Not everything in food is beneficial, or usable, by the body. The rest is eliminated in faeces. Toxins taken into the body (e.g. caffeine, alcohol, drugs, pesticide residues, pollutants, etc.) must also be eliminated. However, not everything makes it out the other end. This will happen in everyone, though certain dietary habits may cause more retention. Such habits include: eating when not hungry, eating to excess, rushed eating, eating late at night and sleeping with undigested food, minimal chewing, too much heavy food, too much cooked food, too much processed food, too little water, irregular and incomplete bowel movements.

Toxins and undigested food are retained as layers of plaque on the walls of the intestine, hindering further digestion and elimination, and toxifying the blood. The liver and kidneys will become a little more stressed and a little more inefficient. Beneficial intestinal micro-organisms may suffer and harmful ones (e.g. Candida) may prosper. As this is the start in the chain of nutrition for every cell in the body, all else is affected.

Plaque has a similar consistency to vulcanised rubber (you will discover this during the cleanse). The average person walks around with kilos of the stuff. It will still be present in vegetarians, vegans, tee-totallers, those who fast regularly, those who perform enemas regularly, and just about every other dietary puritan.

Vague indicators include general suffering health, back pain and constipation (which includes incomplete elimination of faeces). However, the effects may be subtle and not conciously noticed.

Recognising the need to cleanse the intestines, different people choose different approaches. Some use self applied domestic enemas or professional "hydrotherapy" machines (where water is pumped into the colon under pressure). The cleanse detailed below has a different approach. It is based on a liquid diet regime for a few days, along with a formula to remove plaque and a saltwater solution to flush it away. Because the solution passes from the mouth, through the length of the intestines, more plaque is reached than with enemas (where water is taken up the rectum). It has advantages over colonic hydrotherapy and other treatments, since it can be performed without the need to go anywhere, or pay for a professional’s services (often quite expensive).

----Cleansing formula:

5 parts (Premium Grade) powdered/ crushed psyllium husks

3 parts Volcanic sand

[1 part Spirulina powder] - OPTIONAL

[1/2 part cloves powder] - OPTIONAL

Amount required: 3-4 slightly heaped teaspoons (tsp) per day of the cleanse.

----Saltwater solution:

2 slightly heaped tsp (coarse) sea salt

The fresh juice of 1-2 lemons (not store-bought preserved juice)

1 litre of water – at approximately body temperature.

Amount required: 1.5 litres (3 tsp salt) on first day; 2 litres (4 tsp each following day).

----Plenty of fresh (preferably homemade) fruit and vegetable juices. Chlorophyll (e.g. from spirulina or green vegetable juices, such as parsley, broccoli, spinach or wheatgrass) will help to detoxify the liver, making the cleanse more effective.

----[OPTIONAL] Micro-organisms (Lactobacillus and Bifido bacteria), enzymes and lactic acid. This can be obtained in a powder preparation from health food shops. E.g. "Inulac" is manufactured by Soria Natural.

----A bucket.

It is suggested that you take a kidney cleansing tea twice a day. You can also take a liver cleansing tea. This will prepare the organs for the flood of released toxins they will face during the cleanse.

Eat light food. Make a transition away from oily food, dairy products, heavy proteins (beans and pulses). Cut out meat and eggs completely. Avoid black and green tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate and cola, which all contain caffeine. Cut down on dairy products. Eat more (or entirely) raw food, especially leafy green vegetables and plenty of juicy fruits.

When the body has to expend less energy on digestion of new food, more energy can be spent on removing its backlog of toxins and waste.

On an empty stomach, between 4 to 7pm, take:

4 tablespoon (tbsp) olive oil (extra virgin, cold-pressed), mixed with

4 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed, not bought from a shop).

Wait at least half an hour before eating.

This softens up the intestinal lining. It can also be taken on the preceding day.

On an empty stomach, between 4 to 7pm, take:

1-2 heaped tbsp Glauber salts in a glass of water.

On an empty stomach, between 4 to 7pm, take:

3 tbsp castor oil (also known as ricin oil), mixed with

3 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed, not bought from a shop).

Wait at least half an hour before eating. This is also a laxative. Some people get a stronger reaction from the Glauber salts, and some from the castor oil. Once you know which is best for you, you won’t need to use the other one, if you cleanse again. You may, alternatively, try using a different laxative altogether.

A fruit-only supper would be beneficial.

Stop eating solid foods. Only fruit and vegetable juices and herbal teas. No milk. Fruit juices are easier to digest than vegetable juices and will give the system more of a rest.

If any solid faeces remain in the intestines, a laxative may be used again.

You will not be hungry after getting used to the regime. Your body will get all its nutritional requirements (e.g. spirulina contains just about every physical nutrient needed), but will merely be deprived of solids. Besides, the body has enough stores to function, even if given no more than water, for quite some time.

Get up early. Yoga postures and general movement is good to stir up bowel movement. Useful (Hatha) yoga postures include: Bellows posture (Bhaktrikasana), Peacock posture (Mayurasana), Twist posture (Matsyendrasana) and Wheel/ Bridge posture (Cakrasana). Also useful are: Shoulderstand posture (Sarvaungasana), Arm-and-Leg posture (Padahastasana), Bow/ Boat posture (Naokasana/ dhanurasana) and Hare posture (Shashaungasana). [Yoga Link]

Massage the intestinal area, while fully exhaled. Repeat a few times.

Stand up and place the hands on the thighs. Exhale fully and contract the stomach as hard as possible. Hold for a few seconds and repeat a few times.

