Today my guest is leading holistic health educator and author Susan Smith Jones, PhD. This is Part Two of our two-part series about detox. Today we’ll be learning exact steps you can take to detox, which Susan has uses successfully in her own life and with her clients. For over 35 years, Dr. Susan has relied on herbs, spices, foods, and a variety of natural remedies to detoxify, cleanse, and rejuvenate her body and maintain vibrant health and youthful vitality. She embraces her personal detox/rejuvenation programs at least 4 times a year, with each change of season, and teaches her clients worldwide how to do this, too. Because of her effective detox/rejuvenation regimen, Susan has never used prescription medicine nor had a cold or the flu in almost 30 years. In her books Recipes for Health Bliss (a full color cookbook), The Healing Power of NatureFoods, Health Bliss, Detoxify & Rejuvenate, and Walking on Air, she shows you exactly how to fully detoxify and rejuvenate your body so you can look and feel your very best, no matter your age. Susan’s 3 books incorporate her best-of-the- best health-enhancing secrets to reverse aging, glow with vitality, achieve high-level joy and balance, and live with gusto. SusanSmithJones.com

Detox Matters Part 1: How Detoxing Your Body Fosters Vibrant Health

 

 

TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Detox Matters Part 2: 12 Steps to an Easy Body Detox & Rejuvenation

Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Susan Smith Jones, PhD

Date of Broadcast: August 11, 2015

DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic free. It’s Tuesday, August 11th, 2015. I am here in Clearwater, Florida.

Today, I’m very excited because I’ve been working on my website for the past two weeks. About 12 days ago, I started migration of my website from one server to another because the new server has three times as much memory and I was getting to this point on the old server where every day I was getting this little e-mail saying, “You’re reaching the end of your memory. Help, help, you’re reaching the end of your memory and it was ticking off 87%, 88%.”

So I have all this memory now and I can do much more, add much more content to my website and it’s running so much faster. It’s very fast now. And it looks great. I upgraded everything. I have more memory. I have a new WordPress upgrade. My theme is all upgraded and I’m just working on upgrading everything about the site. So I’m having fun.

Today, we’re going to talk about detox. In a way, detox is like tuning up your website. It’s like taking your body and taking out all the stuff that doesn’t need to be there and leaving it more open to have more nutrition and health.
My guest today is leading holistic health educator and author Susan Smith Jones. She was on last week and because we’re having a two-part series called Detox Matters12 steps to an easy body detox and rejuvenation.

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Debra, it’s so wonderful to be back with you again. And how happy are you that you’re upgrading? Isn’t that wonderful?

DEBRA: It is wonderful.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: I know.

DEBRA: I also have somebody coming over on Saturday who is going to help me with the little problems that I have in the computer itself.

And we’re just going to handle all those little things and everything is going to be streamlined and working perfectly. And that’s what we want our bodies to do too.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah. And you’re going to sleep well Saturday night then.

DEBRA: I will. Susan, I’ll tell you that this morning, I woke up and I felt totally calm and serene and happy. I had no worries. There was nothing I was worried about. I just love that.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: What a great feeling…

DEBRA: It is! I don’t always wake up with that.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: …and especially when you get enough sleep.

DEBRA: I got lots of sleep.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah.

DEBRA: I just woke up, I was lying in bed and I just thought, “Isn’t life wonderful that I could get up and do whatever it is I want to do today and I was not worried about anything?” That’s how it should be.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Gosh, that’s a great feeling. Yay!

DEBRA: Yeah. So let’s get right into it because 12 steps to talk about today that contribute to detox. The first one I know is organization.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah. Last week (I’ll just summarize it all in a nutshell), we talked about how important it is to do regular preventive healthcare and detox. I recommended one day a week, two to three consecutive days monthly and 7 to 14 days with each change of season. I gave some of the symptoms to know if you need to detox and how you feel afterwards and what to expect.

