Skin diet - How to do it
How do you follow the 7-day skin diet?
Follow the diet for seven days and every morning drink a large glass of warm water with a squeeze of lemon juice (you can use bottled lemon juice), a very small pinch of paprika, a pinch of dried ginger or a slither of fresh ginger and a teaspoon of honey if you don't like the taste. Leave to stand for a minute or two so that the water is warm rather than hot. This drink will kick-start your metabolism, stimulate your circulation, which is great for the skin, and cleanse your digestive system. A cup of fennel tea before bed will help your digestive system clear out toxins too.
Swap your usual butter or margarine with an olive oil-based spread.
Drink eight glasses of water per day, tap water is fine. If you don't like plain water add a drop of lemon or lime juice.
If you're a vegetarian swap meat in your diet for soya pieces or tofu. See our meat-free recipes for inspiration.
You can also have two snacks per day at any time of the day - including red wine and dark chocolate! But don't have all your snacks in one go and if you go for the wine option don't have two glasses of wine on the same day.
What are the drawbacks?
The diet is high in fibre so you may feel a bit bloated or bunged up, but don't worry, keep on drinking the water and take a pro and pre-biotic to help your digestion, you can get these from Boots or other chemists.
You'll also have to give up caffeine, fizzy drinks, sweets and refined carbohydrates, so that's no regular tea and coffee and no white bread, white pasta, cakes or biscuits. You might find that you get a headache, but you can take painkillers and after a day or two you'll feel so great you'll wonder why you ever had these foods in the first place!
Snacks
Choose two different snacks each day!
A handful of Brazil nuts
Two large squares of dark chocolate
A small banana
A fruit and nut bliss ball
A small glass of red wine
A detox cocktail
A small bunch of red grapes
Low-fat plain yogurt with chopped apricots and nuts
A superfood smoothie
A handful of seeds (you can get big bags of toasted seeds in supermarkets)
By Louise O'Connell
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