Detoxing is the most wonderful experience - clearing your body of all the toxins and impurities that can fill your body during the cold, wet, dismal winter months of the year.

It is not only a physical process of toxin removal that makes your body stronger, purer, more able to resist sickness and looking more radiant than ever but is also a mental process.

Like going for a run, giving up smoking or getting a new, better job there is a mental satisfaction, a pleasure and a buzz from doing something as positive and life-affirming as this.

You’ll be buzzing with physical and mental energy and ready to face the summer and all the pleasures it brings.

The summer detox diet involves cutting all those elements from your life that clog up your body or can cause it damage and instead filling it with goodness to power your body - possibly to even reverse any negative impact caused by the rubbish in your system.

Firstly, what should you cut from your diet to successfully detox?

Here are a list of popular items that you should avoid while undergoing a summer detox diet…

- Cigarettes
- Dairy products
- Fatty items such as cheeseburgers, fries, garlic bread, cake, biscuits etc.
- “Artificial” items - such as carbonated sugary drinks and ready meals
- Alcohol

OK so that short list actually makes up a huge percentage of the everyday diet of many people these days.

And for me at least a summer detox diet isn’t about starvation. It’s not about emptying your body of everything.

No, for me it’s about emptying your body of all the - pardon my French - “crap”.

By filling it up with the right things you’ll literally “push” the old stuff out, maintain your metabolism, give your body the energy it needs to function correctly, boost your immune system and reverse the negative effects any of the rubbish may have had.

So what do we replace all the banned substances with? The answer is foods that are light on the stomach, pass quickly and completely and ideally have other benefits such as boosting vitamin levels, the immune system plus those that fight cancer and free-radicals that can otherwise cause deterioration of your body.

And 90% of these agents are plant-based foods though the body also needs some protein to function properly so in contrast to many others I include limited amounts of tasty, low-fat meats to maintain the growth and repair that your body will be undergoing during a summer detox plan.

Here’s a partial list of some “authorized” foods…

Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Cranberries
Corn
Carrots
Wild-caught fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel etc.
Grapes
Parsnips
Swede

Try to maintain as much variety as possible, “grazing” throughout the day and cook them as little as possible to minimize nutrient loss or breakdown wherever possible.

For example consider eating carrots raw, and bake fish in tin foil to maintain their natural oils which will do you a power of good.

Lastly consider gentle exercise like walking or cycling which helps “force” the goodness around your body to even the hard-to-reach areas and if you want to go the whole nine yards with your summer detox diet then consider a colonic irrigation into the bargain.

Just don’t watch - you’ll be shocked and disgusted!!!