I mentioned to everyone that when the body is burdened with lots of toxic waste material, then your body’s tired and you have low immune function. But when you keep the body cleansed, detoxified, it can absorb more efficiently the essential nutrients that it needs to heal, it can repair and it can maintain good health. You know that saying, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” I think the more cleansed you keep your miraculous body, the more room you’ll have to be filled with light.

So today, you and I, we’re going to get really practical and talk about some of the steps to doing a great detox. And number one was organization.

Now, the first day of the detox program, just like the first 40 minutes of the day, sets the tone for the day or the entire program. So do what needs to be done to get ready on the first day.

I say if you’re just doing a two to three day long weekend cleanse, the day before it begins, maybe you get some good detox to use at the health food store, maybe you get a good source of purified water, maybe you get a really good new dry skin brush. We’ll talk about that in a little bit.

Just organize things so you’re all set. You don’t want to be in the middle of the first day and not have what you need and then you think, “Oh, heck! I’ll do it next weekend.”

So be prepared. I was a girl scout. It’s great to always…

DEBRA: I was too.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Be prepared.

DEBRA: I totally agree with that advice. I always find that if I think something through and know what it is that I’m doing – first of all, knowing what the objective is and then work out the steps of what it is I’m actually going to do and then I get all the materials or products or whatever that I need for it, it makes the actual doing of it much more successful. So we’re totally in agreement about that.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah, exactly.

DEBRA: Yeah. So number two is plant-based food and fresh juices.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes. And in a little bit later, I’d like to focus on (if we can make time to do this) some of the best detox foods you can eat. I even want to give you a recipe.

DEBRA: Let’s talk about them now. Go ahead and talk about them now.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: All right. Okay, foods. When you’re on a detox, if you’re not just doing juices or smoothies, if you’re actually eating, you want to eat basically a plant-based diet. Plant-based foods are more detoxifying for your body than animal products. You want to eat as many raw foods as possible.

You also want these plant-based foods to be fresh rather than canned or frozen. And the goal of the detox is to take stress off of your digestive system. Living plant foods like fresh fruits and vegetables are high in water content. So you want to emphasize those leafy greens because they are the most detoxifying and rejuvenating food you can eat.

There’s a saying my grandmother always used to say to me, “When you’re green inside, you’re clean inside.”

And Debra, you’re going to love this. A few years ago, there was a review of 206 human (not animal, 206 human) epidemiological studies and in the review, they found that green vegetables showed the strongest protective effect against cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure compared to all other beneficial foods.

They also found that only 1 in 500 Americans consumes enough calories from vegetables to assure this defense.

So when you’re on a detox, you really want to emphasize high green vegetable consumption because this is a powerful protection against disease. Actually, year-round, it should be the cornerstone of your heart healthy, cancer protective longevity and detoxifying favorable diet.

So eat as many green foods as possible.

And in addition too (I’ll just rattle off and then I’m going to give you a recipe), lemons, watercress, garlic, green tea, broccoli sprouts, sesame seeds, cabbage, apples and fruits, they’re full of good things like vitamin C and other vitamins, fiber, nutritious fluids like the organic water and all kinds of antioxidants. Te highest water content foods though, the melons, the watermelon, mango, papaya, berries, pear.

And here is a wonderful simple recipe anybody can make. I call it Easy Wilted Garlic Sesame Salad. This is what I do. I toss dark leafy vegetables into a garlicky oil. It’s very cleansing. I’ll just rattle this up. You could take a teaspoon of olive oil. I always use extra virgin cold pressed and one garlic clove or more if you want.

I mince it. I take a pound of spinach and a pound of Swiss chard. I tear the leaves up, maybe a little watercress. I warm the oil in a skillet over medium heat. I add the garlic for about 45 seconds, add the greens. I do it in two batches. You let it wilt for about two to four minutes and season it with a little salt and pepper, sprinkle it with sesame seeds. You have a great detoxifying simple five-minute recipe.

DEBRA: And we need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. My guest today is Susan Smith Jones. We’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Susan Smith Jones. I’m jumping in early because we have so much to talk about. We have no need to listen to music today.

