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7-Day Detox Miracle, Revised 2nd Edition: Revitalize Your Mind and Body with This Safe and Effective Life-Enhancing Program
Rejuvenate and Refresh Your Body Starting Today!
There is an effective way to free yourself of chronic aches and pains, feel healthier, and be more energetic. It's called detoxification, a process that stimulates your body's natural ability to cleanse itself. Inside, you'll discover a simple seven-day detoxification program that will help you improve resistance to disease, normalize weight, and increase physical and mental stamina. Completely updated and revised, this edition features easy-to-prepare recipes, sample menu plans, and everything else you need to begin your new life of healthier living—today!
A Sample 7-day Home Detox Program
• Healthful diet of liquids, fresh fruits and vegetables, and rice
• Specific vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and herbs
• Home hydrotherapy and a one-week toxin-free lifestyle
• Healthier living
"Similar to an oil change for your car, the 7-Day Detox Miracle can clean and improve the filtering of your internal fluids in a way that produces immediate benefits in fighting disease." —Michael T. Murray, N.D., co-author, Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine
"This fine work again proves to me there is something 'miraculous' to be found in the time-honored precepts of naturopathic medicine." —Peter J. D'Adamo, N.D., author, Eat Right 4 Your Type
There is an effective way to free yourself of chronic aches and pains, feel healthier, and be more energetic. It's called detoxification, a process that stimulates your body's natural ability to cleanse itself. Inside, you'll discover a simple seven-day detoxification program that will help you improve resistance to disease, normalize weight, and increase physical and mental stamina. Completely updated and revised, this edition features easy-to-prepare recipes, sample menu plans, and everything else you need to begin your new life of healthier living—today!
A Sample 7-day Home Detox Program
• Healthful diet of liquids, fresh fruits and vegetables, and rice
• Specific vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and herbs
• Home hydrotherapy and a one-week toxin-free lifestyle
• Healthier living
"Similar to an oil change for your car, the 7-Day Detox Miracle can clean and improve the filtering of your internal fluids in a way that produces immediate benefits in fighting disease." —Michael T. Murray, N.D., co-author, Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine
"This fine work again proves to me there is something 'miraculous' to be found in the time-honored precepts of naturopathic medicine." —Peter J. D'Adamo, N.D., author, Eat Right 4 Your Type
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 27, 1999
41 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Peter Bennett
3 booksDr. Peter Bennett, N.D., RAc, DHANP, is a naturopathic physician and registered acupuncturist. He practices in Langley and Whistler, British Columbia.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 16, 2008
When I say that "I liked this book" I say it in the same way I would tell someone that "I really liked that article about the side effects of brain cancer" in that I found the author's perspective informative and easy to read. It is not meant to say that I found the subject matter fun to read about (although I'd imagine if you’re someone with a background in health you could enjoy it on that level). It can actually be a bit of a downer at the beginning. The authors spend a great deal of time drawing correlations between everyday substances and the ailments for which they’re allegedly responsible. I got to a point where I was shaking my head back and forth thinking to myself: “is anything out there not not bad for you?” Well, yes, there is: and it turns out the first thing on that list are beets, my least favorite food on the planet. It’s a credit to the authors that they could tell me that just about everything in the world is cancer causing, then tell me that one of the best ways to counteract that is to eat beets, and I didn’t throw this book right into the trash. But I read on and actually tried the diet on a few occasions. I have to say, it’s difficult, and I didn’t measure the chemical levels in my body to prove it was effective removing toxins, but it did make me feel better and, even if was just a placebo effect, I’ll take it. I’m not fanatical about their approach, but it helped reinforced my own philosophy on healthy living: everything in moderation.
March 31, 2018
This was required reading for class. Here follows my review.
1. What is the "Big Idea" of this book?
The Big Idea is twofold: We are “in-toxin-cated;” however, we can greatly improve our health by going through the steps to release those toxins from our bodies.
