms are not normal. So what are the principles, what are the foundational pillars of the 10 Day Detox program and what what can you do? Now, basically anybody can do this. People go, I want to do this with a junior high school once. And the teachers are like, well, we might have to get permission from the parents to see if it's safe. You know, maybe they don't want their children doing this. I'm like, what, is it safe to eat fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds and protein and cut out sugar and starch and processed food? I mean, they should get a note that it's permission to eat the junk food that they have in school. It's the opposite. So, anyway, yes, it's very safe. Anybody can do this. And some people, by the way, you know, need more of certain things or other things, but. But basically, this is a very Universal approach to resetting your system. So, one of the first principle, the first pillar, is eat real food, real whole food. Understand that food is medicine. It's not just energy or calories. It's truly medicine. It's information, it's instructions, it's code that literally programs your biology with every bite. It regulates your gene expression, your hormones. your brain chemistry, your immune system, your microbiome, pretty much everything is controlled by food. And if you're eating the wrong food, you're sending all the wrong messages. It'll be the right food, you're turning on the right messages. So there's a 10-day detox. You're basically taking out the bad stuff and putting in the good stuff. You're taking all the foods that cause inflammation, that are toxic to your system, that are inflammatory, that mess with your gut, and you're putting in foods that actually help reset your system. It's pretty much a very simple approach. It's lots of veggies, so mostly veggies, lots of good fats, lots of fiber, lots of good clean protein. And what does that look like? It's tons of non-starchy veggies like broccoli, any kind of veggie you think of that's not basically a potato. You know, sometimes sweet potatoes are okay for people. Avocados, good fats, avocados, olive oil. nits and seeds, lots of good protein, grass-fed organic regenerative meats, fish, chicken. Sometimes for vegetarians, our vegans, we can use plant-based proteins like tempeh or non-GMO organic soy, tofu. Those are the most dense sources of protein, but you do need protein as you detoxify. So for the 10 days, you're gonna be getting rid of all the other junk, right? Processed food, other carbs, sugar, dairy, coffee, gluten, alcohol, pretty much actually all grains and beans. And the reason we get rid of grains and beans is not that they're necessarily all bad, is that a lot of people have issues. A lot of people have issues with their gut, a lot of people have issues with inflammation, a lot of people have issues with gluten, a lot of people have issues with insulin resistance and prediabetes and obesity, and they can be problematic for these people. So basically get off all the bad stuff. Now it's not calorie counting. You can eat as much as you want. We're not like crazy how much macronutrients and percent of this and percent of that. No, it's just pick the right foods and we focus on what to eat. You don't have to focus on how much to eat, right? So when you look at your plate, it should basically look like this. Three quarters of it should be non-starchy veggies. And I often will put two or three veggies in my dinner. I'll make mushrooms, I'll have, a, you know, broccoli, I'll make some, maybe a salad. So I have lots of veggies and I'll have a portion of protein that's essentially the size of my palm, four to six ounces, usually 30 to 40 grams of protein. Now, that's a good amount of protein, but you don't need that much if you're having animal protein. It should be very generally raised, should be pasture raised, chicken, wild caught fish, should be low mercury, obviously all that. And we'll put all that show notes, lots of good fats with dinner. like avocados, nuts and seeds, olive oil in your veggies. You can even use, for example, ghee, which is a kind of a butter, but it actually has the inflammatory proteins removed, casein and whey. So basically it has just the fat. It's called clarified butter, very common. You can get my book, 10 Day Detox Diet. You can get the 10 Day Detox Diet Cookbook, whatever you want. Put all the show notes and links together. A second pillar, aside from what you're eating, the food is really important. And by the way, you need to approach in the morning. You need to make sure you get rid of sugar and starch in the morning. Super important. And let people start their diet, their day with carbs, which is the worst thing you can do. Sugar, sweetened coffees, teas, cereals, muffins, bagels, breads, bad news. Second pillar are your daily habits. Essentially, it involves a pattern of eating and living that puts your body back in rhythm. It helps you reset your nervous system. And there's two really important habits as part of the 10-Day Detox. One is when you eat and also when you sleep. So let's talk about when you eat. Now, when you eat might be as important as what you eat. So many of us don't eat in the right pattern. We tend to, you know, eat all day long. We tend to snack. We tend to eat before bed. We snack late at night. It's kind of bad. So basically when you eat is very important. Research shows that doing that can really be bad for your health if you eat at night. So the first is make sure you give yourself at least 12 to 14 hours between dinner and breakfast. So dinner at six, breakfast at eight, that's a 14 hour fast, okay? If you eat at six and then you keep snacking all night, that doesn't count, right? And it's the