Choose which week you plan to DeTox and mark it in your diary. This particular programme works well at the end of March and in early April when you can include the beneficial properties of fresh, young herbs and shoots such as parsley, sage, sorrel, Lambs lettuce, and nettle in your salads. This is the time of year when all these are bursting with energy-giving nutrients.

Getting started:
Morning: For the two days before your DeTox begins, start your day with the juice of half an organic lemon dissolved in a small glass of warm water. Half an hour later, juice equal parts of carrots and apples making enough to fill a half-pint glass. (Always juice your own fruits. Do not rely on a ready-made, shop-bought product.)

Mid-morning: Snack from a selection of unsulphured dried fruit, which you need to have soaked overnight in tepid water. You are also going to make a nutritious and detoxing drink by blending ground almond nuts (also pre-soaked for 24 hours) and coconut milk. Add the latter to suit your own taste.

In these initial, preparatory stages you can eat lunch as usual if you want to. It is probably better to skip it altogether and confine yourself to fresh fruit if you feel hungry again in the afternoon. Your evening meal should be as usual but avoid animal meats and animal by-products.

**You will be given the option of fresh fruit snacks between meals. Eat any fruit of your choice but for this particular detox, avoid citrus fruits, which have been shown to be the cause of hidden food intolerances in many people, particularly those prone to digestive disorders
 
Bedtime: About half an hour before bedtime, prepare an equal parts combination of carrot and celery juice to make about half a pint glass. Again, juice your own vegetables.

*At no time during this two-day preparation should you have caffeine in any form, refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, alcohol or any other form of stimulating beverage. Herbal teas are ok and you need to try and drink a minimum of 1.5 litres of still, filtered water. You will maintain this level of fluids throughout the detox plan.

Days 1, 2 & 3: Start your day with a half pint of warm water and then begin your fast, eating no food and drinking only water for each of the first three days. If you are new to fasting, this will play havoc with your taste buds but you will pleasantly surprised to discover you are not suffering from hunger pangs at all.

Day 4: You are now ready to return to part of the preparatory regimen, starting your day with the warm water and lemon. Allow a break of 30 minutes and then juice equal parts of carrots and apples. Pre-soak more unsulphured dried fruits and make the same almond nut and coconut milk blended drink for your mid-morning nourishment if you wish.
Otherwise, eat nothing until lunchtime.

Lunch: It is important to take the time and trouble to prepare this important first post-fasting lunch in advance.

Preparation:
*pre-soak a quarter of a cup of sprouted sesame seeds for 12 hours
*pre-soak half a cup of sprouted chickpeas for 24 hours
*pre-soak a quarter of a cup of celery seeds for 12 hours
*pre-soak a quarter of a cup of fenugreek seeds for 24 hours
*pre-soak half a cup of mung beans for 24 hours

Rinse all the above thoroughly to wash off any traces of tannins that may linger in some of the seed casings. Mix them in a large bowl and add grated, raw carrot, beetroot and cabbage. Toss with some fresh Lambs lettuce salad leaves and other fresh, young herbs to your own taste. Add a small amount of cold pressed virgin olive oil if desired. Because you have fasted for three days, you may find this salad too filling. Only eat what you can comfortably manage.

Do not eat again in the afternoon following this lunch but keep up your pure water intake. In the evening, eat fresh fruit and wait for an hour before eating some pre-soaked almonds and a little of the leftover lunchtime salad.  End your day with the carrot and celery juice you first made in the preparatory period before the fast.

Day 5: Start and end your day with the same juices as for Day 4. You may find you now want to interchange your morning dried fruit and blended coconut milk drink with lunch, omitting one of them. This is perfectly acceptable. You may not be eating much compared with your normal intake but it will seem very filling because of your long fast. If you have decided to skip your lunchtime salad, prepare a raw hummus to eat with fresh salad shoots and some sticks of celery in the evening.

Supper: Once again, you need to prepare the raw hummus in advance of your mealtime

*one cup of pre-soaked (24 hours) chickpeas
*half a cup of pre-soaked (12 hours) sesame seeds. You can, if you prefer, use organic tahini
*half a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice

Blend the chickpeas and sesame seeds (or tahini) into a creamy paste. You decide on the consistency that appeals to you. Finally, add the lemon juice and blend for another 30 seconds.

If you have opted for dried fruit only at lunchtime, then you must have a salad in the evening.

Day 6: Try and fast again. If this is too taxing, keep to the same regimen reducing the amount of salads, nuts and fruit you are eating but sticking to the exact same quantities of juices.

Day 7: On the last day of your week-long DeTox, you revert back to the eating patterns of the 4th and 5th days, eating as much or as little as you wish of these combinations of foods. Again, do not vary the quantities of the morning and bedtime juices.

To End: The idea is to ease back to your normal eating programme by keeping as much of the energy-giving and detoxifying foods from the previous week in your diet as you can face. Try even harder to keep the juicing going and make sure you are drinking 1.5 litres of water (in winter) and at least 2 litres in summer. It is also an excellent idea to now incorporate one day of fasting every week in your normal life. Choose your special day and stick to it. It can take several weeks for your body to adjust to their new routine but it will adapt and accept that for one day a week, the only thing it can expect it pure water.

The reason you eat so much fruit in this detox is that fruits help to cleanse the system. They have a high carbon content that “burns off” lingering debris in the body and should really only be eaten when ripe. Vegetables are the body-building nutrients. They have higher proportions of protein-building materials and less carbon than fruit.

If you are worried about fasting for the first time, do get professional advice. However, the body has its own neat biochemical mechanism for making sure you are not going to expire with hunger. To help during times of fasting, the body makes compounds called ketones, which automatically suppress the appetite. These are the broken-down products of fatty acids. When you fast, the body releases more of these substances into the bloodstream - which stops you from suffering the misery of hunger pangs. If you do not feel comfortable with a three-day fast, try just one day and adapt this plan to suit your own needs. For details of the body’s likely reactions, including a healing crisis, see the Detox Diet.

*For tailor-made fasting and detox programmes, consult a qualified nutritionist