Back in 2004 my health was bottoming out and I was feeling lethargic and numb pretty much all the time. I’d had several visits with my doctor, and every time I was told the same thing - you’re fine it must be stress.

Over dinner one evening a herbalist friend of mine suggested I would likely benefit from a detox diet, and take some time to learn how to detox and how my eating habits may be affecting my health. It sounded like a good idea, so I decided to learn all about it, and why so many alternative and complementary health practitioners recommend regular detox dieting and in particular the 7 day detox diet so avidly.

Another thing she suggested to me was to try a detox foot patch. I now treat myself to a foot massage at least once a week, if you don’t want to invest in a foot spa, the detox patches can be just as good - although your don’t get the relaxing foot massage at the same time

So here’s my top tips about how to detox your body.

Drink water or herbal teas

Making sure you take in plenty of fluids is very important while you are following a detox diet as it helps to eliminate water-soluble toxins from your body. Drinking plenty of water also has other health benefits like promoting regular bowel movements, helps your internal organs function more efficiently, and improves your complexion. On a normal day try to drink about 2 liters of water, and more when you exercise.

A general pointer is to for every hour that your exercise each day, drink an extra 2 glasses of water. Choose still mineral water, or tap water that has been filtered, or boiled and then cooled. Try to store your water at room temperature rather than in the fridge. If the thought of drinking that much water is overbearing, try herbal teas as well - loose leaf is better than tea bags as it hasn’t been processed as much. Peppermint, camomile, dandelion root, horsetail and yarrow are especially great in a detox as their hidden ingredients help the detox process. Roibosch and green tea has other health benefits too as it is rich in antioxidants.

How Can I Possibly Drink So Much?

Although drinking 8 big glasses of water a day seems hard, here’s a few tips that will help. Have a glass of water with a little freshly squeezed lemon juice or root ginger as soon as you get up - this is great for kick-starting your metabolism and bowel - then aim to drink little and often throughout the day.

Whenever you sit down to eat drink a galss of water first, a glass between meals, have another drink mid evening and perhaps a final glass of water last thing at night. Don’t be afraid to “spice up” the water with a little lemon juice.

The Fresher The Better

If possible you should be buying fresh food and juice or blend them for maximum benefit or just eat them raw, in salads or as snacks or appetizers. When raw, food still has all its enzymes and nutrients intact. If food is kept too long, or when it is cooked or preserved, it loses a lot of its nutritional value.

If at all possible buy from local farms or producers, preferably from farm shops and local markets Food imported internationally tends to be picked underripe (so it won’t have created all the nutrition of a fully ripened plant) and will have lost much of its nutritional value during its journey to your supermarket.

Organic Produce Is Better and Healthier

When detoxing, there’s no need to go completely organic, especially as the cost can be very high, but a little organic produce will go a long way to getting you started.

If you can’t buy many organic foods, don’t worry. It’s more important that you eat plentiful amounts of fresh foods, whether they are organic or not, rather than not get enough of them. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of health benefits to going organic on a healthy detox diet.

Organic foods are free from artificial pesticides and sprays, and therefore they are much healthier being free from toxins and man made chemicals. Organic farming is a hotly debated and controversial topic because there is evidence that the ‘cocktail’ effect of man made fertilizers and pesticides may be related to a lot of the serious health issues we face today.

Organic foods undergo minimal processing. Ultimately this means organic foods not genetically modified and are free from hydrogenated fats and artificial additives. On top of that, organic foods usually taste better too.