July 3, 2024 Dr. Edward Group, DC

The Healing Power of a Gut Cleanse: 6-Day Detox

The body is an incredible machine. Each person's body has a built-in detox system — starting with the gastrointestinal (GI) tract — that processes toxins, chemicals, and other harmful substances that your food inevitably contains.

The GI tract begins to remove harmful substances from your food by sending them out of the body in your stool or to the liver and kidneys to be fully detoxified. The GI tract also breaks down the food you eat, using the nutrients to build muscle, bone, brain, and other critical body tissues.

Over time, your gut can get overwhelmed from the toxins it absorbs from the food and water you consume, the air you breathe, and the products you use on a daily basis. A gut cleanse — sometimes called a colon cleanse — can ensure all those toxins aren't affecting your ability to stay healthy.

Short Breakdown of the Gut Cleanse

Get Ready: Stock up on raw organic apple cider vinegar (ACV), distilled water, and healthy, plant-based foods, or fruit if you're doing the fruit-only option.
Make ACV mix: Prepare six gallons of ACV mix by adding two tablespoons of ACV per one gallon of distilled water.
Days 1 to 6: Follow a healthy diet with three small meals throughout the day, such as avocado, nuts, or fruit. Drink an ACV mix throughout the day. Before bed, take an oxygen-based colon cleanser.
Post Cleanse: Follow a healthy, plant-based diet with three small meals throughout the day. Make sure to drink lots of water with fresh lemon.

Read the full details below.

What Does Your Gut Do for You?

When someone refers to the "gut," they're typically referring to the entire digestive system — including the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, gallbladder, small intestine, and large intestine, also called the colon.

Every section of the digestive tract has a function, and the colon is one of the most important. It's a U-shaped part of the intestines that is up to six feet long. The colon has four sections: ascending, transverse, descending, and sigmoid. A whole ecosystem of gut bacteria resides inside the colon, helping to keep your digestion on track.

What Is a Gut Cleanse?

A gut cleanse is an incredibly effective way to improve your overall health and wellness, boosting your gut's ability to digest food and detoxify harmful substances. A gut cleanse has three main components: eliminating, flushing, and replenishing.

First, you eliminate food items known to cause digestive issues, such as dairy, meat, gluten, and other allergens, while eating a clean diet — ideally, all fruit — for several days. Next, you flush your digestive system of all the extra waste, toxins, and organisms it has collected over time. Last, you replenish your gut's beneficial organisms, also called probiotics.

A gut cleanse is a three-step process — eliminate, flush, and replenish — that can kick-start a new, healthy lifestyle.

Cleansing your gut is something you should regularly do — it's not just a one-time quick fix. Your gut needs regular maintenance. Doing a gut cleanse is a great opportunity to kick-start new, healthy habits. You will feel so much better after clearing out the old gunk and welcoming in healthier foods, more beneficial probiotic bacteria, and smoother digestion.

Signs That It's Time for a Cleanse

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is ruthless when it comes to messing with your gut health. All of the dairy, sugar, wheat, and fried and processed foods unleash all sorts of havoc on your body, leading to accumulated toxins and even compacted fecal matter in the gut. Many people say that they can feel when it's time for a gut cleanse.

Your body is constantly sending signals that you need to cleanse, and some people say they can even feel when it's time for a gut cleanse!

Your body is pretty good at sending out signals to make sure you're aware that something is off-balance. If you notice any of the following symptoms, it's a pretty strong indicator that it's time for a gut cleanse.

Skin blemishes
Mental fog
Poor sleep
Low energy
Poor appetite
Headaches
Body odor
Body aches
Constipation
Bad breath

Supplies Needed

To ensure you're doing the gut cleanse properly, be sure to follow the dietary instructions below. In some ways, a cleanse is similar to fasting. You will be eliminating a lot of foods that you ordinarily eat unless you already follow a very clean diet.

One bottle of Oxy-Powder®
One bottle of Latero-Flora™
Fresh fruit
Purified water (aim for half your body weight in ounces per day)

Fresh Fruit

These fruits are chosen for this cleanse because they are easy on your intestines and a good source of nutrients and water. It’s best to add variety to your fruit intake daily.

Apples
Avocados
Bananas
Blackberries
Blueberries
Grapefruit
Oranges
Papaya
Pineapple
Raspberries
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Watermelon
White grapes

If you prefer vegetables over fruit, you can substitute leafy greens, garlic, artichokes, and Brussels sprouts into your diet.

