Ask HE: Are Cleanses and Detox Diets Safe?
Every day, our readers pose smart questions about nutrition and healthy eating in our article comments and on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. We try to answer as much as we can, but some questions are too important for just a short reply back. Many of the same questions crop up a lot, too. “Do cleanses and/or detox diets work?” is a popular one — especially this time of year when people are looking to rejuvenate and lose the added post-holiday weight.
Curious if a detox diet is the way to go? Here’s what we think.
Q: Are cleanses and detox diets safe?
A: Dieters beware.
Many of my clients are intrigued by detox diets and their promise to “flush” the body of toxins. Guess what? Your body does this naturally every day. Your digestive, circulatory and lymphatic systems take nutrients from the foods that you eat, deliver them to the proper places and dispose of the waste. Isn’t the body amazing?!
To date, there’s no sound evidence that detox programs work the wonders that “experts” claim. Sure, some folks manage to lose weight when they go on them, but that’s simply because they’re not allowed to eat much of anything and they’re flushing out water weight. Starving yourself causes symptoms such as headaches, vitamin and mineral deficiencies and plummeting energy levels (just to name a few).
Since this extremely restricted diet obviously can’t be maintained, the weight you lose almost always comes back. I’ve heard many people claim that they feel “so much better” after cleansing, but I would argue that this is because they’ve stopped eating junk food. So why not just switch to diet comprised only fresh, whole foods rather than forcing yourself to drink some kind of juice concoction (say, lemon water with cayenne pepper) all day long for several days, if not weeks?
Many cleanse and detox plans suggest the use of various herbal supplements and procedures such as enemas and colonics, too. Both can be very dangerous when not administered properly and herbal supplements may interfere with medications and have dangerous side effects. If you’re considering a cleanse or detox, definitely check with your doctor first.
Bottom line: Detox and cleansing diets don’t appear to be safe or very affective. The best way to really rid your body of junk is to not eat any. Exercise, proper hydration and a balanced diet will allow your body to cleanse itself and work at its best for the long haul.
- To read up some more on detox diets, check out some of our previous articles:
- Dangers of Liquid Detox Diets
- Are Detox Diets a Farce?
- The Real Deal on the Master Cleanse
- The Lowdown on Cleanse Diets
TELL US: Do you have any nutrition or cooking questions that you’d like us to answer? Share them in the comments and maybe yours will be featured in our upcoming “Ask HE” posts.
I started the Master Cleanse on the 1st.
Our digestive system needs a rest and fasting/cleanse/detox does the job well!
This information is baloney. Yes, your body is designed to process and eliminate toxins, but it doesn't work when you're on a diet of processed foods, which accounts for, I'd guess, 95% of all Americans. If you think that's an overstatement, the next time you go to the grocery store, notice how 95% of the floor space is taken up by processed food. Somebody's eating that stuff!
Not to mention the all the environmental toxins everyone's got in their body's these days. This is not being eliminated – studies show that there's no dispute about that.
This columnist doesn't know the first thing about detoxing.
Thanks for your comment, Stan. The point that Dana makes above is that if you switch to a consistently healthy diet of whole foods and fresh choices (none of the processed junk), then there's no need to go on these detox diets because your body is naturally set up to keep itself in working order. These detox diets are just spun as so-called quick fixes for losing weight and/or getting your body back in shape — when the reality is that your body doesn't need to get back in shape as long as you make smart choices all along (with the occasional indulgence) and don't overdo it on the "bad" food.
Wow. I always thought that the detox diets sounded off. It seemed pointless to me. Since I have been on a diet to control my blood suger and understand what is happening to the body when fasting, it seems even more dangerous. It doesn't take long, once you start making healthy choices and stay away from processed foods, to feel better, and that feeling lasts longer as you continue to make the healthy choices. Every once and a while I indulge in fast or frozen food and I feel the difference. I am quite happy to go back to my steel cut oats, fresh vegetables and homecooked meals.
Thanks for the great tip.
The Dr Max Powers "15 Day Cleanse" flatten my stomach and I am convinced helped me lose more weight even when I wasnt eating perfectly(stupid schwarma). Seven pounds in two weeks (tomorrow is my last day) is pretty darn good if you ask me. It's inexpensive which is also a plus.
Not everything you lose will be pure fat because thats not what this does it gets rid of the toxins,excess water and bloat and make your body run more efficiently which then makes it easier for to lose weight. I will definitely try the Dr Max 15 Day Cleanse again in 6 months. . .
The writer of this article is well informed and right on target. This is very wise advice. Anyone who says this is "baloney" is the one who is uninformed. If you care about your health — not just a flat stomach, you will listen to the writer and not some of these comments . "Dr." Max will be happy to take your money again in six months, but you will have regained those seven pounds long before that.
Is drinking your water with lemon juice healthy and does it cleanses you body?
I think the point they are trying to get across that if you eat a healthy balanced diet of fresh fruits, vegetables and lean proteins and hydrate with plenty of water there is no need to "detox". Often detox diets are used as a quick fix and to drop pounds when truly the solution is daily consistency with the food we put into our boddies in the first place. And lets not forget exercise.
I think using those types of items harm the body faster bc its a quick fix. Within months the weight is back, so whats the point of using them.????? Be natural and live healthy!!!!!!!
I tried an acai berry cleanse – taking 2 pills before sleep and 2 pills before eating in the morning.. WOAH!!!! That stuff cleansed me out in 3 days instead of the 10 day program. I do recommend using something like this for general maintenance of your gut health, but i don't see how one could sustain the "cleansing regiment" for many days in a row. Great for preventative maintenance and improving your bowel movement, don't think it works for losing weight.
Detox programs like acai berry cleanse is pie in the sky. You want to clean out your system use the mini fleet stool softener. Drink the whole bottle with 16oz of water. Takes about an hour and you are completely cleaned out. This what the doctors make you use the night before a colonoscopy.
A balance high fiber diet is all you need to maintain proper internal balance.
I Agree with live naturally and not healthy – but the Dr Max Powers 15 Day Cleanse really got me going also…it was 100% natural and I did keep the weight off!!!
Let us know how you feel and how you weight it after you return to your "normal" eating patterns.
In college (almost 30 years ago) I did nothing but fresh fruit for a week. This was for weight-loss, not a "cleans," but it probably did clean out my digestive tract – I don't remember that. The point was, it was a dreadfully hot summer, the Student Union was featuring local melons on the salad bar, and I had just awakened to the fact that I was about 40 lbs. overweight. This didn't magically remove all the weight; what it did, I think, was wash the taste for steam-table casseroles and fried stuff out of my mouth, making it MUCH EASIER to change to a healthy natural-foods diet. Note, this was fruit I was eating – full of fiber and requiring chewing, not juice with half the vitamins, etc., removed or herbal stuff of completely unknown ingredients. And, yes, I lost the 40 lbs. over the next two years, and have kept it off, with minor 5-lb. fluctuations in midwinter, ever since. I recommend fresh fruit to any/everyone, but I wouldn't touch the patent-medicine "cleanse" formulas with a barge pole.
Your liver cannot eliminate all of the 75,000 different chemicals that have been added to our food supply in the past 70 years, or the thousands of new toxins in our environment. It wasn't designed to handle that kind of load.
lol@ anyone who believes in a "cleanse"….take some laxative and save the rest of your money because about all cleanses are. Not consuming foods flushes your body of any water inside your muscles so the first week you will notice a 5-10lb weight difference and think your body is "cleaning" itself when in reality all you did was piss away all your water. Have fun gaining half if not all your weight back when you decided to consume food again