You encounter harmful toxins everyday in your food, your personal care products, and even in your home. Understandably, people have long-sought natural solutions to detoxification and rid themselves of the potential harm a build-up of these contaminants pose. Detoxing has been thrown around as a buzzword for a while now. But what does it actually mean?

Beyond the trendy juice cleanses, sauna trips, and free-radical busting, anti-aging craze, detoxing can set you on a more eco-friendly path—if you learn how to do it well. So let’s dive into some of P.E Nation’s practical strategies for a total life detox that will leave you and your home feeling cleaner and greener than ever before.

Detoxing is the process of removing unwanted toxins from your body and environment. But before you can start your life detox, you need to know what you’re up against. Toxins describe a large category of substances that are poisonous to humans. This includes both natural toxins, which are often created by bacteria as well as plants and animals, and environmental toxins including metals and chemicals.

While toxins pose potential harm, your body is equipped to naturally remove most of them. Your main detoxifying organs include:

• Lungs – Your lungs are lined with little mucus-covered hairs called cilia that catch any toxic particles you happen to breathe in, which you can then expel by coughing or swallowing.

• Liver – Any toxins that enter your bloodstream are filtered out via your liver.

• Colon – After your small intestine is done absorbing all the nutrients from the food you eat, it’s the duty of your colon (also known as the large intestine) to remove the waste.

• Kidneys – Your kidneys are also essential blood-filtering organs. Any toxins they catch are expelled through your urine.

Your organs have evolved over thousands of years to be detoxification masters. But with the increasing number of toxins cropping up in most aspects of modern life, your natural detoxifiers may have trouble keeping up.

Common toxins such as cigarette smoke and alcohol damage your cleansing organs (your lungs and liver, respectively). Toxins that are harder to avoid include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. These “forever chemicals” are found in everything from water supplies to water-resistant clothing, and they take ages to break down.

Other common toxins include:

• Pesticides and herbicides

• Phthalates, most commonly found in fast food and beauty products

• Air and water pollutants like perchlorate

Scientists and doctors are still trying to determine how exposure to these toxins affects your health and wellbeing. While many don’t directly cause illness, they can disrupt your normal bodily functions and increase risks of disease.

There are many products that claim they can cleanse your body of toxins, but in reality, they either don’t work or make matters worse.

While the fight against toxins seems like an uphill battle, you have more power than you think. The easiest and most effective way to detox is to eliminate toxins from your life. Let’s look at how it’s done.

Toxins often run most rampant in your diet. Despite the claims, fads like juice and colon cleanses don’t do much to remove them. Luckily, there are much simpler ways to avoid toxins in your food that don’t involve liquid diets and enemas. To effectively cleanse your diet, start by identifying—and avoiding—foods that contain the most toxins.

Unsurprisingly, fast food and processed foods are toxin hubs, featuring illness-causing carcinogens like aldehyde and advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Even food packaging, like PFAS-coated microwave popcorn bags and grease-resistant pizza boxes, can cause harm.  

Stereotypically “unhealthy” foods aren’t the only ones that can contain toxins; fresh produce can be, too.

The Dirty Dozen is a list of conventionally-grown (meaning non-organic) produce, that generally have high amounts of toxins like pesticides and fungicides known to cause cancers, hormone imbalances, and other under-studied side effects.

The top examples from the Dirty Dozen list include:

• Strawberries

• Spinach

• Kale

• Grapes

• Peaches

But wait before you run to your fridge’s produce drawer!

The Dirty Dozen list isn’t meant to deter you from eating fresh produce. The list’s creator, The Environmental Working Group (EWG), stresses that eating a healthy diet full of fresh fruit and veggies is more important than avoiding pesticides. Instead, this list encourages you to shop for organic alternatives to conventionally-grown Dirty Dozen foods.

To further encourage a healthy, pesticide-free, and affordable diet, there’s the Clean Fifteen list. These foods are conventionally grown but show little to no pesticide residues. Here are a few:

Avocados

Sweet corn

Pineapple

Onions

Papaya

The best detox diet is one that promotes your natural, internal detoxifying processes. Rather than juicing, which removes most of the helpful fiber and nutrients from plants and can leave you bloated (and hangry), focus on these essentials:

• Eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies to meet your necessary levels of fiber, vitamins, and other key nutrients.

• Drink plenty of water, eat hydrating foods, and avoid alcohol.

• Eat foods that support gut health (eg, prunes, lentils, pears, and more) to support the detoxifying power of your colon.

• Cut back on added sweeteners found in processed foods and drinks.

For tips on creating your own garden to avoid harmful additives, especially if you live in an urban setting where gardening might be a greater challenge, check out our guide on urban gardening. It's packed with practical advice to help you grow clean, toxin-free produce right at home.

