Q: Someone recommended the Master Cleansing Diet – 2 weeks of drinking water with lemon juice and maple syrup. What do you think?

A: I haven't tried the "Master Cleanse" yet personally, but I know many people who swear by it. In the version I know of, cayenne pepper is added.

My friends the PeaceWeavers conduct cleansing retreats in Bath, NY, so if you live near Corning or Ithaca and are curious, you can check them out at www.peaceweavers.com. They can probably guide you on conducting your own cleanse. There's a big business now in herbal cleansing products; some cleansing herbs are essentially toxins that force your digestive system to scream "help" and dump everything, while others are much more gentle and natural.

My feeling is, let me put clean food inside my body as a first step, and I'll deal with cleansing as a second step.

But as I said, I'm no expert. The best advertisement I know for cleansing was the Buddhist monk Bhante Dharmawara, who lived to 110 in amazingly good health. But he also meditated 4 hours a day…

There's a lot of scientifically validated info about fasting, which is a form of cleansing, I suppose. Check out Joel Fuhrman's book on Fasting and Eating for Health. Fascinating stuff.