Carol Vorderman's Detox for Life: The 28 Day Detox Diet and Beyond [Paperback]

To be fair I have never smoked, hardly drink (Christmas being one of the only exceptions and then limited to no more than a few glasses of wine), and have never built up a caffeine or chocolate addiction, so I suspect that may have a lot to do with it.

Apart from culinary boredom, in the early days I did have a curious sensation of feeling 'water-logged', which was probably something to do with the blandness of the general diet and the regular intake of mineral water. I also attempted walking four or five miles a week which was probably a long time coming!

I did manage to lose almost a stone in weight however, and without the usual lack of energy that most calorific diets leave you with. But as said elsewhere here, if you buy the supplements (and trust me veg and fruit alone soon has you clambering the walls) then be prepared for a hefty toll on your wallet! As an example this lunchtime I popped down to our local S****sbury's and after buying some rice bread, crispbreads, humous (aah, my new found friend :-) ), dried apricots, and a few sundry other items I was £20 the lighter ;-(.

I did a blood-sugar test at the weekend and it was extremely good (3.7), and I suspect if I carried out similar tests for cholestrol etc., the results would be equally impressive. That's what it is all about at the end of the day of course.

Now comes the hard bit. How much of this do I carry forward. Actually, I am extremely more conscientious about what I eat now, checking the ingredients of nearly everything, and that can't be a bad thing. I suspect that I will take a lot of the detox lessons on in my life and may even attempt the diet again this time next year, as recommended by the book (hence 'for life').

The book is very well written and beautifully designed. The recipies are excellent and there is a great deal of background information that helps a lot in understanding the processes, and nutrition in general. It is not badly priced - although could be a couple of pounds cheaper (much like the average reader!). I suspect, as is usually the case with celeb-endorsed diets etc., that the content of the book has more to do with the co-author than the gregarious Mrs Vordermann, but that has no bearing on the quality of the book in itself.

So in summary, if you ARE somebody who fills themselves with not-so-healthy substances on a regular basis then DEFINITELY buy this book. If like me however you live life reasonably healthily, but could do with losing some weight then I would recommend it for that alone.

Adam.

As you might imagine with a detox programme there is a lot you can't eat: no dairy, no sugar, no caffeine, no meat or fish and no products containing wheat. However - one thing the book is very good at is at suggesting alternatives. While rice milk might sound yucky you soon get used to having it with museli or porridge for breakfast and if you think you're really going to miss sandwiches for lunch - you can still have them but with rye bread or maybe oatcakes or rice cakes. If you love hummous you'll like this diet - it's actually recommended! You can also eat nuts, seeds (yes - sunflower seeds are okay actually!), dried fruit, fresh fruit, loads of vegetables. You can also have brown rice, wheat free pasta, quinoa (like couscous) and other filling food stuffs. The bonus is there is no counting and measuring. You don't count calories and you don't weigh portions. You eat until you are full and if you get hungry you can have a snack without guilt.

The book contains loads of recipes that you can make and has 28 days worth of menu suggestions which is useful if you're the sort of person who doesn't like to think about what to have for each meal and would rather have it spelt out for them.

There is a suggestion on supplements that you can take to help the detox such as kelp which supposedly helps metabolism and milk thistle that helps the liver detox.

Yes, I DID crave naughty things like chocolate and not so naughty things like salmon while I was on the detox and, like any other human, I did cheat every now and then! BUT...at the end of the 28 days I felt more full of energy, my skin looked clearer, my eyes looked brighter and I'd gone down from a size 18 to a size 16. Give it a go - it's only 28 days!!