You’ve probably heard of the term detox. And maybe you have a vague idea of what it is, but surely if you ask someone you know, you could come up with different answers to what is detox.
Below you will find out what is detox, how this term crept into the fitness and wellness industry, what types of detox are mostly searched by people, and if you can successfully detox your body for fat loss or better health.
What Is Detox?
So what is detox? According to Lexico, it is simple:
- Detox is a process or period of time in which one abstains from or rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances; detoxification.
In other words, getting rid of the toxins in your body. Sounds simple, but it isn’t. A 2009 investigative report of 15 detox-program manufacturers found that the term “detox” was not defined in the same way in any of them.
The issue gets bigger when the word “toxin” is dissected. In the fitness and wellness industry, the term toxin is loosely defined and that is why one can see so many different types of detox plans disguised as diets, juices, or retreats. The term detoxification reminds everyone of getting rid of what is bad inside of one’s body and that can only be a good thing, right? Not necessarily.
How The Term Crept Into the Wellness and Fitness Industry
If we take into consideration the true meaning of detoxification, we can date back thousands of years ago. Ancient civilisations such as the Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese and Native American cultures practised some form of detoxification.
Still today we see ancient practices of detoxification, be it using herbal medicine or specific ingredients to expel toxins from the body.
Whether you trust it or not, detoxification was part of different cultures around the world and was the pillar of some cultures. To this day people travel to remote parts of the world to test non-traditional ways to be healthier which sometimes include a form of detox of one’s body.
But that’s not why you clicked on this article. You want to know about the juice detox or the diet that promises to cleanse your body. Ok, let’s talk about that.
Do You Really Need It?
Despite many different ways the industry throws at you that you can detox, do you really need to? The quick answer is no, according to a podcast interview with Dr Ryan Marino, a UH physician and toxicologist.
”The Main takeaway is no one needs to detox. And if you think you do, you should talk to a doctor about it. But there aren’t just toxins floating around in our bodies. And nothing that you buy over the counter is going to help with that.”
Add to that the investigative report mentioned earlier made with 15 detox-program. None of them could provide a clear-cut list of the harmful substances being eliminated. The off-the-shelf detox juice or diet is harmfully ambiguous and almost rarely has been tested for its safety or efficacy.
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When Do You Need It?
You will need to detox when you poison yourself with drugs or alcohol. In this case, you will do a medically approved detox, not a juice cleanse.
Standard medical detoxification involves ingesting activated charcoal to prevent swallowed chemicals from being absorbed from your gut into the bloodstream.
This type of detoxification is warranted only in case of acute poisoning and should be performed under medical supervision.
Most Common Detoxification Methods
Now that you know how detox is probably not what you are looking for, check out the most common ways you will find these “detox miracles” in pharmacies or drug stores.
We are excluding here detoxification therapies that consist mainly in eating healthier – such as vegetables, whole foods, and fruits – and supplementing with vitamins, minerals and fibres. These detoxes are healthy and sustainable, but the same cannot be said about commercial detox programs.
Studies on commercial detox programs or cleanses are very scarce. A review from 2015 said most studies suffer from small sample sizes, sampling bias, lack of control groups, reliance on self-report, and qualitative assessments rather than quantitative measurements.
One randomised controlled trial separated a group of women into following the Master Cleanse (a lemon-based diet) and a placebo group, but both ate only 400 calories per day. In the end, both groups lost weight and showed related health improvements with no difference between the groups. So the answer relied not on the lemon-based diet, but rather on the caloric restriction the women went through.
Most detox diets are highly restrictive eating lifestyles and difficult to maintain in the long term. Understand that commercial detoxes must be done in a short period of time and, probably, won’t get rid of your toxins.
The programs you can find online will normally be centred around one of these examples:
- Fasting (restricting when to eat food)
- Juice cleansing (drinking only beverages)
- Eating only certain foods (extreme restrictive diet)
- Using herbs
- Cleansing the colon (using laxatives or colon hydrotherapy)
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Detoxes for Weight Loss
As we mentioned earlier, unfortunately, people can mistake weight loss with fat loss and the wellness industry takes advantage of that.
