When We Care opened its doors in 1986, it was devoted to helping people feel better. It now has a loyal following — including celebs like Gisele Bundchen and Christy Turlington, who come to this low-key retreat in Desert Hot Springs, California, to fast, taking only liquid nourishment in an attempt to give the digestive system time to heal. “Think of your liver like an oil filter,” says Donna Sullivan, We Care’s spa director. “It’s congested with toxins from bad eating habits, antibiotics and environmental pollutants. During a fast, energy is devoted to clearing toxins instead of processing food.” Daily colonics, digestive enzymes and purifying teas support the cleanse by flushing out accumulated waste.

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SPA DETOX PROGRAMS PURIFY MIND AND BODY WITH A BALANCE OF DIET, TREATMENTS AND EXERCISE.

Clear skin, increased energy, weight loss. These are some of the compelling benefits promised by proponents of a detox diet. Sometimes called a “fast” or “cleanse,” detoxing clears the body of the toxins that accumulate in its tissues. Jill Gleason, an administrative assistant from Virginia, knew the refined sugar and processed food in her diet was unhealthy, but she needed the structure of a spa detox program to change her eating habits. “When I eliminated those foods from my diet, I really noticed a difference,” she says. “My energy is higher, and I don’t have as many joint aches and pains.”

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There is a surprising side to iron—a treacherous and harmful side that accelerates the aging process by encouraging free-radical production. Iron is a very unstable metal. An iron pan can rust rather quickly. In your body, iron oxidizes even faster, producing free radicals along the way. Although iron is an essential nutrient, it is dangerous in excess. But you’d never know it by the way it has been marketed, especially to women.
Not so long ago, advertisements promoting iron supplements as a cure for fatigue and all kinds of other difficulties were everywhere. These ads are gone now, and with good reason.

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While some people say “a little wine is good for you,” evidence is clear that more than a little can do real damage. You can certainly see this in the signs of alcoholism: Skin begins to sag, and eyes look tired and worn out, not to mention the injury an alcoholsoaked liver endures. But you don’t have to drink excessively for your cells to suffer.

When you drink, alcohol molecules enter your body, rearranging themselves into various forms of harmful free radicals and encouraging more oxygen molecules to do the same. That’s right—alcohol causes free radicals to form. While your inhibitions go down and your pain tolerance goes up as you drink, alcohol-produced free radicals harm the stomach, heart, and other organs. And, as we will see later, alcohol also increases your risk for breast cancer.

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Remember when your parents said you would keep your good eyesight if only you’d finish your carrots? Well, there’s truth to what probably seemed like a bit of parental bribery. A diet that includes carrots, or any other vegetables and fruits, sends beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, and many other antioxidants into your eyes, neutralizing harmful free radicals stimulated by the daily sunlight exposure most of us receive. The carotenoids in orange, yellow, and green vegetables help discourage macular degeneration, a loss of function of the retina found in older adults.

Avoiding tobacco and excess dietary iron (as we will see shortly), and, of course, wearing sunglasses all help keep your eyes healthy. You may never have heard of macular degeneration, but sooner or later you’ll hear more about it than you ever wanted. It is the most common major assault on vision that occurs as the years go by. You’ll learn of a friend or a relative who is gradually losing sight, and the deterioration can continue to total blindness.

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