Ah, the joys of the detox. Is it just me, or is an apple a day not enough any more to keep the doctor away? Or should that be five pieces of fruit? Maybe I should just give up. Except that now it’s January, it’s time for the annual cleansing of mind and body, not forgetting the soul of course, whose conscience, after all, is as much in need of its annual injection of virtue. Since I last wrote about the benefits of the detox, the ranks of sugary, processed cordials and concentrates have been superseded by a new era of smoothies, yoghurts, oils and teas, not to mention organic berry, root and powder-infused health drinks with disease-resistant, energy-giving, meal-replacing, life-enhancing claims.

What was once no more than a cottage industry has grown into a fully-fledged supplier of vitamins, minerals, fibres, proteins, phenolics, fatty acids and other nutrients and anti-oxidants as yet unmentioned or undiscovered. Supermarket shelves increasingly bark health claims at us, while the likes of Fresh and Wild, the Whole Foods Market and Daylesford Organics offer the full ‘health’ monty. At the Natural Kitchen in Marylebone High Street, (www.thenaturalkitchen.com), you can indulge in green teas, wheatgrass shots and fruit smoothies with extras such as goji berries, Romanian bee pollen, Hawaiian Spirulina Powder, New Zealand barley grass powder, organic Peruvian Macaroot powder and organic flax seed oil. Phew, give me a drink someone.

Those of us with juicers at home can smugly assert that there’s no need to go out and spend a fortune on the growing number of so-called health drinks now available. True, and I wouldn’t be without my own juicer, but being holier-than-thou about DIY juicing can’t disguise the fact that buying your fruit, juicing it and then, the worst part, cleaning out the messy gunk afterwards, can be three operations too many in a busy working day. At least that’s what the health drinks industry is counting on.

No recommendations for a January detox should overlook the best purifying agent of them all: water. With water on the brain, before Christmas I joined a panel, including two London restaurant sommeliers and two representatives from Thames Water, assembled by Decanter Magazine to see if competing claims by Thames Water and Claridges held water, as it were. Claridges had just announced that since ‘water is becoming like wine’, with different waters suiting different dishes, it was extending its wine list with a de luxe water list featuring 30 mineral water brands from around the world. These include 420 Volcanic from New Zealand at £21 a 42 cl. throw (£50 a litre), Danish water possibly dating back to the last Ice Age and the Italian brand Fiuggi, apparently favoured by the Pope. In response, a spokesman for Thames Water said that ‘our water is of the highest standard and costs less than a 10th of a penny per litre’.

The first thing this blind tasting proved was that tasting mineral water is not nearly as much fun as wine tasting. The differences are often so subtle that you have to have been shut away in a zen Buddhist monastery or as infallible as the Pope to be able to detect them. In the event, Thames tap water came a very respectable fourth out of the 24 different waters tasted. Although we were all asked to name which we thought was the tap water, and which the most expensive, no-one on the panel got either right. My top marks went to Speyside Glenlivet, £5.50, at Claridges, and Veen from Finland, £3.85, and my bottom, the 420 Volcanic, which came 18th overall. To the emperor’s new clothes add luxury mineral water then and leave the rest of us to enjoy good old H2o.

Something for the Weekend 5 January 2008 (and beyond?)

Happy Monkey Açai /Pomegranate Juice, £2.99, 1 litre, Whole Foods Market. www.wholefoodsmarket.co.uk

As a source of antioxidants, the Açai berry, used in herbal medicine in South American countries to treat various ailments, claims richness in B vitamins, minerals, fibre, protein and omega-3 fatty acids. This dark, murky purple liquid with bits floating in it certainly looks like it should be doing you a power of good while its sweet dark berry flavour with its hint of tea-leaf tastes fresh and wholesome.

Innocent Beetroot, Apples, Pears and Ginger Smoothie of the Month for January, 250 ml, £1.89, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. www.innocentdrinks.co.uk.

You don’t have to like beetroot to enjoy this vibrant thick ruby red concoction but it helps because there’s more than a hint of the sweet earthy borscht about this fresh smooth textured drink, whose ginger adds grace notes of spice to the affair. Its vitamins and fibre feel as if they’re cleansing the digestive system, but then I did go without my regulation morning coffee.

Sunraysia Pure Squeezed Organic Carrot Juice, £2.99, 750ml, Waitrose. www.sunraysia.co.uk

Appropriately garish reddish-orange colour for a carrot drink, and thick with carroty bits, there’s no mistaking the aroma and flavour which is fresh and rooty-fruity. Its claim – ‘free from concentrates, preservatives, artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners’ - is as an aid digestion through an acid neutralizing effect and natural richness in beta-carotene. As an enjoyable and refreshing drink in its own right, it feels as though it’s doing what it says on the tin.

Daylesford Sparkling Apple & Bilberry juice, £3.40, 750ml, Daylesford, near Kingham, Gloucestershire. 0800 083 1233, mail order. www.daylesfordorganic.com

Produced neat Nantes on the Atlantic side of France, this is not too sweet, refreshing and brightly fizzing ruby in the glass like a sparkling Australian shiraz. It tastes crisp, appley and berryishly tangy like a liquid version of a Rowntrees red fruit pastille. With its white foil and champagney look, you can almost imagine yourself drinking rosé fizz and feeling virtuous with it.

A Glass of Water

For any serious detozing, water is the simplest and best answer. As Thames Water showed at its recent run out with 23 mineral waters at the Decanter Magazine water tasting, pure, cleansing H2o came a respectable fourth, confirming Thames Water’s view that their water ‘is of the highest standard and costs less than a 10th of a penny per litre’.

Vittel, 59p, 1.5 litres, Tesco and other supermarkets,

At the same water tasting, France’s popular mineral water, Vittel came in a thoroughly creditable second place ahead of the entire Claridges’ de luxe water list (apart from New Zealand’s Waiwera, £9 for 50 cl., thank you) and other illustrious waters from around the world such as Bling H2o from the US, £20 a half-litre on Claridges list, and Aqua Deco, from Canada, £15 for 75 cl.