J'adore this glam juicer, by French design god Philippe Starck.

Last night, when I would’ve much rather have been hunkered down reading Chapter 8 (“Dance at Grandpa’s”) of Little House in the Big Woods to the Wee Lass before beddy-bye, I bundled up and braved the Arctic air for a brainiac wellness seminar instead.

Sooooo glad I did.

Held at Pure Yoga, the panel was moderated by Terri Trespiscio of Whole Living (a beautiful, info-packed mag) and featured a diverse panel of gurus, some of whom I knew already (like the charming and crazy-smart Oz Garcia) and a few I’d love to spend some quality time with, including energy healer Aleta St. James and Tata Harper, the new darling of the natural skincare world.

Each of these experts had wisdom to impart, but for the sake of brevity (and the fact that it’s 5 a.m. and I haven’t slurped my coffee and plowed thru The New York Times yet), I will confine their info-nuggets to the hot topic of detoxing.

Here are condensed versions of their best tips. (Heads-up, they aren’t all pretty):

1. Marco Rojas, Vinyasa Flow pied-piper of epic proportions: A handsome devil with the world’s best posture, Marco’s comments were the essence of simplicity. After letting the others toss around the hard science, he chimed-in with a few show-stoppers. To truly detox, we need to – first and foremost – relax. And yoga, because it massages internal organs, is naturally detoxifying. “The real doctor,” he said, apologizing to the medical savants on the panel, “is inside of you.”

2. Tata Harper, founder of Tata Harper Skincare: Think long and hard about what you’re slathering yourself with on a daily basis. Skin is our largest organ, and while one single dodgy product won’t make you ill, the cumulative effect of many just might. To get the 411 on harmful ingredients, visit the Skin Deep section of the Environmental Working Group’s massive website. Oh, and there’s a sinister preservative you need to avoid like the plague: phenoxyethanol. Read those labels!

3. Oz Garcia PhD, über-nutritionist and authority on healthy aging: Having written several bestsellers himself, it came as no surprise that Oz recommended reading, reading and more reading as a way to shore up our defenses against the overload of toxins around us. But not once did he mention any of his own books. (Not even his latest, which I am completely loving right now.) Instead, he gave shout-outs to the works of Michael Pollan and, because bad office vibes can literally make us sick, Daniel Goleman’s The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace. One last Oz tip: Remove your shoes at the front door, so you don’t drag outdoor pollutants into your lovely home.

4. Richard Ash, M.D., internal medicine specialist, book author and radio show host: I mentioned earlier that some of this advice wouldn’t be pretty, oui? Well, Dr. Ash’s centered around reducing the “transit time” of our food as a basic, but insanely important, way of detoxifying our systems. In other words, he wants us to poop – a lot. Every 12 hours. Got that?

5. Aleta St. James, life coach, intuitive healer, author and all-around hero to older first-time moms like moi: I don’t know if Aleta’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for having twins at age 57, but she damn well should be. Much of what she said was totally woo-woo (so of course this die-hard “crunchista” was swooning), but it also made perfect sense. She recommended paying close attention to the emotions that surface during a cleanse or fast, and also the fact that every cell in our bodies holds emotional energy. When the moderator pressed on her that last bit, she cited the ground-breaking research of Candace Pert. And within seconds, Oz and Dr. Ash were backing her right up.

It was kinda great. Woo-woo and utterly useful.

One Response to “Chew on this: Juice-cleansing ain’t the only way to detox”