A detox diet for weight loss will accomplish exactly what you want, but you probably will not be losing fat, but rather lean muscle and water retention, but worse even is that you will likely gain that weight back.
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Master Cleanse
The Master Cleanse is also known as the Lemonade Diet and was created by Tom Woloshyn when he published his book in 2007 titled The Complete Master Cleanse: A Step-by-Step Guide to Maximising the Benefits of the Lemonade Diet.
It comprises of ingesting 6 to 12 glasses of lemonade with maple syrup and cayenne pepper as your only sustenance. According to Woloshyn, it promotes “the elimination of every kind of disease.”
As explained earlier in a study from 2015, you will lose weight doing this detox diet, but it is unclear which diseases it eliminates if any – the weight loss is characterised by the very low-calorie intake of ingesting only this lemonade drink.
The website Healthline gave a score of 0.67 out of 5 due to being a diet high in sugar and lacking important food and nutrients for the functioning of the body.
The Rice Diet
Although it is called the rice diet, it is not just about eating rice and nothing else. However, this detoxification is highly restrictive.
The promise is that you will lose weight by slashing calories, sodium, fat, sugar and protein. In turn, the program promises you will “cleanse and detox your body” without making you feel hungry.
You are allowed to eat only fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-salt beans, and other lean proteins. The first phase allows ingesting only 800 calories, which is dangerously low for any human being.
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Detoxes for Health
Our kidneys and livers are the organs responsible for cleansing our bodies of toxins. So what about detox diets for health – the ones that help the liver or the colon, for example?
These kinds of detox, if not done at the end of the spectrum, can be helpful. Ingesting nutrients that improve the kidneys’ or the liver’s removal of toxic substances is welcome, although there is no scientific data to back up these claims.
These detox juices can be heavily made of apple cider vinegar, green tea, or lemon water. However, do not do these juice cleanses for too long. “If you’re on them too long, you’ll be missing out on important nutrients, which can put you at risk of malnutrition,” Keri Gans said, the owner of Keri Gans Nutrition in New York City and author of The Small Change Diet.
Why Does It Feel Like Detoxes Work?
If we don’t need detoxification the way it is presented to us in the drug store, why is it so popular? Because it feels like it works. People tend to see rapid weight loss, and removal of problematic foods, and there is the placebo effect. However, weight loss in this case does not necessarily mean fat loss.
As you’ve read above, most of these commercial detox cleanses are highly restrictive in what type of food you eat (if any) and how many calories you will ingest. By slashing down your calories significantly, you will undoubtedly lose weight fast and that is mostly what people see first, giving them the notion that the detoxification process is working.
Most of the weight loss during a detox phase is water, glycogen and muscle. You will gain some of that weight back as soon as you return to normal eating habits.
As with most things in life, if you want to see long-term results, you need to work for a longer period of time. Choose a new healthy lifestyle and stick to it – although you might not lose fat straight away, you will be fuelling your body properly to live a healthier life in the future.
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How to Safely Detox Your Body
If you want to detox your body, the safest way is not the fastest way. There are three things you can do now that will help your body get rid of toxins:
1. Decrease Exposure to Known Toxicants
- Reduce exposure to airborne pollutants – smoke, smog, chemical fumes
- Wear a face mask if you live in a smoggy area
- Buy organic food rather than conventional, if possible
- Wash thoroughly vegetables and fruits before ingesting them – cooking them could eliminate possible pesticides
2. Improve Your Liver
- Increase your sulforaphane composition by eating broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables
- Ingest liver health supplements supported by scientific evidence such as Milk Thistle, NAC, SAMe, or TUDCA.
3. Enhance Your Body’s Ability to Excrete Toxicants
- Ingest more fibre such as whole-wheat pasta, chickpeas, lentils, edamame and berries
- Sweat could help excrete heavy metals
- Eat rich and nutrient-dense meals to make your body work properly
Read More: Worst Diet Mistakes for Losing Fat
image sources
- Detox Featured: Lisa Hobbs / Unsplash