Gut Cleanse Protocol

Below is a daily schedule to maximize the benefits of this six-day gut cleanse. Days one through six follow the same routine. When you pick a fruit, that is the only one you will eat for that meal. Thoroughly chew and savor each bite for better digestion.

Waking Up

Say a positive affirmation first thing in the morning, and repeat nine times. It will put your mind on the right track for a healthy day.
One possible affirmation is, “I am clean and healthy.”

Breakfast

Take two capsules of Latero-Flora 20 minutes before your morning meal.
Eat plenty of fresh fruit until you are full.
Drink plenty of purified water.
Repeat your affirmation.

Mid-Morning Snack

Have a mid-morning snack halfway between breakfast and lunch if you would like.
Eat a piece of fresh fruit.
Drink plenty of purified water.
Repeat your affirmation.

Lunch

Eat plenty of fresh fruit until you are full.
Drink plenty of purified water.
Repeat your affirmation.

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Your mid-afternoon snack should be consumed halfway between lunch and dinner.
Eat a piece of fresh fruit.
Drink plenty of purified water.
Repeat your affirmation.

Dinner

Eat plenty of fresh fruit until you are full.
Drink plenty of purified water.
Repeat your affirmation.

Bedtime

Take six capsules of Oxy-Powder two hours after dinner.
Drink plenty of purified water.
Before closing your eyes, repeat your affirmation to encourage a restful night’s sleep.

Repeat

Follow this schedule for a total of six days.
After the first day, you should have three to five bowel movements daily.
If this does not occur, increase your serving of Oxy-Powder by two capsules until you achieve three to five bowel movements the following day.

Benefits of a Gut Detox

A healthy gut means a happy body. When your colon and digestive system are working the way they should, your body's natural ability to detoxify itself is at peak performance.

If your digestive system is not working properly, you most likely aren't getting all the nutrients available from what you eat. Your body may also be having trouble absorbing enough water from your food. A gut detox can get your digestion to a better place. Below we list the top benefits of a gut cleanse.

Balance Your Emotions

When your gut is in proper working order, it can affect your mood in a good way. Anxiety and stress increase with greater inflammation in the body — and inflammation occurs when your diet is less than optimal.^[1] A gut cleanse can normalize this systemic redness and swelling, helping to balance out your emotions.

Regulate & Restore Your Immune System

The micro-organisms in your gut interact quite closely with your immune system, and depending on which organisms you've got, there's a potential link to autoimmune diseases.

A gut detox can help eliminate the harmful organism in your body, helping the gut to heal and keeping your immune system on track while replenishing your gut with beneficial microbes.^[2]

Relieve Constipation & Promote Regularity

Your body can have a hard time with digestion when you follow a poor diet that's full of processed foods, meat, and sugar. An unhealthy diet can lead to compacted waste — or, in other words, constipation.

Since you eliminate unhealthy foods on a gut detox, while focusing on drinking water and eating fiber-rich foods, it helps your system, removing waste and flushing out the bad stuff.

Essentially, your gut will be reset following a cleanse, which means your bowel movements will likely be more regular and consistent, and you'll be processing and digesting food at healthy levels again.

Increase Energy

One of the most commonly reported benefits following a gut detox is a big energy boost, especially if you follow it up by switching to a healthier diet.

You may not even need that cup of morning coffee anymore. You'll not only feel more awake, but you will also just feel better overall.

Jumpstart Your Metabolism

The microbiome in your gut helps regulate metabolism. A gut cleanse could be just what you need to take your body's innate calorie-burning power to a higher level.

As a bonus, once your biome is in top shape, it may help you fight against obesity. The gut flora could be effective at lowering obesity rates.^[3] This is why replenishing the gut with beneficial probiotics is essential to the overall effectiveness of any cleanse.

Boost Nutrient Absorption

Within your gut, the colon absorbs nutrients from the food you're eating. If your gut is unhealthy, those nutrients may not be properly absorbed.

When that happens, you're at a higher risk for things like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), malabsorption syndrome, leaky gut, Crohn's disease, and nutritional deficiencies.

Strengthen Your Brain

The health of your gut can have a positive impact on brain function. Specific diets — like the healthy one you'll adopt after your detox — can help normalize neurodevelopmental disorders.

Some probiotics are also known to influence brain activity, so be sure to add them back into your diet with supplements once the cleanse is over.^[4]

Other Ways to Maintain a Healthy Gut

Once you're done with the cleanse, make following a healthy diet your new norm. There are other options for maintaining a healthy gut as well — things you should probably do together with that diet, listed below.