2. List three things you learned about detox and the Foundations from this book.
I learned that we need proper fatty acids for Phase 1 detoxification. That means that we need to not only be eating healthy fats, we need to be digesting them properly. Fatty acids are so important to health & I’m not terribly surprised that they’re crucial for detox. I’d say that this is probably one of the reasons why many people are so toxic; most people are misinformed about what healthy fats actually are. Bile production slows down when we eat poor-fat or low-fat diets, & that means we don’t properly break down the fats we do eat. Plus, most people in our culture are arguably so stressed out that they can’t get into a relaxed state for proper digestion to occur.
The second thing I learned ties into the first: Without proper bile production & release, we can’t bind toxins to expel them. Bile’s role in the body is not just to break down fats into fatty acids; it also binds toxins & helps to carry them out of the body.
That leads to the third thing I learned: Constipation results in the reabsorption of toxins carried by the bile. When the feces sits in the large intestine for too long, the bacteria living there are able to separate the toxins from the bile. This leads to them being reabsorbed through the thin membrane of the intestine.
All of this is to say that proper digestion is extremely important, & it’s responsible for more than just the uptake of nutrients. I don’t think our culture really thinks much of this, probably because we’ve normalized constipation. Bottom line: If you aren’t pooping on the daily, something needs to be addressed.
3. Did you find anything contradictory to the philosophy of this class?
Despite the decent information in the book, I did come across several statements that are contradictory to our own philosophies at NTA. One of the worst offenders? Saturated fat was lumped in with hydrogenated. Saturated fat has gotten a bad rap for years because of the erroneous assumption that it works the same as trans fats [hydrogenated fats] in the body. We now know that saturated fats from sources like properly raised animals & plants like coconut are healthful & even necessary for our bodies.
Following that, they said cholesterol is raised by eating saturated fats & I have lots of issues with this. First, our culture’s fat phobia has led to raised cholesterol. How? Well, cholesterol is a protective substance that our body needs. When we starve the body of cholesterol, it makes its own. The result? Not eating enough cholesterol results in the body making more of it while eating enough results in the body making less. Cholesterol has also been blamed for conditions like heart disease because it’s merely been spotted at the scene of the crime. Why? Because cholesterol is protective, it responds to inflammation in the body. Heart disease is an inflammatory disease, so cholesterol is present trying to fix the issue. It’s been wrongly blamed as the cause of the problem.
The authors seem to have a vegetarian slant, though they admit that people do need animal protein. At one point they said to make sure to eat meat that was “drug-free & grain-fed,” which seems like an oxymoron & possibly a typo. We know that the healthiest meat comes from the healthiest animals: those that are fed their natural diets while living in a suitable environment, like cows grazing on pasture [ie. not eating grains]. There typically isn’t a need for drugs in these types of animals since they are living healthy lifestyles.
At first, I found it strange that they recommend distilled water as it can strip the body of minerals. After a bit of Googling, I found that, according to Dr. Mercola, drinking distilled water can “only be recommended as a way of drawing poisons out of the body.” I still kind of feel that drinking distilled water would not be a great idea since it does cause the loss of minerals. Considering that there’s a two day fasting period in this program, it seems like we’d need proper mineral balance during those two days to not pass out. Just my opinion.
I also found their recommendations for low blood sugar to possibly be contradictory to our own as they suggested more fluids [with no mention of electrolytes], more rice, & a fruit shake before bed. Hypoglycemia tends to worsen when we eat even more carbohydrates, so I’m not sure what they’re going for here. I don’t know about you, but if I drank a fruit shake before bed I’d wake up shaking.
4. What are your thoughts/comments/perspectives about this book?
Let’s be honest: I almost threw the book across the room [read: across the upper level of the parking garage I was walking on during my lunch break] when I read “Eat a low-fat diet to prevent obesity” on page 112, but then I realized that would be unwise since the majority of the information in the book is good.