7 am – Drink 1.5 litres of the saltwater solution, within half an hour.

The salt concentration will be too great for the intestinal wall to absorb. It will block any uptake and the solution will pass straight through, causing a whirlpool of movement as it goes. The concentration should be less than that which will induce vomitting. If you start to feel a little sick (some people do), stop drinking. Try adding more lemon juice to the solution. You may want to have a bucket close to hand, but try to keep it down and it will have to pass out the other end. It gets easier the next day. If the salt concentration was less, the solution would pass into the bladder, through the kidneys – not so good for you.

Move around. Massage (gently) again. Perform some simplified and gentle yoga (Twist, especially).

10 minutes after finishing the saltwater – Start drinking normal water (at body temperature). Drink between 2.5 and 4 litres, within one and a half hours – as much as possible within one hour.

The intestinal wall will still block all uptake and will not absorb this water. It will pass straight through. The switchover back to filtering water through the kidneys into the bladder will be noticeable after 1 to 2 hours. After this, there is no point in taking more water.

It is a lot of water to drink. Without making yourself feel sick, just keep gulping and gulping, building up the pressure in the bowels.

You will be running to and from the toilet a few times. Make sure you have unrestricted access to a toilet in your house – when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. Avoid wearing laungotas or clothing that will take a long time to remove. Any residual stools will be eliminated. Don’t look for plaque today.

Expect to feel a little tired and "washed out" in the head. This will go later, when you drink juice.

11am – Put a slightly heaped teaspoon of the cleansing formula into a cup. Add a little juice and stir well. Drink immediately – don’t wait for the psyllium to swell up. Follow with around 500ml of juice.

The volcanic sand (a fine powder, not like beach sand) gets into the tiniest nooks and cracks, scraping away plaque as it goes. It also soaks up toxins and holds them inside the pores within each grain.

The psyllium swells inside the intestine and acts as a rough sponge, to rub plaque away from the intestine wall. Neither the psyllium, nor the sand, can be digested. They simply remain on the intestine wall, untill flushed away, with the plaque, the next morning.

Liquids may be taken in the meantime.

2pm – Repeat the 11am procedure.

5pm – Repeat the 11am procedure.

8pm – Take a good nutritional drink, e.g. carrot and green vegetable juices, or fruit juice with 1 tsp of spirulina.

You may wish to add 1 tsp of micro-organism powder (see Resources), to replace the flushed intestinal flora. This will again be flushed out tomorrow, but may be of some benefit.

DAY TWO (the first plaque day)

Repeat the schedule of Day One, except take 2 litres of saltwater, instead of 1.5 litres.

Plaque should start to be removed. If you use a toilet, you will be unable to tell what and how much was inside you. Knowing this is quite important, so that you can witness the presence of the problem, and be motivated to cleanse your body of it.

You could defaecate into a bucket, then strain the contents through a colander. Alternatively, place the colander in your toilet bowl, to catch passing plaque. Spread the contents onto a tray, with a spatula or spoon, and see what’s there. You will probably find green-black lumps of rubbery solids. Some may look like pearl necklaces, showing the formation of the intestinal wall. Any yellowish, slimy strings that hang from the colander holes indicate Candida a yeast that commonly overuns beneficial microbes.

In the beginning, you will be eliminating the most recently laid down layer of plaque. This will be relatively soft. As you peel off successive layers, going further back in time, the plaque will become more hard and black.

Repeat the Day Two schedule for as many days as you wish. Don’t overdo it. You will be initiating a body detoxification. The liver and kidneys will take the opportunity to rid themselves of accumulated poisons. In a heavily toxified person, a prolonged detox could become very rapid, and could be potentially dangerous. Work at your own pace. You could do your first cleanse with only two plaque days. If you feel able, you could do a week. It is thought that a total of around 30 days, over a couple of years, is necessary to eliminate all plaque from an average person.

When you decide to finish, restart solid foods gradually. Your body will need a short time to get used to soilds again. Just have juice in the morning, then fruits (bananas are the easiest to digest, juicy pears are light, too). Move on to raw vegetables, and eventually back to your chosen diet. You may wish to keep taking the formula, just before meals, to keep faeces moving and to keep sponging the bowel walls.

For the next few days, take something to replace the lost intestinal flora of beneficial micro-organisms. If this is not done, the opportunity is there for harmful invaders to take over. You could take a powdered micro-organism preparation (see Resources), or natural live yoghurt, or natural live sauerkraut/ other fermented vegetables (avoid types containing vinegar or preservatives, highly processed or pasteurised/ heated varieties – perhaps better quality from a wholefoods or health food shop than a standard supermarket).

Remember to chew well (now and always) – chewing not only breaks up solid food into mush, but also mixes in saliva enzymes, which starts to digest the food before it even gets past the throat.

Increase you awareness of the food you eat and the way you eat. Eating in a hurry, when tense, or without proper chewing will hinder digestion. Rather than eliminating all wastes, the body with retain some as plaque. Meat, eggs, excessive dairy and excessive cooked oils will take their toll on the body.

Health starts with digestion. Health is digestion. What you put into your mouth, and how you deal with it, determines every bodily process that follows. You are what you eat. If your nutrition is not nourishing you, if you are carrying around poisons wherever you go, your body and mind will be affected. However, if you obtain the maximum goodness from your food, and eliminate the rest, everything will work together.

A liver cleanse may be done before or after the intestinal cleanse. It would perhaps be more effective afterwards, because of the extended liquid diet, but also more intense and perhaps nausea/ indigestion inducing, for the same reason.