Although the body can cleanse itself, detox diets may contain additional health benefits. Moreover, these diets are gaining popularity as it’s believed they eliminate harmful toxins from the body and cleanse the blood simultaneously. However, despite their benefits, there are still questions surrounding the diets’ effectiveness and what toxics they target specifically.
The Reason for Detox Dieting
The purpose of a detox diet is to act as a short-term intervention that works to eliminate toxins from the body. Typically, a detox plan involves a period of fasting followed by a strict intake of vegetables, fruits, fruit juices, and water. Sometimes, these diets include teas, herbs, supplements, and even colon cleanses to round them out.
To be precise, it’s believed that these diets can rest the organs through fasting by stimulating the liver to eliminate toxins through urine, feces, and sweat. Due to potential exposure to various toxins such as pollutants, heavy metals, and synthetic chemicals, dieters often recommend detox diets to provide healthy nutrients to the body. Besides removing toxins, detox diets may also help improve digestion, energy levels, and immune function while promoting weight loss at the same time.
Unclear Motives of the Detox Diet
Although dieters endorse detoxing for their health benefits, they still lack scientific evidence to support these claims. In fact, most research on detox diets is generally flawed and lacks clear effectiveness on their ability to work. Even with their appeal of providing health benefits, more research is needed to evaluate if detox diets truly impact people’s health for the better.
Ultimately, detox diets offer various approaches to cleanse the body such as full starvation fasts and ones with food modifications. Furthermore, there are various detox diets that people can try such as outright fasting, using dietary supplements, only consuming juices, and employing laxatives or enemas for colon cleaning. Depending on the chosen method, these diets may differ in duration and intensity, however, researchers are still debating their effectiveness as well.
Undetermined Role in Toxin Removal
So what toxins can detox diets eliminate? Well, researchers are still looking for an answer due to not knowing how these diets work exactly. To make things more complicated, researchers aren’t even sure if these diets actually remove any toxins at all. While the liver naturally neutralizes harmful substances to ensure their removal, it can be a challenge to eliminate certain chemicals.
Mainly, these harmful chemicals consist of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates, and other heavy metals. As a result, these chemicals may accumulate in the blood or fat tissue over time. Despite these concerns, companies have either removed or limited these compounds in their commercial products. However, the role these products play in removing toxins altogether is still unclear.
Short-Term Solutions to Weight Loss
Unfortunately, the scientific studies focused on the impact of detox dieting on weight loss are very few. Some people have stated that they’ve experienced rapid weight loss following a detox plan, but this can be due to carbohydrate and fluid depletion. In 2015, a study was conducted on Korean women who followed a lemon detox diet. By only consuming mixtures of lemon juice and organic syrups for a week, the study showed significant reductions in body weight and fat, BMI, and other metabolic markers.
However, this weight loss is usually short-lasting because of the severe calorie restrictions it recommends dieters to follow. Despite offering temporary metabolic benefits, these diet plans don’t maintain consistent weight management. This means people may find themselves quickly regaining their loss weight once the diet ends, making the whole diet plan worthless.
Side-Effects and Those At-Risk
For those who still want to try a detox, take into consideration the possible side effects that accompany it. Specifically, most detox diets may suggest fasting or severe calorie restrictions to find successful weight loss or cleansing of toxins. Following this diet plan can lead someone to become fatigued, and irritable, or give them short-term instances of bad breath. By doing prolonged fasting, dieters can suffer serious problems such as vitamin or mineral deficiencies, electrolyte imbalances, and even worse, death.
Dieters also risk overdosing with detoxing especially on supplements, diuretics, laxatives, and even water. What’s more? Many detox supplements and other products may lack a true scientific basis due to the detox industry not being properly monitored or regulated. In some cases, people risk overdosing simply because of inaccuracies on the labels of detox products, leading to moderate or even fatal health issues. Therefore, dieters should be cautious when embarking on any detox regimen by seeking information about a particular detox plan before starting.
Considering the health risks, certain individuals shouldn’t start any detox without discussing the issue with a doctor first. The people who are most at risk of these diets include older adults, adolescents, and individuals experiencing pregnancy and malnourishment. Additionally, people struggling or have a history of eating disorders or have diabetes and other blood sugar issues should consider seeking medical supervision before starting as well.
Final Thoughts
Although certain aspects of detox diets may improve one’s health, these benefits may be linked to something else. By moving away from processed foods and drinking more water, people may experience these health benefits without needing to follow a detox diet. Since the body has the ability to remove toxins naturally, simply eating healthier may improve your lifestyle more effectively.
Disclaimer: This article is intended simply to provide information. It does not replace the medical advice of a physician or other medical professional. Please speak with your doctor or therapist if you have any questions or concerns.
