There are innumerable means to protect your health along with detoxing your body. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, getting enough exercise and talking to a health consultant are fine examples. But have you considered what may be living in your system, counteracting all your hard effort?

The easiest way of eliminating these lurking, unnatural chemicals from your body is referred to as detoxification. Usually known as "doing a detox," many complementary health professionals advocate the process. Even they suggest that detoxing should be taken seriously and slowly. The traditional doctors however suggest that detoxifying your body needs to be taken with a serious grain of salt.

Before you start your detox, consult your doctor, as certain people could react badly, and pregnant and nursing women shouldn't detox. Since a healthy detox and its constituents don't suggest they can combat specific health conditions, they are not governed by the government and there is no scientific evidence of their effectiveness.

However a detox diet is abuzz and if you're looking to immerse yourself in the trend, here's an glimpse into this alternative remedy.

How long you follow your detox diet for varies. If you do it the right way, a healthy detox can get rid of toxic chemicals, residues and food additives from your system. You might have heard about the book called "The Fast Track One-Day Detox Diet" by Ann Louise Gittleman. In the book, Gittleman takes her readers through an 11 day detox program, during which they eat certain foods for seven days followed by a one-day fast, followed by the re-introduction of particular foods.

During the fast, dieters can drink Gittleman's scrumptious, spiced health boosting juice intended to avoid hunger pangs, supercharge metabolism, control blood sugar and eliminate toxins out of your body. The drink contains cranberry, lemon and orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

We weren't subjected to these matters many decades ago. Before the industrial revolution there were far fewer made up chemicals. Everyone is subjected to man made compounds in skin care products such as hand wash and makeup or even your running and shower water. The benefits of a detox to eliminate these toxins can be difficult to measure.

The toxins get stored in our body and they can inhibit weight loss, increase aging and cause sluggishness, chest problems and skin allergies. Some of the main components in almost every detox drinks are dandelion root and milk thistle, which help boost and invigorate your liver.

Every time you follow a healthy detox diet your liver gets a spring clean. This action also gives all your other organs a boost. They have much less work to do to process whatever junk that find their way in your body.

Most practitioners advocate a diet of raw fruit and vegetables for about 5 days, together with supplements and green tea. By giving your body basic foods that are easy on the digestion system, your body can concentrate on getting rid of the build up of toxins. It can take several hours to digest and process a burger, but a piece of fruit lakes less than 30 minutes to digest.

The raw fruits and vegetable detox diet program is an 11-day detox diet that concentrates on "liver detoxing" and "colon detoxing" foods. There are numerous books and detox products available on the topic that may include instructions, diet guidelines and supplement suggestions.

Detoxing is very beneficial but you will want to be geared up and committed to completing it. Toxins in the system accumulate over time, making early and regular detox beneficial.

The earlier you get on a detox diet, the healthier you'll be in the long run. Detox side effects could include deprivation headaches (if you drink caffeine drinks of any sort), skin breakouts and lethargy. You're releasing all the chemicals that were stacked away and they're now re-entering your bloodstream. You never really know how your body is likely to react.