Personal care products, including makeup, skin/haircare, and hygiene products, are all monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But unlike drugs—or products that treat specific medical conditions—the FDA doesn’t have to approve personal care products before they hit shelves.

Common toxins that frequently appear in beauty and hygiene products include:

• Phthalates

• Parabens

• PFAS

• Triclosan

• Formaldehyde

• Metals (e.g., lead and mercury)

These toxins are known to cause (and increase risks of) cancer and other diseases, and they disrupt hormone balances that can impact fertility and brain function. The combination of these toxins is also concerning, though researchers are still studying their effects.  

Reading a product’s label can only tell you so much about its contents. Some chemicals have multiple names, or are abbreviated, making it difficult for you to correctly identify toxins. Here’s how you can more effectively remove toxins from your personal-care routine: 

• Switch to “fragrance-free” – Even after reading packaging labels, you may not have the full picture of a product’s contents. One example of this is the vague ingredient of “fragrance”. Fragrance often encapsulates thousands of chemicals that aren’t included on the label. To avoid these unknowns, choose products specifically labeled “fragrance free”. Note that “unscented” products may still contain odour-concealing chemicals. 

• Avoid “long-wearing” and “water-resistant” makeup – The chemicals most often used in long-wearing and water-resistant makeup products like foundations, lipsticks, and mascaras include PFAS. Companies aren’t required to state which products contain PFAS, so you won’t know for sure if they’re in there. 

• Choose products with fewer ingredients – The fewer ingredients a product has, the less likely it is that toxins are hiding inside it. If you can easily pronounce or recognize most or all of a product’s ingredients, even better.

You spend most of your life indoors (about 90% of it). And what’s your most sacred indoor space? Your home. Your home should be a protective fortress for you and your family. Yet more and more frequently, homes are overrun with harmful toxins.  

Home toxins include natural allergens like pollen and pet dander, as well as more toxic chemicals like PFAS and BPA, which can all trigger allergies, irritation, and other diseases. Toxins don’t belong anywhere, but they especially shouldn’t be where you live and sleep.

To banish unwanted toxins from your home and prevent them from returning, follow these tips: 

• Control for dust, allergens, and other harmful microparticles – You may have heard that dust is mostly dead skin. But it contains plenty of other unhealthy particles, including paint, bacteria, pollen, mould, home product chemicals, and more. To avoid tracking outdoor particles into your home, take off your shoes at the door. And to tame the dust inside, clean frequently using high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter vacuums and wet microfiber wipes and mops. 

• Eliminate PFAS-containing products – Many common home products, like nonstick pans and plastic storage containers, have PFAS. When you use these products, especially with heat, these toxic chemicals can leak into your food and your body. Replace nonstick cookware with cast iron, ceramic, or stainless steel, and swap plastic storage containers for glass. And instead of single-use plastic water bottles, use reusable glass or stainless steel.  

• Use natural cleaning supplies – Many cleaning supplies contain VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, which when released can cause respiratory irritation and illness. To limit your VOC exposure, avoid air fresheners and products with undefined fragrances, and keep your space well-ventilated by cracking a window or using an air purifier. Remember the basics: warm soap and water, baking soda, and vinegar are all natural and effective cleaning solutions.  

Toxins can be scary, especially when you don’t know where they’re hiding. But you can successfully avoid them with a few simple lifestyle changes. By researching the products you buy and being a more conscious consumer, you can fully detox your life for a healthier, greener future.

Another area primed with detoxifying potential: your wardrobe. P.E Nation is a leader in sustainable fashion fit for the gym, work, and every place in between.

Our pillars of sustainability are woven into every stitch of performance fabric. A majority of our activewear is made from 65% to 92% of recycled and regenerated materials. We also work organic materials like bamboo, hemp, and cotton into our loungewear for a soft feel and even softer environmental impact. In addition to sustainability in materials, our collections are designed around the concept of building a capsule wardrobe where each piece works back with the rest, to create endless looks that balance style with timelessness and longevity.  

Style is unique; sustainability is universal. Read about our B Corp Certification, and shop our collections to discover this for yourself.

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Sources:  

Medline Plus. Toxins.

RUSH University Medical Center. The Truth About Toxins.  

National Library of Medicine. Common Chemical Pollutants Causing a Lot of Ill Health. 

Natural Resources Defense Council. “Forever Chemicals” Called PFAS Show Up in Your Food, Clothes, and Home.

National Library of Medicine. The Hidden Dangers of Fast and Processed Food.

Environmental Working Group. EWG’s 2024 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™.  

NBC News. The best way to do a detox diet, according to nutritionists.

NIH News in Health. Probing Personal Care Products: Look Out for Harmful Ingredients.

Toxic-Free Future. Tips for Safer Cosmetics and Body Care.

Environmental Working Group. 7 ways to detox your home (and keep it clean) year ‘round. 

American Lung Association. Cleaning Supplies and Household Chemicals.