The book definitely helped me understand more of the nitty-gritty of Phases 1 & 2 detox. I may opt to try the program one day, but I haven’t decided. All in all, I think it’s a good resource for learning more about the detoxification process as well as what nutrients are essential for detoxification.
1. What is the "Big Idea" of this book?
The Big Idea is twofold: We are “in-toxin-cated;” however, we can greatly improve our health by going through the steps to release those toxins from our bodies.
2. List three things you learned about detox and the Foundations from this book.
I learned that we need proper fatty acids for Phase 1 detoxification. That means that we need to not only be eating healthy fats, we need to be digesting them properly. Fatty acids are so important to health & I’m not terribly surprised that they’re crucial for detox. I’d say that this is probably one of the reasons why many people are so toxic; most people are misinformed about what healthy fats actually are. Bile production slows down when we eat poor-fat or low-fat diets, & that means we don’t properly break down the fats we do eat. Plus, most people in our culture are arguably so stressed out that they can’t get into a relaxed state for proper digestion to occur.
The second thing I learned ties into the first: Without proper bile production & release, we can’t bind toxins to expel them. Bile’s role in the body is not just to break down fats into fatty acids; it also binds toxins & helps to carry them out of the body.
That leads to the third thing I learned: Constipation results in the reabsorption of toxins carried by the bile. When the feces sits in the large intestine for too long, the bacteria living there are able to separate the toxins from the bile. This leads to them being reabsorbed through the thin membrane of the intestine.
All of this is to say that proper digestion is extremely important, & it’s responsible for more than just the uptake of nutrients. I don’t think our culture really thinks much of this, probably because we’ve normalized constipation. Bottom line: If you aren’t pooping on the daily, something needs to be addressed.
3. Did you find anything contradictory to the philosophy of this class?
Despite the decent information in the book, I did come across several statements that are contradictory to our own philosophies at NTA. One of the worst offenders? Saturated fat was lumped in with hydrogenated. Saturated fat has gotten a bad rap for years because of the erroneous assumption that it works the same as trans fats [hydrogenated fats] in the body. We now know that saturated fats from sources like properly raised animals & plants like coconut are healthful & even necessary for our bodies.
Following that, they said cholesterol is raised by eating saturated fats & I have lots of issues with this. First, our culture’s fat phobia has led to raised cholesterol. How? Well, cholesterol is a protective substance that our body needs. When we starve the body of cholesterol, it makes its own. The result? Not eating enough cholesterol results in the body making more of it while eating enough results in the body making less. Cholesterol has also been blamed for conditions like heart disease because it’s merely been spotted at the scene of the crime. Why? Because cholesterol is protective, it responds to inflammation in the body. Heart disease is an inflammatory disease, so cholesterol is present trying to fix the issue. It’s been wrongly blamed as the cause of the problem.
The authors seem to have a vegetarian slant, though they admit that people do need animal protein. At one point they said to make sure to eat meat that was “drug-free & grain-fed,” which seems like an oxymoron & possibly a typo. We know that the healthiest meat comes from the healthiest animals: those that are fed their natural diets while living in a suitable environment, like cows grazing on pasture [ie. not eating grains]. There typically isn’t a need for drugs in these types of animals since they are living healthy lifestyles.
At first, I found it strange that they recommend distilled water as it can strip the body of minerals. After a bit of Googling, I found that, according to Dr. Mercola, drinking distilled water can “only be recommended as a way of drawing poisons out of the body.” I still kind of feel that drinking distilled water would not be a great idea since it does cause the loss of minerals. Considering that there’s a two day fasting period in this program, it seems like we’d need proper mineral balance during those two days to not pass out. Just my opinion.
I also found their recommendations for low blood sugar to possibly be contradictory to our own as they suggested more fluids [with no mention of electrolytes], more rice, & a fruit shake before bed. Hypoglycemia tends to worsen when we eat even more carbohydrates, so I’m not sure what they’re going for here. I don’t know about you, but if I drank a fruit shake before bed I’d wake up shaking.
