14-Day Herbal Cleansing: A Step-By-Step Guide to All Natural Inner Cleaning Techniques for Increased Energy, Vitality and Beauty. - book reviews

14-Day Herbal Cleansing: A Step-by-Step Guide to All Natural Inner Cleansing Techniques for Increased Energy, Vitality and Beauty; Prentice Hall, 1998; 300 pages, paperback; $14.95

By Laurel Vukovic

In 14-Day Herbal Cleansing, Natural Health's Home Remedies columnist Laurel Vukovic lays out a detailed detoxification plan using not just herbs, as the title suggests, but also diet, exercise, hydrotherapy, massage, breathing exercises, and "detoxifying your thinking." Unlike many detox programs that involve Spartan fasting routines, Vukovic's program sports variety and surprises. It could even be fun.

Vukovic, who brings more than 20 years of experience using botanicals and natural therapies to this, her first book, devotes 45 pages to explaining how the body gets rid of wastes and toxins. She shows how the lungs, liver, kidneys, lymph system, and skin remove wastes, and then how diet, herbs, and exercises will speed this removal (like foot baths for lymph flow).

Herbal Cleansing is several books in one. Of course, it's an herbal. Vukovic shows how to prepare dozens of herb formulas--dandelion, nettle, and licorice, for example--known to expel noxious substances from the body and treat such problems as sluggish digestion and dandruff. It's a cookbook, too, with ideas for making "cleansing" recipes. I tried and liked the spinach with sesame seeds and garlic mashed potatoes. It's also a handbook of different natural therapies like hydrotherapy (pamper yourself in a hot bath laced with ginger, juniper, peppermint, and salts); a beauty book with recipes for skin toners and massage oils; and, not least of all, a mind-body book with directions for meditation and keeping a journal.

Even though she recommends you follow the program for 14 days, Vukovic says you can use it for any length of time, or even pick and choose the best parts. My favorite part was the "spa day" at home. Although some of 14-Day Herbal Cleansing is redundant and disorganized, it is filled with grounded advice that many readers are likely to follow not for days, but years.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group