I hadn’t until recently when I received an email asking me if I fancied trying it out. It came at a time when my headaches were at an all time high and my healthy eating was at an all time low. The idea is a simple one, three days of nutritious soups and broth to help cleanse and detox your digestive system, leaving you feeling so much better at the end of it.
Pep and Lekker is the brainchild of two ladies called Susan and Juliette. Sisters in law and best friends who set the company a few years ago as they felt other cleanses were a bit “lacking”. The name of the company comes from “Pep” as in energy and “Lekker” is the Dutch for great taste, pretty apt! Their thinking being that our bodies are bombarded with toxins on a daily basis, everything from pollutants in the air, to furniture polish in our homes, to the food we eat and they wanted to come up with a nutritious way to help the body cleanse itself of all those things.
In other words:
While our bodies can cope with toxins, we are not designed to deal with the ever-increasing number of chemicals in our environment – in food, furniture, cleaning products, cookware, beauty products, pollution, medicines and more. Most of us are simply taking in more toxins than we can clear, putting our health at risk.
Nutritional research shows that certain foods and nutrients may support the body’s natural detoxification processes and so being mindful of these and including them in your regular diet is recommended for overall health and wellbeing. Key foods and nutrients include beetroot, onions, garlic, broccoli, spinach, fresh herbs, turmeric, ginger, vitamins C, A, E, B vitamins, iron, zinc, copper, magnesium and more.
So how does it work? Well you either buy a three day, or five day cleanse and it comes will all you need to eat for those days. There are also options for an active cleanse or to do the cleanse in conjunction with the 5:2 diet.
There are three soups, one is beetroot based, one is butternut squash, and one is broccoli and spinach. All contain vitamins A E and C and other nutrients. There are also snack boxes of seedy nut bits that can be eaten straight from the box when you get peckish, or sprinkled on the soups as a healthier crouton. Along side the soups there is a broth made from vegetables that is great for in between meal snacking.
You do also need to drink at least a litre of water a day to flush all those nutrients out of your system.
I have to say as somebody who loves her food and mentally “needs to eat” I found this remarkably easy to do over the three days. I didn’t find myself going hungry at all. The only time I did really think “I need to have something crunchy to eat and I need it now” I grabbed an apple.
My skin at the end of the cleanse was so much clearer and I didn’t feel nearly as bloated as I usually do mid afternoon after a sandwich and a bag of crisps.
I loved it and can really see me doing this every couple of months to give my body a real boost of nutrients and vitamins. I might even start the new year doing it, you know when we get that after Christmas “oh my word I have just eaten my own body weight in a fortnight” feeling? This would be a great way to kick off a new year!