4. What are your thoughts/comments/perspectives about this book?
Let’s be honest: I almost threw the book across the room [read: across the upper level of the parking garage I was walking on during my lunch break] when I read “Eat a low-fat diet to prevent obesity” on page 112, but then I realized that would be unwise since the majority of the information in the book is good.
The book definitely helped me understand more of the nitty-gritty of Phases 1 & 2 detox. I may opt to try the program one day, but I haven’t decided. All in all, I think it’s a good resource for learning more about the detoxification process as well as what nutrients are essential for detoxification.
September 20, 2011
We use this book often. It's a great point-of-reference. We try to detox as a family twice a year. Amazing how great we feel after we have been through this detox!
January 22, 2019
This book could be a helpful resource for anyone interested in learning more about the functional medicine approach to healthcare. Written by two naturopathic doctors in 2001, some things may feel slightly outdated—like for instance, their stance on saturated fat (bad) and eating grain-fed animals (good)—but 95% of the information still holds true in the holistic health community.
Toxicity as the root of all illness is the main topic of the book, and most of the chapters are dedicated to explaining the effects of toxins on the body, how certain lifestyle factors (stress, chemicals, food intolerances, heavy metals, negative thoughts, etc.) can contribute to dysfunction (and how to know if you're "in-toxin-cated"), and which nutrients promote detoxification and healing. The actual 7-day detox isn't laid out until Chapter 8, but it's pretty straightforward: two days of fasting, followed by five days of veggies, some fruits, and rice—on top of a personalized supplement plan, meditation, exercise, dry brushing, and hydrotherapy. The key is to obtain optimal circulation and elimination for ridding the body of toxins in a safe and effective way. Even though the book's title implies that the program is a "miracle detox," the authors iterate that some people (depending on the severity of their toxic load) may need to remain on the detox longer than a week to return to good health.
I found the book interesting, but after formally studying holistic nutrition for 14 months (and being interested in the topic for years), it was nothing I hadn't read/heard before. Still a good refresher though!
Toxicity as the root of all illness is the main topic of the book, and most of the chapters are dedicated to explaining the effects of toxins on the body, how certain lifestyle factors (stress, chemicals, food intolerances, heavy metals, negative thoughts, etc.) can contribute to dysfunction (and how to know if you're "in-toxin-cated"), and which nutrients promote detoxification and healing. The actual 7-day detox isn't laid out until Chapter 8, but it's pretty straightforward: two days of fasting, followed by five days of veggies, some fruits, and rice—on top of a personalized supplement plan, meditation, exercise, dry brushing, and hydrotherapy. The key is to obtain optimal circulation and elimination for ridding the body of toxins in a safe and effective way. Even though the book's title implies that the program is a "miracle detox," the authors iterate that some people (depending on the severity of their toxic load) may need to remain on the detox longer than a week to return to good health.
I found the book interesting, but after formally studying holistic nutrition for 14 months (and being interested in the topic for years), it was nothing I hadn't read/heard before. Still a good refresher though!
October 11, 2018
Author presents data and opinions in an easy to follow fashion. With only 2 days of water fasting and 5 days of rice, veggies, fruits, etc. this detox seems much more manageable than others. Ultimately health and detox books present different opinions and you have to find what’s best for you and what makes most sense for your situation. After reading many books on detoxification, what’s presented here seems legitimate and widely accepted by the health community. This book does suggest frequent sauna use while supplementing with minerals and I have found that helpful. Many other doctors suggest the same approach. Also adding minerals back in after 20 minutes of sweating in the sauna ameliorates most flu like symptoms that can hit one day after using the sauna. Trying this detox in about a week and will write a follow up review.
January 10, 2019
There were a few interesting points, HOWEVER there were too many points that contradicted each other in this book. The authors state that calories don't matter. If I ate the recommended diet for the detox (carbs, carbs, carbs, carbs) I would be a 400 lb woman at the end of the 7 days. They really push heavy metal poisoning, lots of blood tests and "their" research, retreat center, and products.