most simple form of what we call time-restricted eating, and it's basically giving our body a rest and getting the body to reset. And I wrote a lot about this in my book, the young forever. But basically, there's a whole process at night that happens called autophagy and clean up and repair. You want to give your body the ability to do that. The next is food. Now, you can do a breakfast if you're eating, for example, dinner at six and breakfast at eight or so. That's a 14-hour fast. Really important to have protein in the morning, not carbs and sugar. Also, not eating three hours before bed is really important. So most people eat and snack after dinner. Don't do that. have at least three hours the time you eat and you go to sleep. That way you will lose weight, your body can repair and heal instead of trying to digest and store the food. What about sleep? Sleep is one of the most underrated pillars of health. It's probably even before exercise, meditation, maybe even before nutrition because when you don't sleep well, you're going to eat tons of sugar and carbs, you're going to crave more. So you want to focus on sleep and restorative rest. We know that getting in a routine of waking and sleeping can help with deeper, more restful sleep. So try to take the same bedtime every night. Try to get off your screens for an hour or two before bed. Keep your room or use blue blocker glasses. Keep your room dark and cold. Probably 65 to 68. Really important because your body does much better with sleep at night. Try to relax at night with meditation. Do a guided imagery. Do breath work, stretching, journaling, gratitude practice, whatever you like. But do something. Very important. So your evening routine should be like set a bedtime and stick to it over the 10 days, turn your phone off and get it out of your bedroom, turn the TV off for at least an hour or two before you go to bed, and then use the time at night to read, to journal, to meditate, to connect with people you love, and just kind of wind down. The third pillar is extra support we need on the journey, right? Now, we all need nutrients. they, they're called vitamins because they were vital amines, vital to life. Right. And, and so we've seen a dramatic reduction in the nutrient density of our food. Our organic matter has gone out of our soils. Nutrients can't be extracted. Foods travel long distances. We have commodity crops which are bred to actually breed out the nutrients and in the starch and, and, and, you know, yield. And so foods aren't as nutritious as they once were and probably 90% of Americans, according to the government owned surveys, are deficient in one or more nutrients at the minimum level to prevent deficiency. So how much vitamin D or you need to not get rickets, not very much, like 30 units. How much you need for optimal health? Probably three to five thousand. So we need to really probably focus on nutrients and even with a perfect diet, you know, because none of us are hunter-gatherers anymore or eating all kinds of food that we never ate and I mean nutrient depleted. we need, we need the basic supplements. So we need a basic set of supplements, a multivitamin mineral foundational magnesium. A lot of us are deficient, probably 45 or lower deficient magnesium. It's involving over 300 different enzymatic reactions. Super important helps relax your nervous system at night, help you calm down. Also, people get constipated sometimes when they change their diet. So taking magnesium citrate can help. And lastly, vitamin D. They can also take fish oil, but vitamin D is really important. Vitamin D over 80 is lower deficient in vitamin D. That's, it's involved in so many different things in the body. So really and helps your mood, helps your muscle function, helps your brain, helps your energy, helps inflammation, autoimmunity, it's just super important and most of us are low. Fish oil is also important and I often recommend fish oil to people or omega-3 fats. So what are the program steps in the 10-day detox? What should be the test? And then we're gonna go through this. The first step is to eat from the 10-day detox approved list for 10 days. So eat what I'm telling you to eat, right? Whole foods, You can do a whole food based shake in the morning. You can add protein powder, grass-fed protein if you want. I have a grass-fed protein called Super Simple Protein. But you really need to make sure you have a good breakfast. Second is commit to daily habits. Take your designated eating window. You want a 12 to 14 hour overnight fast, which means eating within a 10 or 12 hour window. Don't snack before bed. Try to have the same bedtime, get off your technology an hour or two before, practice some active relaxation, huge impact on your health. Step three is adding the supplements. Now you don't have to do this, but I really encourage people to have a multivitamin, magnesium, vitamin D, and potentially fish oil. And we're going to list which products you should take in the show notes so you have it all listed there. Also, what you should eat and what you should avoid during your 10-8-8 talk. Let's go through that. so here's the full food list. We're gonna have it in the show notes. You can take it with you in the store. It's in the book, the 10 Day Detox. It's in the 10 Day Detox Cookbook. But essentially, here's what you should eat and what you should actually get rid of. What you should eat is protein. You need the right protein, right? So grass-fed or generally raised meats is great. You can have pasture-raised lamb, beef, bison, venison, elk. grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chicken, turkey, duck, all that's fine. What you should avoid is conventionally raised chicken