I want to say just a couple of things. And that is that I want to tell people that if you are listening and saying, “Greens, yuck. I don’t like greens,” you don’t have to start with kale and collard greens. You could start with something, like Susan was saying, spinach and Swiss chard. They’re very easy to eat. They don’t have strong flavors, but they still act as greens.

I actually went through one point and I wrote down a list of all the greens and I arranged them by ease of eating. I said, “Alright! Let’s just start with the easy. Let’s just start with spinach. I know spinach, I can eat spinach.” And then as you go along, it didn’t take me long to get to kale and I actually got to a point where I really like kale.

Let’s see. There’s something else I want to say. I want to mention your website is SusanSmithJones.com and you have some free books. One is titled The Curative Kitchen and the other one is Detoxify and Rejuvenate. You can go to SusanSmithJones.com and download those for free. And she also has some other books as well.

All right, let’s talk about number three, nutritional supplements for detox.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Before I do that, let me just quickly say some things food-wise to remember when you detox (but really, all year round) is add lemon whenever you can to anything. I always put it in my water and my teas and I sprinkle it over my steamed vegetables. It’s part of my salad dressing. All the C in it helps to convert toxins into a water-soluble form that’s easy to be flushed out.

Watercress is great. It’s like a diuretic that helps the flushing process. You don’t want to over eat that extra burden that you put on your digestive system. When you overeat, it shuts down the detoxifying and cleansing. So you want to systematically under eat when you’re on a cleanse.

And remember, the beauty of a blender is when you make smoothies, you can put lots of greens in it and fruits, you taste the fruit even though it looks green. That does the breaking down of the cell walls and the fiber to take stress off your digestive system. If I do a once a week cleanse and sometimes a two to three day monthly one, I might just have smoothies the whole time. But I do basically focus on raw foods.

By the way, in my navigation bar, under Articles, the second article is The Skinny on Raw Foods and How They Heal the Body. So I just wanted to mention that.

You mentioned Hawaiian Vitality. There’s a super food I’ve been taking for 31 years. It comes from the Kona Coast of Hawaii. It’s Hawaiian Spirulina. It’s had over 500 scientific studies done on it and all these beautiful journals. They all concur that it’s the most nutrient-rich food on planet earth.

I’ve taken it for 30 years. It’s very green and it has over 100 nutrients in it. I told you this. But in all these 30 years, I haven’t had a cold or flu.

So while that’s great to take when you detox, it’s also good to take year-round.

And in the navigation bar, under Recipes, the first category says, “Spirulina recipes.” So I give you 20 to 25 different recipes on how to put the powder in things like guacamole and humus and different smoothies and kale chips and even Spirulina banana ice cream. I give you lots of recipes on how to use Spirulina.

DEBRA: Thank you. I’d just like to add that I’m a typical American person. Even though it looks like I live a very natural nontoxic life (and I do), I come from being just an average American consumer. So I grew up on pizza and McDonald’s and stuff like that. So it was very difficult for me.

If you were who have said to me, “Eat raw food,” I go, “Uh-huh. No, thank you.” And yet, I want to say that the older I get and the healthier I get (because I am getting healthier as I get older), the more my body wants. Like you crave ice cream or you crave chocolate or whatever it is you crave, my body craves salad. It really does. It really does.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes, me too.

DEBRA: I now eat salad. I now eat raw salad for lunch and dinner.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes. And oh, I told you this last time I wish we lived on the same block.

DEBRA: Yeah. I mean I eat other things too. I eat organic chicken and I eat grass-fed beef. I actually don’t eat beef very often, but I used to eat beef almost every day. And now, I eat it maybe once a week, maybe once a month. But most of my diet is a whole bunch of raw vegetables and it’s not because I’m trying to just eat raw, it’s because that’s what my body wants.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: That’s right. And there’s a reason for that too. Simply put, internal cleansing can dramatically improve the quality of your overall health, but it’s also one of the best ways to break bad food habits you might have like salting food and being addicted to white sugar, white flour products and sodas. The more cleansed your body is internally, the more you no longer crave foods that aren’t good for you. You crave exactly what you just said, things like salads and fresh fruits.

