Safe Detox Home Diets

When deciding on a detox diet, the overarching goal is to improve your general health. Thus, it makes little sense to try to accomplish this goal through one of the extreme (yet popular) deprivation diets on the market. When it comes time to perform a detox, you need a plan that will promote both your long- and short-term health. What follows are general guidelines for healthy detox plans, along with two sample plans to help you get started.

Safe Detox Diets

Detox diets fall into one of two categories--reasonable and bizarre. When looking to perform a safe detox diet at home, you should easily be able to discern the difference between the two with the "gut reaction" test. In other words, if upon reading the plan, your gut reaction is "that sounds stupid," or something similar, the plan is likely not nutritionally sound.

A plan that calls for weeks of eating nothing and drinking only a mixture of lemonade and maple syrup, for example, clearly won't sustain health. Don't be seduced by an eccentric plan that promises miracles.

Fruit Flush Detox

Jay Robb's Fruit Flush detox is a three-day plan that is far more reasonable than many similar detox suggestions. Its relatively short duration means that your body will not be deprived of essential nutrients for long, and its suggested meal plan (protein, vegetables, and fruit) does not run too far afoul of the principles of a balanced diet. Thus, the fruit flush plan is a fairly safe detox to perform at home.

Following the Fruit Flush

To follow the fruit flush diet, purchase a commercial protein powder that is free of sugars and artificial flavorings. On the first day of the plan consume five protein shakes, with a solid meal for dinner (salad, chicken, and olive oil). During the second and third days you will subsist on nothing more than fruit and vegetables during the day, with a final "meal" of a salad, avocado (for healthy fats) and a protein shake at night. Although this is a low-calorie diet, it is only for three days, making it an ideal way to jumpstart a weight loss plan.

Vorderman Detox

British celebrity Carol Vorderman's detox is another reasonable plan, albeit for a substantially longer duration than Robb's three-day detox. The Vorderman plan is a restricted-food diet that lasts for 28 days. The plan aims to replace all unhealthy foods in your diet with healthier alternatives, promoting weight loss and a "natural" detox without resorting to starvation or any other means of nutritional deprivation.

Following the Vorderman Plan

To follow Vorderman's plan, simply remove the following foods from your diet: tea, coffee, dairy, processed foods, fried foods, alcohol, grains (breads, rice and pasta) and carbonated beverages. Instead, consume at least five servings of fruit and vegetables per day, drink at least 1.5 to 2 liters of water, and round out your diet with lean proteins and healthy, natural fats (like avocados).