If one wants to follow the detox diet lot of food considerations as well as herbal medications have to be taken. Besides there are a number of detox methods available. These range from the mild and pleasurable like saunas, massages and body brushing to the extreme and unpleasant such as colonic irrigation, bowel enemas and fasting. Herbal supplements like milk thistle, detox drinks and ‘liver’ tonics are often recommended.

The idea is to purify and purge your body of all the "bad" stuff. Although the diets vary, most of them involve some version of a fast, that is, giving up food for a couple of days, and then gradually reintroducing certain foods into your diet. Many of these diets also encourage you to undergo colonic irrigation, otherwise known as an enema (an enema flushes out your rectum and colon using water), which is designed to "clean out" your colon. Still others recommend that you take herbal supplements to help the "purification" process. All said and done a whole dietary revamp is advised.

The foods allowed and banned can vary widely amongst different detox diets, but generally fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, herbal teas and massive amounts of water are allowed. In contrast, wheat, dairy, meat, fish, eggs, caffeine, alcohol, salt, sugar and processed foods – in fact, most of the foods that many of us love – are banned.As state above typically they involve 1 or 2 days on a completely liquid diet and another 4 or 5 days adding brown rice, fruit, and steamed vegetables (all organic) to the diet. After a week of eating only these foods, you gradually reintroduce other foods - except for red meat, wheat, sugar, eggs, and all prepackaged or junk foods - into your diet.

People on detox diets are also encouraged to chew their food thoroughly, to drink very little while eating, and to relax prior to each meal.