And remember, what you eat is eventually what you crave. If you eat junk foods a lot, you crave that. When you start eating healthier foods, you’ll desire more of the same. And you and I craving salads is a sign that we have a cleansed internal environment.

DEBRA: My favorite vegetable right now is red bell peppers.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: I love them.

DEBRA: Just raw red bell peppers.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: I eat it like an apple.

DEBRA: Yeah. I just am so surprised, but this is the result of years of making that transition from chocolate cake to raw tomatoes and stuff like that. And then, I just keep going week by week, day by day and I make the changes in my life. I think other people can do that too.

I want to make sure that I say this just to counter-balance you. I agree with everything you say about doing the cleanses, but I also want to mention that our bodies are detoxing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. We need to be doing things like eating vegetables everyday, not just on cleanse day.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah, I agree.

DEBRA: And the more things that we do to incorporate detox in our everyday activities, the healthier our bodies are going to be.

We’re going to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Susan Smith Jones. We are talking about detox today obviously.

You can go to her website, SusanSmithJones.com and there are free things for you to download. You can also go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and listen to the last week’s part one of how detoxing your body fosters vibrant health. We’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Susan Smith Jones. We’re talking about detoxing.

Susan, we’ve gone through half the show and we’ve only gotten through the first two points. So I think we need to speed up.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Okay. And I’ll let you know that all of these tips are right there free. You can click on an article. You can read them all if we have to rush through the rest.

DEBRA: Yeah, I’m sure all this information is on your website. There’s a lot of information on Susan’s websites.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes.

DEBRA: So the next one, number three is nutritional supplements. So let’s skip over that and let people go to your website.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah, we talked about the Hawaiian Spirulina. That was three. Four is a supportive environment. Just as your body is your temple, your home is your sanctuary. I always think that it’s good to combine detoxifying your body and decluttering your surroundings.

DEBRA: I agree.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah, to cleanse your environment while you’re on a cleansing program for your body.

And always make your bedroom peaceful haven for quality rest time and start with a good hypoallergenic mattress pad. I think every year, you want to change your mattress pad. Sometimes, when I do 14 or 30 day cleanse like I do every two years, I get new bed linens.

But remember, sleep is so important. Sleep is when your body detoxifies, renews, rebuilds and rejuvenates. I know you got a great night sleep last night.

DEBRA: I did and I shut those…

SUSAN SMITH JONES: You want to do that all the time.

DEBRA: Yeah, I totally agree. And a good way to do that, I’ll just jump in, is to make sure that you have untreated cotton sheets on your bed, nothing that says, “permanent press” because permanent press sheets all are leaking formaldehyde while you’re sleeping.

Formaldehyde exposure causes insomnia. So if you’re having trouble sleeping, change your sheets.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes.

DEBRA: Okay. So let’s go on to number five, which is water and hydration.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Hydration.

DEBRA: I want to just put big stars around this one because it’s so important.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah, I know. Yeah, definitely. When your body is fully hydrated with good water (I think my second or third blog is all about water and how to drink it to help you lose weight and detox), you can more easily flush the toxins out of your system.

Remember about water that our planet is 70% water, ourselves are and so as our bodies. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. But not all liquids will do. Decaffeinated herbal tea, freshly extracted veggie juice and deluded fruit juice [inaudible 00:29:21]. But coffee, caffeinated teas, colas, alcoholic beverages all dehydrate your body.

It’s best to drink that purified water in between meals so you don’t dilute your digestive enzymes. And every morning when you wake up, have a big, big glass. I have 16 ounces of warm ginger tea that I make from fresh ginger root. You can use a teabag. And I always put the juice of lemon in it.

DEBRA: I just started drinking fresh ginger juice with lime. I was just making something. I had a leftover lime, half of a lime. I just squeezed it in a cup and I had a fresh ginger and I just grated it in with the lime juice. And then I put water and ice in it. Boy! That was that good?

