A few years ago I felt very low on energy feeling lethargic and numb pretty much all the time. I’d seen my doctor several times, but each time was told that there was nothing medically wrong with me.

Over dinner one evening a herbalist friend of mine suggested I could do with going on a detox diet, and take some time to learn how to detox your body with a view to changing my eating habits. It sounded like a good idea, so figured it was a worthy investment of my time to at least check it out, and try to understand why alternative health therapists say it’s so popular and advocate following a detox diet and in particular the 1 week detox so avidly.

Something else she recommended I try was a detox foot patches. I have a foot spa two or three times a week now, if I have the time, if you don’t want to invest in a foot spa, those detox pads can do just as good a job – although your don’t get the relaxing foot massage at the same time

Here’s some healthy detox diet tips I discovered.

Make sure you drink plenty of water

Making sure you take in plenty of fluids is very important while you are following a detox diet as it will prevent the build up of toxins and man made chemicals in your body. It also helps to prevent constipation, improves concentration, and helps reduce the signs of aging by plumping up your skin. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water each day (about 2 liters), and a good bit more in hot weather or on your exercise days.

As a rough guide, 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. Keep your water at room temperature as it’s more refreshing that way. If the thought of drinking that much water is overbearing, try herbal teas as well – preferably loose leaf rather than tea bags. Green tea, horsetail, camomile and roibosch (or redbush) are particularly good as their essential oils 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?

If drinking 2 to 3 liters a day seems overpowering, it’s actually fairly easy when you know how. Start the day by drinking a glass of water with a little root ginger or some fresh lemon juice as soon as you get up – it’s the perfect way to start up your metabolism and bowel – then aim to drink little and often throughout the day.

Have a glass before each meal, try a glass of water and a herbal tea at elevensies, another glass when you get home from work and one more glass when you’re getting ready for bed. Don’t be afraid to “spice up” the water with a little lemon juice.

Eat Foods As Close To Their Natural State As Possible

This means choosing fresh food whenever possible and eating most of your fruit and vegetables raw, for example as snacks, crudites, salads, and juices. Raw fruits and veg are still full of all their natural enzymes, vitamins and minerals. If food is kept too long, or if it has been cooked or processed in any way, it kills the natural enzymes.

Try to buy your fruits and veg locally, preferably from farm shops and local markets- imported produce is usually harvested under ripe (so it will be short of it’s full vitamin and mineral supply) and will have lost much of its nutritional value during its journey to your supermarket.

Do You Need To Go Organic

You do not need to switch to a totally organic diet on a detox diet, as organic produce is normally higher priced than non organic equivalents, but if you can afford to stretch to buying a few organic products it will be a great help.

If you can’t buy many organic foods, don’t worry. All you need to worry about is eating enough fresh foods regardless of them being organic or not, rather than not get enough of them. Having said that, there are some very beneficial health reasons of having as much as possible of organic produce on a healthy detox diet.

Organic foods are free from artificial pesticides and sprays, which means they are very low or even free from toxins like man made chemicals and toxins. The practice of organic farming is very contentious due to the fact that there is evidence that the cumulative impact of toxins from man made chemicals and bug sprays may be related to a lot of the serious health issues we face today.

By comparison, organic foods are processed much less than non-organic. The big benefits of this are that they have no genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and free from artificial preservatives. And you may notice that organic foods also taste better and have much deeper flavors.