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What is a detox program?
A detox is a diet that claims to get rid of toxins from your body, help you use to lose weight, and improve your health. You should not detox your body, but instead support your body with healthy eating habits and maintain an active lifestyle.
Are detoxes and cleanses safe? Detoxification is an important part of your health, but you don’t need to follow any special detox diet programs. Your body has its own detox systems that work very well, and some popular programs might even do you more harm than good.
A detox is a diet that claims to get rid of toxins from your body, help you use to lose weight, and improve your health. There are lots of different detox programs, but most of them are a mix of fasting for one to a few days and sticking to a strict diet.
The diet usually includes fruits and vegetables, juices, and water, and strictly avoids some foods and ingredients like sugar, wheat, dairy, caffeine, and alcohol. Some programs focus on eating fresh and whole foods, and others offer a kit of powdered supplements, herbs, and processed foods. Detox diets are sometimes also called cleanses.
Detox programs also often include practices like:
- Sweating in a sauna
- Cleansing the colon with herbs, enemas, laxatives, or colon hydrotherapy
- Lowering environmental toxins by eating organic foods
- Oxygen therapy, for which you either wear an oxygen mask or go into a pressurized chamber and flood your body with oxygen
Do you need to detox?
The theory behind a detox diet is that removing toxins makes you healthier, but unless you have poisoning or your organs don’t work, this theory falls flat. You don’t need to detox or cleanse because your organs already do it for you.
It’s true that you encounter toxins every day, and you have toxins in your body. You get these from pollution in the environment, sometimes from germs or heavy metals in food, and from medications you take.
Your body produces its own toxins like lactic acid, urea, free radicals, and other waste products as it breaks down your food or medications and goes through its normal processes.
These are all normal, though, and you have a highly complex system that gets rid of this waste. Your organs convert toxins and get rid of them through urine, bowel movements, sweating, and breathing.
Of course, your ability to naturally detox depends on your environment, your genetics, and your health status. People who have kidney or liver disease, for example, might have trouble filtering waste and can become very sick quickly when toxins build up.
For healthy people, this isn’t a problem, and drinking juice doesn’t make the process work better. Doctors don’t treat liver disease with juice.
There’s also no good research that supports the prescription of a detox diet program. Some studies show you might lose some weight on a detox diet, but these benefits are temporary. As soon as you go back to eating regular food, you gain the weight back.
Other studies show that a detox diet might lower your blood pressure, but these studies have problems, which means the results aren’t certain.
Are detoxes and cleanses safe?
Detoxes and cleanses often mix good ideas with harmful dieting habits. For example, eating more fruits and vegetables or less sugar, processed food, and high-fat products is a good idea, but taking laxatives to lose weight is not. Some detox programs also incorporate unsafe ingredients and dieting practices.
Digestive problems
Lots of programs use herbs and laxatives to help cleanse the colon. These products are said to clean out old waste and make your digestive system work better. They can cause side effects, though, like cramping, bloating, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Fruit juices also have a lot of sugar and fructose, which can also give you diarrhea.
Diarrhea can lead to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance and can disrupt the balance of friendly bacteria in your gut. You might temporarily lose weight from flushing water and waste, but these products can harm your normal digestive function, especially if you use laxatives too often.
Damage from enemas and colonics
Enemas and colon hydrotherapy, also called colonics, are other popular detox methods. People often combine strict diets with these cleansing methods. Both of them involve putting fluids or gas into your rectum to empty your bowels.
These procedures aren’t new. People have been performing enemas for thousands of years, and your doctor might use them for medical reasons. Lots of people do these at home, though, which can be dangerous. You can inadvertently tear your rectum or intestine, damage tissue, get an infection, and disrupt the friendly bacteria in your gut, which leads to more harm than good.
Lack of nutrients
Detox diets severely restrict your food and calories. If you’re fasting or only drinking juice, you’re missing important nutrients like fatty acids, protein, and fiber.
Without food and enough calories to power your body, you might feel:
- Weak
- Tired
- Dizzy
- Lightheaded or faint
Damage to kidneys
Fruit or vegetable juices are often high in oxalates. These are compounds naturally found in plants. Some people have a hard time digesting and getting rid of oxalates, though, which can lead to kidney problems.
Interference with your medication
Like medications, your body has to break down, use, and get rid of supplements and herbs. Some products can interact with your medications and change the way they work or stop them from working. You should always talk to your pharmacist and a registered herbalist before you take any herbs or supplements.
Dangers to certain groups of people
Detox diets pose an especially high risk for some people, including people who are:
- Pregnant
- Breastfeeding
- Taking lots of medication
- Sick with serious diseases
- Living with eating disorders
Severe calorie and food restrictions also promote unhealthy eating habits and can worsen eating disorders.
QUESTION
What percentage of the human body is water?
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What to do instead
You don’t have to go to extreme lengths like a detox diet or cleanse to help your body. Instead, support your body with healthy eating habits and maintain an active lifestyle.
You should:
- Eat lots of fruits and vegetables
- Eat lean protein, legumes, nuts, and seeds
- Eat whole grains and low-fat dairy products
- Eat less sugar
- Stay hydrated with clean water
- Get 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise daily
If you feel unwell, have digestive problems, or struggle with your weight, don’t start an extreme diet. Instead, see your doctor.