SUSAN SMITH JONES: That’s like a lime ginger shot.

DEBRA: Yeah.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: I do a lemon ginger shot every morning.

DEBRA: Yeah, it was great.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes, that’s great for you.

DEBRA: Yeah, wow. I was going to make ginger tea and then put lime juice in it, but when I have that crushed ginger, it was like, “Yes. This is it. This is it.”

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes.

DEBRA: Yeah. Okay. And of course, you want to make sure that you have water that is filtered and you’re not putting water pollutants in your body when you’re detoxing.

I’ll just mention that until August 15th, my favorite water filter – well, the prices are going up on August 15th. So if you’re interested in buying a really good water filter, then go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you’ll see in the right hand side a picture of a water filter. It’s the water filter that I use. The prices are going up on Saturday. So if you’re interested in getting one, get one soon.

All right. Then the next thing is heat therapy. I don’t know anything about heat therapy in detox.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah. It has to do with a couple of things. First of all, you want to profusely sweat every day, whether you do it through exercise. That’s heating up your body internally. . My favorite way to heat up the body and one of the best ways to get rid of toxins is through taking an infrared sauna.

Now, I know that’s pricy, but I saved and saved. And then about 20 years ago, instead of going to the gym to use a sauna and sitting on a bench where everyone sweats out their toxic residue, I now have my own infrared sauna.

For 30 years, I’ve done research on a healing power of sweating and taking the right kind of sauna. Just because we have lack of time, under Articles, if you scroll down to the fourth article, it’s all about the healing power of sweating in infrared saunas. So you can read about how beneficial they are. One of the best overall ways to reduce heavy metals, pesticides, all kinds of toxins from your body is just taking an infrared sauna every day.

DEBRA: Yeah. Our guest tomorrow, Pamela Seefeld, does infrared sauna every day as well – and she has been for years. And she takes homeopathic remedies for detox too. She’s just a big one on detox as well and so am I.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Oh, that’s great.

DEBRA: I was thinking about this before we started this morning. I think that what I’m experiencing now is what I would call the detox lifestyle. It’s the stuff that I’m doing every day, things that I’m taking, what I’m eating, getting exercise, doing those things that support my body in detoxing. It’s really necessary to do these things in the world that we live in now.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: I agree. I agree. And I would say the easiest way to navigate my website is on the top right at SusanSmithJones.com, there’s a search bar. Just put in the words, “infrared sauna” or any other topic you want to look up and you’ll find loads of information.

DEBRA: Yeah, a lot there.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes.

DEBRA: So number seven is rest, but we already talked about that. Number eight is positive focus.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Okay. First of all, resting doesn’t mean just sleep. Lots of people want to fill their day from morning to night with unlimited activity. I think when you’re on a specific detox program, it’s good to slow down, smell the flowers, read the books, keep a gratitude journal, simplify your life. That’s wonderful. Spend time in nature.

Eight is the positive focus. Take time each day to be grateful for all you have because gratitude is a great stress buster. It’s a whole body purifier. And remember, what you think about consistently always brings more of the same back into your life. I like to be as positive as possible.

When you detox, don’t just dwell on thoughts of the foods you don’t get to eat for two or three or seven days. But think about happy positive thoughts because every positive thought will boost your immune system and it will help your body detoxify more fully.

DEBRA: I always like to look at what’s going right. Instead of thinking about the foods that I’m not eating to really enjoy the food that I am eating. And especially, I’m taking a look at what’s really working about my body instead of saying, “I have a headache,” I can say, “I can move my hand” or whatever to start having a positive viewpoint about your body.

We need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Susan Smith Jones. We’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Susan Smith Jones. You can go to her website at SusanSmithJones.com. She has a lot of information about detox and healthy living.

Okay, we did really well during the last segment. Let’s get to all 12 in our last segment now. The next one is exercise and massage.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes, yes, yes. It’s really important during a detox (as well as year-round) to do some aerobic activity like walking because it helps your circulation. The more your blood is circulating fully, the more easy it is to pull the toxins out of your body.

