What should night owls eat to detox?

Introduction: As we all know, staying up late is harmful to your health. People who often stay up late will experience poorer skin, darker under-eye circles, and gradually develop mental symptoms such as insomnia, forgetfulness, irritability, and anxiety. Toxins accumulate in the body, and in severe cases, can lead to various diseases. So, what should night owls eat to help their bodies detox?

1. Seaweed

The algin in seaweed can treat arteriosclerosis, prevent the human body from absorbing heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, and help expel radioactive toxins from the body. Due to its high water content, algin forms a gel-like substance in the intestines, which helps to eliminate toxins and can prevent constipation and colon cancer.

2. Fungi

Such as black fungus, tremella, mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms. These fungi are rich in selenium. Regular consumption can lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, prevent vascular sclerosis, improve the body's immune function, increase the content of immunoglobulins in the body, and stimulate bone marrow hematopoietic function, as well as have effects such as lubricating the intestines, purifying the blood, detoxifying, and boosting intelligence.

3. Onions

Onions can promote gastrointestinal motility, strengthen digestion, and are rich in sulfur, which combines best with protein, making them particularly beneficial for the liver and thus helping with detoxification. Cooking a vegetable soup with onions as the main ingredient, adding high-fiber fruits and vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and celery, can break down accumulated toxins in the body and help with bowel movements.

Black Fungus with Walnuts and Onions

4. Pork Blood

After being broken down by gastric acid and digestive juices, the blood protein in pork blood produces a substance that has a lubricating and detoxifying effect. This substance can undergo chemical reactions with dust and harmful metal particles adhering to the walls of the gastrointestinal tract, thereby expelling these toxic substances from the body.

5. Mung Beans

Mung beans can counteract alcohol poisoning, wild mushroom poisoning, arsenic poisoning, organophosphate pesticide poisoning, lead poisoning, cinnabar poisoning, and rat poison poisoning. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that mung beans can counteract all kinds of toxins, help the excretion of toxins in the body, and promote the body's normal metabolism. However, the cooking time should not be too long, so as to avoid the destruction of organic acids and vitamins, which would reduce their effectiveness.

What to note when detoxifying the intestines

1. Avoid spicy, greasy foods, as well as tobacco and alcohol

Generally, spicy and greasy foods refer to chili, ginger, leeks, dog meat, lamb, chicken, cream, butter, etc. These foods are spicy, warm, and greasy, making them difficult to digest. They can cause internal heat and dryness in the gastrointestinal tract, leading to a lack of body fluids and constipation. Additionally, tobacco, alcohol, coffee, and strong tea have a stimulating effect. Strong tea, in particular, contains substances like tannic acid and caffeine, which can reduce gastrointestinal secretions and motility and have an astringent effect. If consumed in large amounts by people with constipation, it can worsen the symptoms. Therefore, to achieve good results in clearing the intestines, promoting bowel movements, detoxifying, and losing weight, it is essential to avoid spicy, greasy foods, tobacco, and alcohol.

2. Do not abuse laxatives

Common laxatives include senna, rhubarb, mirabilite, aloe, phenolphthalein, and rhubarb soda tablets. The effect of laxatives is to stimulate the intestinal mucosa to produce a bowel movement impulse or to lubricate the intestinal wall; they can only solve an urgent problem and provide temporary relief from constipation. Some laxatives have a significant impact on intestinal function, weakening the mucosa's stress response and more easily promoting constipation. Once discontinued, it becomes difficult to restore bowel function, making constipation even more severe. This is especially true for patients with hemorrhoids and constipation, who should not use ordinary laxatives to avoid worsening hemorrhoids and bleeding. Patients with habitual constipation must build confidence in restoring normal physiological functions. Only by overcoming this psychological barrier and actively engaging in relevant exercises can the conditioned reflex of large intestinal peristalsis be re-established, achieving regular bowel movements.

Mung Bean Ice

3. Do not abuse heat-clearing and detoxifying medicines

Some patients with habitual constipation believe that they can treat their condition by taking heat-clearing and detoxifying Chinese medicines without seeing a doctor. They then buy and take heat-clearing and detoxifying medicines containing rhubarb as the main ingredient, such as Shangqing Wan, Sanhuang Pian, or Niuhuang Jiedu Pian. As a result, they experience bowel movements while taking the medicine but constipation upon stopping, making the constipation worse and even unresponsive to other laxatives. We know that medicines containing rhubarb have both laxative and astringent effects. A larger dose promotes bowel movements, while a smaller dose acts as a stomach tonic. Long-term use can, at best, worsen constipation, and at worst, cause other health problems. In particular, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and those with acute abdominal pain or intestinal tumors who experience constipation must not abuse rhubarb-containing laxatives to avoid accidents.

4. Avoid drugs that inhibit intestinal peristalsis

During the intestinal cleansing and detoxification weight loss program, it is crucial to avoid taking drugs that inhibit intestinal peristalsis. These include sedatives, anticholinergic drugs, aluminum-containing preparations, calcium preparations, and codeine. These drugs not only inhibit intestinal motility but also have an astringent effect, and taking them will worsen habitual constipation. Therefore, to achieve good results in clearing the intestines, promoting bowel movements, detoxifying, and losing weight, it is essential to avoid intestinal peristalsis inhibitors.

Broccoli with Mushrooms