I would say avoid this book based on year published (since research is always older than publish date).
I would say avoid this book based on year published (since research is always older than publish date).
April 7, 2016
In the book the 7 day Detox Miracle, the main idea is to explain how we are exposed to toxins in our modern society. This book lists many I did not know about and explains ways our body tries to cope to remove them. The processes of how the body uses its natural detoxification are explained in detail. Also the 7 day procedure the author recommends is stated step by step. The different ways detoxification can be used are explored such as hydrotherapy, Antioxidants, and bile binding. Each system of the body is shown and how toxins affect it.
I learned many things in this book. One thing is that toxins can trigger many common health problems. Lead, mercury, or pesticides can cause chronic fatigue syndrome. Exposure to mercury and industrial pollutants can lead to Multiple Sclerosis. I found the chapter on the gallbladder very interesting. Constipation causes bacteria in the intestines splits the toxins bound in the bile and causes reabsorption of the poisons. I liked the instructions for what to do if you have gallstones. The chapter of laboratory testing shared many different tests for toxins in our system. I was not aware of intestinal permeability testing, organic acid analysis, and amino acid analysis.
I found many of the ways to detox were similar to those explained on the audio and video lectures. I did note that colonics and enemas were not used in this 7 day detox. The foods used in the book seemed in line with our nutritional instruction.
I enjoyed reading this book and found it very comprehensive to include anything you needed to know about detox. I liked the different chapters on body systems and the process of how detox works in the body. It was very well explained. This 7 day detox program seems very doable to use with a future client. I think this book would be overwhelming to have the client read, however. This book will be great to refer to later when I need to explain the detox process to my client. I can also use this book to define why certain steps of detox are needed to work.
I learned many things in this book. One thing is that toxins can trigger many common health problems. Lead, mercury, or pesticides can cause chronic fatigue syndrome. Exposure to mercury and industrial pollutants can lead to Multiple Sclerosis. I found the chapter on the gallbladder very interesting. Constipation causes bacteria in the intestines splits the toxins bound in the bile and causes reabsorption of the poisons. I liked the instructions for what to do if you have gallstones. The chapter of laboratory testing shared many different tests for toxins in our system. I was not aware of intestinal permeability testing, organic acid analysis, and amino acid analysis.
I found many of the ways to detox were similar to those explained on the audio and video lectures. I did note that colonics and enemas were not used in this 7 day detox. The foods used in the book seemed in line with our nutritional instruction.
I enjoyed reading this book and found it very comprehensive to include anything you needed to know about detox. I liked the different chapters on body systems and the process of how detox works in the body. It was very well explained. This 7 day detox program seems very doable to use with a future client. I think this book would be overwhelming to have the client read, however. This book will be great to refer to later when I need to explain the detox process to my client. I can also use this book to define why certain steps of detox are needed to work.
December 15, 2013
I have done this detox several times now, because it has helped me feel so much better! I have done it the "lazy way," just diet and supplements. I have also done this detox exactly as set out. I can tell you, if you really want to feel better, do the full program. I will continue to do this detox at least twice a year. My body definitely let's me know when it's time. I recommend this book frequently to friends and acquaintances.
March 4, 2008
I really enjoyed this book, and hope to apply this detox diet sometime in the near future. I enjoyed all of the information given in the book, the ideas for recipes, and found that with the basic guidelines it leaves a lot of room to find the best application for myself.
February 10, 2008
This is the most recommended book on doing a cleanse/detox. I'll be starting it in two weeks!
April 2, 2012
I will provide my review once I have complete the prescribed detoxification regiment.
August 18, 2014
Read for class. Just okay.
December 3, 2018
Sadly found this lacking in mechanisms of how the liver detoxifies, but then again that isn't really what this is meant to be about.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews