Dear Reader, let me tell you a true story about how detoxification can go wrong… When I first heard about a cleansing diet in the ’70s I thought it sounded like just the thing for me. I had fought my weight all my life. I was tired all the time (probably from all the crazy diets I went on to lose weight), and I felt “toxic,” constantly getting fever blisters, bladder infections and yeast infections. I had dull hair, poor skin texture, peeling feet and breaking nails. Detoxification seemed like it would solve of lot of health problems.
The trouble was, I had almost no idea how to go about it. But I had some enthusiastic friends who were detoxing, too, so I started on what was essentially a 5 food diet—cabbage, lettuce with a little salad dressing, apples, oranges, peanut butter (for protein), and a few whole wheat crackers occasionally.
I was delighted with my weight loss (I averaged about 90 pounds for my 5 foot frame). I decided to keep detoxing, even though my friends had long since stopped. I rarely ate other things; and this went on for several years. My detox had gone too far… to the point that I was becoming anorexic. I honestly didn’t realize it, but my body was going into major malnutrition decline.
Today with everything I know about nutrition, I know this type of diet is not a cleansing diet. It’s a prescription for terrible health. All I saw was that I was finally thin, but I was too thin. At one of my lowest points after being released from the hospital for a life threatening infection, I weighed only 69 pounds! I finally saw it was time for a major change or I wasn’t going to make it. I was blessed to have the support of caring family and friends to help carry me through the process.
I read everything I could find on natural healing and herbal remedies. I got serious about healthy eating and started formulating herbal formulas to bring my body back to health. It took many many months for me to recover, put on weight, regain strength and learn new healthy eating habits. But it slowly began to happen. I could see a new me emerging, with curly hair, and a better skin tone and texture than I had before the illness. My circulation returned; my energy levels grew stronger than ever before. The healing and the experience changed my life, and I made the decision to dedicate my career to the study and practice of natural health.
One of the reasons I wanted to write this book was to pass along all I’ve learned about how healthy detoxification really works. A healthy detox program is a targeted diet that both cleanses the body and infuses it with essential nutrients. This book contains over 28 healthy detox programs. I’ve designed and refined the programs over many years and each plan has years of success behind it. You can have every confidence that the recommendations outlined in this book have been used and found to be safe and effective, in some cases by thousands of people.
To your best health,