Detoxing on the GAPS diet is crucial to helping your body heal. There are many ways to incorporate detoxing while on the GAPS diet.
Detox Baths
Baths are recommended daily and often best at night. However, when Raleigh was needing additional detox support I would give him 1-3 baths a day. The skin is your largest detox organ and baths are very helpful at dumping toxins.
The goal is to get the bath as hot as can be tolerated by the individual and sit long enough to allow the water to cool significantly. The water doesn’t have to be cold but more lukewarm. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to closer to an hour depending on how hot the water was. You want to break a sweat so that toxins are released from the body (via the sweat) and taken into the bath. Our bodies release a lot of toxins through sweat. Simultaneously, the body takes up the minerals needed from Epsom salts or other salt baths.
Types of Detox Baths
***These are not meant to be combined into one bath. Keep each kind to itself and rotate.
Epsom
Dead Sea Salt – wonderful for eczema
Baking Soda
Apple Cider Vinegar
Seaweed
Start with about a cup of each per bath, except dead Sea salts. I recommend starting with about 1 Tablespoon of dead Sea salts to being as they are very potent. You can increase from 1-2 cups of epsom, baking soda and ACV as tolerated.
Detox baths can cause rapid die off. So as with everything in GAPS, we start low and slow as to not overwhelm the body.
If you do not have a bath tub, foot baths are a great option! We detox a great deal through the bottoms of our feet. You can purchase cheap foot baths off Amazon – this is a nice option.
Bathing in natural waters like the ocean, rivers and lakes is another wonderful option to support the body in detoxing.
Sunlight and Grounding
Spending time in the sun without sunscreen should be a daily practice if possible. Start with a short amount of time and build your tolerance over time – this will minimize burning. The dminder app can be a good app to help you track your time in the sun. Likewise, placing your feet in the dirt and on the grass is a wonderful way to connect with the earth and helps the body relax and detox. It’s best to do this in an area that hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides.
Dry Brushing
I would often dry brush my son, Raleigh, before a detox bath. You can also do it before a shower. Here is a good article on how to properly dry brush. Here is a good one to purchase.
Essential Oils
Essential oils can be a good supplemental thing to aid the body in detoxing. Raleigh had very swollen lymph nodes when we began the GAPS diet. I did a lot of research into lymph massage and draining and I ended up using a lymph essential oil as part of his detoxing routine.
Rebounding/Light Exercise
Rebounding is a great way to move the lymphatic system. You need the lymph to move so toxins will move out of the body and not stay stagnant. Getting a small trampoline, or a big one, is a great way to get small children to move their lymphatic system. It can be great for adults, too.
Juicing
Juicing is a part of the GAPS diet and a wonderful way to help the nervous system regulate due to all the minerals and vitamins but it also helps move toxins out of the body. Certain herbs like parsley and cilantro are wonderful additions to juices to help pull heavy metals and parasites.
TRS
When it came time to address a heavy metal detox/parasite detox I ended up choosing to treat Raleigh with TRS. You can read about our journey on TRS here and here. I did a lot of research on the multiple options for these detoxes and ended up choosing TRS paired with a couple of different things like juicing, certain foods that targeted parasites and iodine painting. You can purchase TRS here.
I always encourage clients to implement what they are able to implement. You do not have to do all of these things all of the time. Sometimes I would focus on just getting Raleigh into detox baths while other days I could do a bit more. You just take it one day at a time and support the body as you walk this journey. The body wants to heal and it will.