Manage Your Stress

Too much stress can cause a whole array of disorders, including ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).^[5] If you're stressed out, try healthy ways to manage it — like meditation, yoga, and deep breathing.

Take Enzymes

Digestive enzymes have one main purpose — to break down food so you can digest it more efficiently — but they also boost your health in other ways.

Enzyme supplements support normal digestion, reduce bloating and gas, protect your cells and tissues from oxidative damage, and deter systemic redness and swelling.

Adopt a Plant-Based Diet

Animal-based diets have an undeniably negative affect on gut health.^[6] A plant-based diet that focuses on organic fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and grains helps to normalize mood, fight obesity, and promote a healthier gut microbiome.

A plant-based diet promotes strong digestion, and helps with heart health, anti-aging, and so much more. Herbal teas, as well as supplements, can add additional nutrients and antioxidants to your plant-based diet.

Incorporate Probiotics

Probiotics help restore healthy gut flora, normalize swelling, boost mood, improve skin health, and ease certain systemic diseases.^[7]

Supplements can help introduce the right probiotics into your body. Choose supplements that contain many probiotic strains as well as prebiotics, fiber-rich "food" for the microbes. You can also add dairy-free probiotic foods to your diet for additional benefit. Many fermented foods, like kombucha, sauerkraut, and kimchi, naturally contain beneficial probiotics.

Start Exercising

Exercise is for more than just weight loss. It helps keep you alert, releases stress, and keeps your brain functioning at an optimal level — and it's helpful for your gut, too.

When you exercise, it boosts the number of beneficial microbe species in your gut, which boosts digestion as well as your immune system.^[8]

Points to Remember

A gut cleanse, also known as a colon cleanse, is an important part of regulating your digestive system and getting your body back on track. With an unhealthy internal system, you'll feel sick and sluggish. A gut detox can also normalize your mood, immune system, and digestion — all the while promoting regularity.

We recommend our Colon Cleanse Program™ as part of a healthy lifestyle to simultaneously support your gut and colon.

An ideal gut cleanse spans six days. During that time you will eat only fruit allowing your gastrointestinal tract to clean itself out, lighten its load, and detoxify. Once you finish the cleanse, it's important to maintain optimal gut health. You can do this by exercising, taking supplements, changing your diet, and controlling stress.

References (8)

Bested AC, et al. Intestinal microbiota, probiotics and mental health: from Metchnikoff to modern advances: Part II – contemporary contextual research. Gut Pathog. 2013 Mar 14;5(1):3.
Wu HJ, Wu E. The role of gut microbiota in immune homeostasis and autoimmunity. Gut Microbes. 2012 Jan-Feb;3(1):4-14.
Martinez KB, et al. The gut microbiota: the gateway to improved metabolism. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 2016 Dec;45(4):601-614.
4 Fast Facts about the Gut-Brain Connection. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health. Updated 24 Sep 2017. Accessed 21 Dec 2018.
Konturek PC, et al. Stress and the gut: pathophysiology, clinical consequences, diagnostic approach and treatment options. J Physiol Pharmacol. 2011 Dec;62(6):591-599.
David LA, et al. Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature. 2014 Jan 23;505(7484):559-563.
Hemarajata P, Versalovic J. Effects of probiotics on gut microbiota: mechanisms of intestinal immunomodulation and neuromodulation. Therap Adv Gastroenterol. 2013 Jan;6(1):39-51.
Monda V, et al. Exercise Modifies the Gut Microbiota with Positive Health Effects. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2017;2017:3831972.

†Results may vary. Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your doctor. If you have a severe medical condition or health concern, see your physician.

Posted in: Cleansing > Colon Cleanse, Cleansing > Whole Body Cleanse, Health > Gut and Digestive Health > Gut Flora, Health > Whole Body Wellness, Mind and Body > Longevity, Nutrition > Diet > Body Cleansing Diet, Nutrition > Foods,

Dr. Edward Group, DC

FOUNDER | HEALER | ADVOCATE

Dr. Group, DC is a healer and alternative health advocate, and an industry leader and innovator in the field of natural health who is dedicated to helping others. He is a registered doctor of chiropractic (DC), a naturopathic practitioner (NP), and proud alum of Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management. Dr. Group, DC is the founder of Global Healing – a mission and vision he has shared through best-selling books and frequent media appearances. He aims to spread his message of positivity, hope, and wellness throughout the world.