and poultry and eggs and so forth. And by the way, you can also have eggs if they're pasture-raised eggs, meat, get rid of all processed meats, deli meats, all conventionally raised feedlot meats, get rid of all that stuff. What about fish and seafood? Lots of small fish are good, big fish are bad, right? Big fish like swordfish, tuna, Chilean sea bass, halibut, most farmed fish are pretty bad for you. What you should be consuming are things like the, I call the smash fish, small wild salmon, sardines, anchovies, herring, mackerel, you can have black cod, shrimp, scallop, trout, all those are fine. Eggs, as I said, pasteurized eggs are fine, non-organic regular eggs are not fine. What about nuts and seeds? Very important, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashew nuts, Hazelnuts, macadamia, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, walnuts, all that's great. You can even keep cacao nibs, chocolate, not actually chocolate, but that's where chocolate comes from. Seeds are great. Chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, all great. Nut butters also great. So, unsweetened nut butters. So, almond, cashew, pecan, macadamia. I love macadamia. Walnut, oh, that's great. You can also eat beans. If they're, if you're a vegan and you want to do this, you can use GMO free or non-GMO tofu or tempeh as your protein. What you should avoid are nuts that are with sugar, that are cooked in oils that are with basically candied stuff. A lot of nut butters have sugar, hydrogenated fats, peanut butter, peanuts. can be okay, but I would say mostly avoid peanuts because they have aflatoxin in them. They often are rancid and so you want to be careful with that. What about oils and fats? Well, the ones you want to use are organic avocado oil, you can use organic coconut oil for cooking, grass-fed ghee, if you want to use tallow, lard, duck fat, chicken fat, that's okay as long as they're pasteurized or generally raised for salads and you can use different kinds of oils like almond oil, flax oil, hemp oil, macadamia oil, extra virgin olive oil. And you can cook with olive oil, but only like tomato sauces and things like that, things that are not high heat. Sesame oil, tahini is great as well, great fat, sesame seed paste, walnut oil, those are flavorful oils, they're not main oils, but you want to avoid the traditional oils, all the seed oils like canola oil, partially hydrogenated oils, margarine, peanut oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, trans fats. vegetable oil, vegetable shortening, all that stuff's bad. What about veggies?

What should you eat?

Well, you want to stick with lots of non-starchy veggies or artichokes. Organic if you can. I use the Dirty Dozen guide from the Environmental Working Group, ewg.org, to tell you which are the clean 15, meaning you can eat them when they're not organic, or the Dirty Dozen, which you should definitely not eat if they're not organic. But I love asparagus, artichokes, avocado, bean sprouts, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, ginger, hearts of palm, kohlrabi, leafy greens, mushrooms of all kinds, onions, peppers, radicchio, radish, rutabaga, all that kind of stuff. Seaweed is great, lots of minerals, shallots, summer squash, tomatoes, turnips, zucchini. List goes on. We have all in there. You can have some things like sweet potatoes. I like the Japanese purple sweet potatoes, winter squash, carrots, pumpkin. All that's fine. I mean carrots are fine because unless you're doing carrot juice or that's a problem. But basically try to limit it to like one serving which is like half a cup a day. What you should be avoiding is corn and white potatoes mostly. A little, you know, some of the little fingering potatoes or the Peruvian potatoes, purple potatoes, can be fine. What about dairy? You can eat pasture raised butter or ghee, but I encourage you to get all dairy including sheep and goat, which are mostly fine for people. but I encourage people to get all other dairy. And if you're having, he encourages you to have make sure it's grass-fed or regeneratively raised. And what about beans? Well, you can have green beans, you can have green peas, you can have a non-GMO or organic soy such as tofu or tempeh, you can have snap beans, you can have snow peas, but otherwise definitely no no beans. What about grains? No grains at all. So even healthy grains, quinoa, buckwheat, things like that. I incredibly get off all of that. Why? Because it just shuts down the insulin response, helps people lose weight, reduce inflammation. Not that these are necessarily all bad, but eventually you can add them back. But basically get rid of all the other all grains. We barley, rye, rice, emmer, millet, teff, oats, everything. Get rid of it. Fruit. Fruit can be okay, but small amounts of non-high glycemic Fruits. So organic blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, kiwi, lemons, limes, raspberries, all that's fine. Not too much, right? You know what I mean? Like, you know, two pounds of blueberries, but you can have a top, half a cup a day. You want to get rid of all the other fruit, all the high glycemic fruit like bananas, pineapple, melons, cherries, grapes is the worst. Even foods that fruits that you think, you know, maybe good for you are actually good for you, right? Whether it's, you know, peaches, pears, nectarines, cherries, for example, but you don't want to eat them while you're on the 10-day detox. You just want to really shut down the blood sugar and some response. What about sugar sweeteners? Sorry, none. You can sometimes have a little monk fruit or stevia you're having the shake we have, but generally tend to avoid all that stuff. Also, just get rid