At the very least, do some yoga stretches or simple movement. But don’t take a detox program as the time to not exercise because you definitely want to do that. And remember that sweating is good too because your skin is your biggest eliminative organ.

 

And then I also think of cleanse as a great time to do a massage. If you know a good massage therapist who can do lymph massage, that helps flush toxins out of your body. If you don’t or you can’t afford it, at the very least, maybe a family member, a close friend can give you a foot massage or else, you could do it to yourself.

DEBRA: You can always give yourself a foot massage. I get a massage every week. Every week for the past four years, I get a massage. It makes a huge, huge difference because it really does get everything moving.

The thing to remember about lymph if you’re not familiar with your lymph system is that the lymph system carries garbage away from your body and takes it off to the organs to get processed and eliminated. And your lymph does not move unless your body moves. The blood has the heart to pump it around, but the lymph will not move unless you move your body. So the more you move, the more the lymph will carry away the toxic stuff.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Do you know those mini trampolines?

DEBRA: Yup, I have one. I jump on it every day.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Okay. I’m moving to your neighborhood. Yeah, the meals we could make together, we could have so much fun.

DEBRA: Okay. Then the next one is skin brushing, another thing I do.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah, exactly. You can learn about it in my August newsletter. You can see photos of it. The key is to get good brush, a natural bristle brush, not one with nylon bristles with a long handle. And then before you shower bathe is when you dry skin brush.

Brushing the skin dry rather than wet is very important because it does a much better job at removing dead skin cells and toxins.

So I do it every day. I take my clothes off. I get into the shower. I dry skin brush. It takes two minutes. And in 30 days, all your skin cells are turned over and you’ll have a skin like a baby. It’s easy to do. It’s inexpensive.

And of course, you avoid private parts or if you have a rash. And avoid the face because the skin brush is a little too strong for the face. You can do other stuff for the face. It just helps your body detoxify.

DEBRA: Yeah, it does. And what you want to do is you want to start at your fingertips and your toes and move the brush towards your heart.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Exactly!

DEBRA: So probably I’m assuming that Susan has pictures and stuff like that and all the instructions on how to do that. It’s just a really wonderful thing to do. It wakes up your body and gets your blood circulating too.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Circulation going, I know. And if you have cellulite or areas around thighs, the butt, the abdominal areas where you have extra fat, you brush a little bit longer there. It really helps.

DEBRA: Oh, I didn’t know that. That’s good to know. Okay.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes, fantastic. And the next one is effective elimination. Once toxins have been released from your body into the blood and neutralized by the liver, they have to be eliminated safely from the body to make sure they don’t get reabsorbed. And the one thing you always want to prevent is constipation.

So do what needs to be done – good sleep, enough water, the fiber in the diet and even during the cleanse. Let’s say you’re doing a one-day juice cleanse, so there’s no fiber in that. It doesn’t hurt to take a product, a fiber product that you stir in water or juice and just drink it down.

DEBRA: It’s very good. Let me just tell you something about fiber and I’m letting the cat out of the bag here.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Uh-oh, your next book I bet.

DEBRA: I’m actually working on a book about fiber. I decided that what I needed to do was increase fiber, that even though I was eating all these raw foods and vegetables, I wasn’t getting enough fiber. And when I decided that I was really going to up the fiber, oh my God, did that make a difference for me.

I’ll just tell you, I’m testing all these recipes that I’m making up as I go along. This morning, I had coconut cinnamon muffins that were so, so good.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yum.

DEBRA: No sugar in them, but the cinnamon makes them taste sweet. And the coconut has so much fiber in it. It’s really packed with coconut. There are so many good things to eat that are just so high fiber and they taste so good. We just don’t know that they exist. If you look up fiber on the internet, it will say just a very short list of things. It doesn’t include such high fiber foods as coconut flour and things like that.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: And remember too that only plant-based foods have fiber in them. No animal product has fiber. And by the way, cinnamon is anti-aging. It balances out your blood sugar level. It boosts your immune system. And you mentioned before, like I love them, you love red bell peppers.

