5 Steps To Detox Heavy Metals

Step into any wellness corner of the internet and you’ll be told you’re heavy metal toxic. Mercury in your brain, arsenic in your skin, lead in your bones. And the solution, apparently, is to neck a green smoothie and “flush it all out”.

Spoiler... that’s how a lot of people make themselves worse.

The truth is, heavy metals are everywhere in our environment. And once inside us, they wedge themselves into enzymes, displace essential minerals, and disrupt the mitochondria that keep our cells functioning. But if you try to push them out too fast or without the right nutritional scaffolding, you risk redistribution, shifting them from somewhere relatively harmless (like your thigh bone) to somewhere catastrophic (like your hippocampus). And at best case? You’ve fallen for expensive wellness marketing.

 

And there’s a lot more to say here about “detox”. Your body already comes equipped with exquisitely designed detox systems, liver, kidneys, lymph, skin, lungs. Given the right environment (nutrient sufficiency, deep sleep, low toxic exposure, and regular elimination) it can return to homeostasis without a single juice cleanse or enema.

The problem is, most modern “detox” protocols do the opposite. They strip the body of nutrients, overwhelm the organs of elimination, and stir up stored toxins without providing a safe way out. Worse still, they often prey on the vulnerable, people desperate for relief from real symptoms, or struggling with eating disorders, selling quick fixes that leave them sicker, more depleted, and convinced they need even more detoxing.

This isn’t what we believe here. Our approach is and always will be grounded in nourishment, long term safety, and respect for how the body actually works.

1. Stop them at the source

Before addressing the heavy metals already stored in your body, it’s essential to reduce the amount coming in. Lowering ongoing exposure allows your detox systems to work on what’s already there, instead of constantly managing new arrivals.

Where heavy metals lurk most...

• Water supply: arsenic, lead, mercury from old pipes, industrial runoff, and contaminated groundwater
• Cookware & kitchenware: aluminium pots & pans
• Personal care products: aluminium in deodorants, heavy metal contamination in makeup pigment
• Food chain: large predatory fish (tuna, swordfish, shark), rice (arsenic), cacao/chocolate (cadmium), leafy greens grown in polluted soil
• Household items: old paint (lead), batteries (cadmium, nickel), cheap jewellery and toys (lead, cadmium)
• Herbal supplements & seaweeds: spirulina, chlorella, and long-lived seaweeds that bioaccumulate metals

2. Stop drinking green powders

Here’s the scariest irony. Some of the highest dietary sources of heavy metals are the powders and smoothies marketed to “cleanse” them out of you.

Spirulina and chlorella are microalgae with an extraordinary ability to absorb metals from their environment. In nature, this makes them brilliant at cleaning up contaminated water. On your kitchen counter, it means they can arrive already loaded with lead, cadmium, arsenic, or mercury, especially if they’re poorly sourced, which is common in mass market wellness products.

3. Feed a well resourced liver

Your liver is the body’s primary processing plant for toxins, including heavy metals, and it needs the right nutrients to function optimally. Phase I and Phase II detox pathways work in sequence to transform metals into forms the body can safely excrete, but this process depends on a constant supply of specific vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.

Magnesium and selenium are essential for antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase, which protect cells from metal-induced oxidative stress. Vitamins B6, B9, and B12 are required for methylation and conjugation,  key reactions that package toxins for elimination. Amino acids like methionine, cysteine, and glycine physically bind to metals so they can be neutralised and removed.

A well-nourished liver is far more effective at clearing toxins than one lacking these resources. Focus on nutrient-dense foods such as:

• Liver, heart, and bone broth for B vitamins, CoQ10, glycine, and minerals
• Egg yolks, dairy, and shellfish for choline, selenium, and methionine
• Seasonal fruit for the carbohydrates that fuel Phase II detox reactions

The aim is to maintain a biochemical environment where the liver can process metals steadily and safely, rather than mobilising them without the means to escort them out.

4. Support slow and steady elimination

Heavy metals exit the body through well established routes...sweat, urine, bile, and stool. For detoxification to be safe, these pathways must be working efficiently before any attempt is made to mobilise stored metals. If elimination is sluggish, toxins can be reabsorbed and deposited in more vulnerable tissues, exactly what you’re trying to avoid.

Here’s how to keep each route clear and dependable:

• Sweat regularly: Engage in movement that raises your core temperature, use a sauna, or take hot baths. Sweating can remove measurable amounts of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Aim for gentle but consistent sessions rather than occasional extremes.
• Maintain daily bowel movements: Metals excreted in bile need to leave the body promptly via stool. Gut supportive foods, adequate hydration, and magnesium-rich foods (or magnesium baths) help keep transit time short and predictable. Constipation invites toxins back into circulation through the enterohepatic loop.
• Protect kidney function: Drink clean, mineral-rich water and maintain electrolyte balance (sodium, potassium, magnesium). Avoid chronic dehydration and excessive diuretics, which can strain the kidneys and slow filtration
• Support bile flow: Bitter greens like dandelion or rocket, and choline rich foods such as egg yolks, can help maintain bile production and flow, a key route for fat-soluble toxins and metals.

5. Rebuild mineral reserves

Toxic metals don’t just accumulate by chance, they often exploit deficiencies. Lead mimics calcium and takes its place in bone. Cadmium competes with zinc in enzymes and reproductive tissues. Mercury binds tightly to selenium, disrupting the enzymes that depend on it. When essential minerals are lacking, metals slip in and occupy their roles, but without performing the job.

Restoring mineral reserves gives the body the means to gradually displace these imposters. Over time, as the real minerals become consistently available, the body will swap out the toxic stand-ins for the nutrients it actually needs.

A mineral cheatsheet

• Zinc: Oysters, mussels, crab, beef, lamb, heart
• Calcium: Raw dairy, kefir, small fish with bones (sardines, anchovies), bone broth
• Selenium: Wild salmon, kidney, oysters, brazil nuts
• Magnesium: Cacao, heart,  figs, berries, mineral rich water
• Potassium: Potatoes, oranges, beetroot, bananas, cherries
• Iron: Liver, red meat, spleen, shellfish, egg yolks
• Copper: Liver, oysters, dark chocolate, duck
• Manganese: shellfish, whole grains (traditionally prepared), tea

What frustrates me most about the modern wellness world isn’t just that it gets detox wrong, it’s that it preys on fear. It takes genuine concerns and turns them into marketing hooks.

Wellness should be the opposite of that. It should make you feel more capable, more nourished, more in tune with your body’s own intelligence. It should respect the fact that the human body already knows how to repair itself, given the right environment, and that actual healing is often quiet, steady, and unremarkable to watch.

Since I’ve had my say, I’d love to hear yours... what wellness marketing scams annoy you the most?