of all the other artificial sweeteners, all the sugar, all that stuff. If you have to ask, the answer is no. basically. Then what should you be drinking? Well, lots of water, herbal tea, green tea, this caffeine, that's okay. A little green tea is fine. You know, help you get off coffee, sparkling water, mineral water, all that's fine. What you should avoid, alcohol, coffee, bottled water, plastic soda, obviously sugary beverages. Basically, that's the program. So if you eat that way for 10 days, if you use those simple habits, your body is going to totally transform and you're going to see just how food is impacting your health, which is something most people don't have a clue about. And that's why I love this so much. Now, after the program, it's really important if you do it for 10 days or 21 days or 10 weeks or 10 months, you have to be smart about getting off it where you can get into big trouble because when you go off of foods that are inflammatory, foods that are allergic to, and you reintroduce them, you can get a lot worse symptoms. Let's say you had migraines before and they're gone. Wow, you're going to get a doozy of a migraine. Or let's say you had gut issues before, you're getting a real problem. Or let's say you had sinus congestion from eating dairy and you eat it again, you might get a sinus infection. So you really have to be smart. So if you're feeling great and you want to continue and you, let's say you have a lot of weight to lose, let's say you have an autoimmune disease, let's say you just want to, you're feeling great, you want to continue, no problem, you continue it. continue to do it. You can do it for another 10 days, you can do it for another 10 months, it's fine. It's totally safe to eat. And it's pretty much how I eat most of the time with occasional grains and beans. Also prioritize sleep and obviously your fasting window and not eating before bed. And then eventually people can transition slowly to the Pegan diet, which incorporates a lot of the principles of the 10-day detox diet, but it gets you more flexibility in your diet. You can add some gluten-free grains, you can have some grass-fed dairy or sheep or goat. Maybe you want to do it most of the time, but try to, you know, occasionally have a glass of wine or dessert occasionally. All that's fine. Remember, when you're adding things back, you want to do it smartly. And in the 10-Day Detox book, we'll put in the show notes, you have to add one thing at a time. So if you're adding back gluten, just do that for three days. Don't have a pizza which has gluten and dairy, right? Because you don't know what's affecting you if you feel bad. You want to know. So give yourself three days and then pick the next week. So start with gluten and dairy, then grains, other grains, and whatever. You'll see slowly add foods back and you'll see how you feel. And that's your best barometer. The smartest doctor in the room is your own body, and that's what you want to focus on. So, congratulations. Hopefully you're, you, you, you're gonna do this. I'm saying congratulations in advance. You're going to take the first steps towards optimal health. It's kind of hard sometimes to kind of know what to think or feel, but I always say, don't listen to me. listen to your body. It's the smartest doctor in the room. Try this, see what happens. If it doesn't work, 10 days, who cares, right? If it works, you have the answer and the key to unlock some of your health. So we have so much health information out there. Just kind of reset here, hit the reboot button on your body. And by the way, you can do this, you know, on and off. You can, you know, do it every quarter, twice a year. I I do it regularly. And I think, you know, the best thing is pick somebody to do it with, right? We have a buddy. As my friend, Barry Warren, says, everybody needs a buddy. Accountability is key. People are more likely to do it together. We do this in groups at Cleveland Clinic. We do this in groups around the world. I encourage you to do it with a friend or join a group to do this. So that's it for today's Help Bite. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share with your friends and family. I bet they will benefit from this. Nobody likes to feel like crap. They want to know the way out. And if you know anybody with metabolic issues, digestive issues, autoimmune issues, mood issues, try it. Quick anecdote before I let you go. My daughter, which was 18, was in high school that made them eat all the food there at the high school. They couldn't bring in their food. It was pretty bad. And it was just. She just ate that food for a while, and they got really depressed and overweight and very inflamed and her face was all red. And she did not want to go to college. She was literally in bed. Not when you're in college. Okay, just 10 days. Give me 10 days, and we'll fix this. So essentially, I put on the program, I gave her the vitamins, I started exercising with her, hung out, and literally, she Totally transformed and I have pictures of her before and after just 10 days. And it's hard to even recognize her as the same person. So, it's very powerful. I encourage you to try it. Once you do, let us know. Leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and we'll see you next week on the Doctor's Pharmacy. Hey, everybody, it's Dr. Hyman. Thanks for tuning in to the Doctor's Pharmacy. I hope you're loving this podcast. It's one of my favorite things to do and introduce to you all the experts that I know and I love and that I've learned so much from. 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Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.

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