Our bodies and minds are heavily laden with toxins due to bad diets and eating habits, negative feelings and aggressive actions.

Non-organic methods of farming have ruined the nutritional quality of much of our food.

Our mental toxins come from ego, greed, anger, possessiveness and lust or desires the five passions of the mind that burn the soul.

When we go away to a retreat in a spiritual and compassionate atmosphere and spend some quality time living on a simple diet of steamed vegetables, bread and rice, we experience a great feeling of lightness and happiness.

Ayurveda prescribes panchakarma a five-fold detox of body and mind which can be performed at home regularly to rid the body of toxins as they accumulate.

Try this simple regime and see if you can make it your lifes routine.

Once a week, observe a fast with a light diet. Sunday is a good day so you can prepare yourself for the next weeks onslaught.

In the morning, drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice made with sweet grapes, an apple, carrot and broccoli floret to which youve added diced fresh root of turmeric and ginger, fresh green coriander and mint leaves.

Add a dash of rock salt and black pepper to make a refreshing drink which will purify your liver, blood and brain cells.

Fresh turmeric or dry turmeric powder is a potent anti-cancer vegetable due to its curcumin and bioflavanoid content.

It also has natural antiseptic, anti-worm, anti-candida and anti-inflammatory properties.

Turmeric can help chronic skin diseases, liver disorders, intestinal problems, asthma and catarrah. Because of its anti-inflammatory effect, it can also help people with arthritis.

This is why it is used in Indian cooking and in Ayurvediv medicine formulations.

Fresh root turmeric is not poisonous, as some people believe. Indian people eat it regularly in salads or on its own.

As a light meal, Ayurveda recommends khitchri rice and split, green lentils cooked together with a touch of rock salt, cumin seeds, turmeric and coriander.

This is the lightest and most nutritious food with a detoxifying action.

Khitchri is best eaten with a yoghurt drink made by blending three tablespoons of fresh, live yoghurt with a glass of water added to which is one teaspoon each of dry cumin and coriander powder with a dash of black pepper and rock salt.

This is a cooling, cleansing and easily digestible drink.

Finish your detox with a gentle laxative herbal mix of trifala the three myrobalan fruits. They also cleanse the liver and blood.

Both turmeric and trifala help protect the liver from damage due to alchohol and hepatitis.