DEBRA: Yes.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: And they are your skin’s best friend. Green pepper is an unripe red. The red has all the…

DEBRA: I didn’t know that.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah, the red has the most nutritional value of all those sweet peppers and it gives you glowing skin. I eat pretty much a red bell pepper daily.

DEBRA: It’s so good. I’m eating now this Chinese salad I made up. I call it “Chinese Salad.” I put lettuce in a little bit of olive oil and red peppers and cucumbers and roasted tomatoes. Then I put a little soy sauce on it and Sichuan peppercorns.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Oh, I’m coming over. That is great.

DEBRA: Yeah, it really is great. I grew up on Chinese food and I miss those Chinese flavors, so I just decided to make Chinese salad.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: And speaking of that kind of food, I usually eat with chopsticks even with salads because it makes me eat a little bit slower. It makes me think about what I eat and I chew better.

DEBRA: I love chopsticks.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah.

DEBRA: Okay. So let’s see. Skin elimination?

SUSAN SMITH JONES: We’re on 12.

DEBRA: The 12th is cleanse with friends.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes, I say even if your friend lives across the country – like my best friend lives in Florida. It’s now you, Debra.

But I have another best friend who lives there. Having someone to share the experience with is a little more comforting and supportive. So if you can find a detox buddy who will do cleanse with you and maybe every day, you compare notes, you talk or you e-mail or text, knowing that a friend is detoxifying with you will help you to stay on track.

DEBRA: It really makes a difference. I remember one of the first detoxes that I did that was a concentrated period of time, it was for three days, I did a liver cleanse. It had cranberry juice and all these different things and then there were foods, the liver cleansing foods. I was married at the time and my husband and I did it together.

It was so great because those three days, we just spent those three days together detoxing. It was wonderful because we were really helping each other to be more healthy.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Exactly! Yeah, it’s so much easier especially if you’re in the same house because it’s hard to watch someone eat this big glorious five-course meal when you’re on smoothies and raw salads all day. Even though you and I could do that, most people couldn’t.

DEBRA: Well, salad is so good. It’s so good. Here’s another one. Here’s another cat out of the bag. I’ll put this on my food blog in a few weeks. I made Thai spring roll salad. I actually was inspired by Giada De Laurentiis who on her show…

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes, I love her show.

DEBRA: …she took all the ingredients you’d put in a Thai spring roll and she made it into a little patty with ground chicken and all the things. And then she wrapped it with a lettuce leaf. It looks so good.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yes.

DEBRA: But lettuce leaves are just too – I don’t know. It’s just not my thing. What I want is more lettuce. So I made her little chicken roll that she puts in the lettuce leaf and I put it on a salad, but I put lots of lettuce on the plate and cucumbers and red peppers and cilantro and her little dipping sauce. It was great. This is coming up in a few weeks on my food blog.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Oh, that sounds absolutely scrumptious.

DEBRA: Yeah. Whatever kind of food I want to eat, if I want to eat Chinese or Thai or Italian or whatever, I just make a salad with those fibers.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Right. It sounds perfect.

DEBRA: Yes. Well, we’re almost at the end here. We have just a minute left. So what would you like to say in closing?

SUSAN SMITH JONES: I would say don’t forget to visit my site, SusanSmithJones.com. You can get a couple of free e-books by clicking. When you click on that, it actually signs you up for my monthly motivational letter that the general public never sees. It takes about 10 seconds. And then don’t forget to check out my first few blogs and my August newsletter.

By the way, in August newsletter, I’ve got lots of health info. But one of the many recipes is the Chipotle Mexican – do you know that restaurant, Chipotle?

DEBRA: Yeah.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Well, I have their true guacamole recipe.

DEBRA: Wow!

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Yeah, they had it online for a few days. Then they took it off. And they said anybody could use it. So I have it because it’s delicious guacamole.

DEBRA: Here’s the end. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

SUSAN SMITH JONES: Thank you.

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. To find out more, go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. Be well.