Question: Everyone’s doing it: Are detox diets effective?
The short answer: It depends on your goal
The explanation: If your goal in trying a detox diet is to reset your eating habits, it could help you jump start a clean-eating approach – replacing high-fat, sugary foods with healthier fruits and vegetables. But no diet that restricts your eating to a single food, such as a juice, should be done for more than a day or two and only after speaking with your health provider – especially if you have a pre-existing condition.
- If your goal is to “detox” – i.e., flush out the toxins and other substances in your body – it is unnecessary because your body does that naturally.
- If your goal is to lose weight, you may take off a pound or two, but you are likely to gain it back as soon as you stop, since most of what you lose will be water weight, not fat, so it will not be sustainable.
There can be some pros to a healthy cleanse, if what is consumed during the cleanse is healthier or has more vitamins and minerals, fruits, vegetables, etc. than you would regularly consume. It also can help a person with food sensitivities identify the cause of the issue, if eliminating a specific food (e.g., dairy or gluten) eases the issue and/or foods are added back to the diet singly to determine the point at which the issue returns.
However, there is very little scientific evidence to support detox, weight loss or other claims of cleanses, and you can be doing more harm to your body than good. This is particularly true if buying a detox/cleansing product on the market. Because such products do not require pre-market FDA approval, some have been found to contain hazardous hidden ingredients, make false claims, or be misbranded.
In short, maintaining a healthy diet is the best way to keep your body “cleansed” and nourished.
