You can see millions of social media posts urging you to detox with different cleanses at the turn of the year. We agree that detoxification is essential, but we want to make sure you are doing healthy and effective detoxes. Most out there are just fads.
Juice Cleanses and the Master Cleanse
Juice cleanses, or liquid-only diets are the ultimate fad for detoxification. The idea behind juice cleanses is to flush out toxins from the body. Some juice cleanse plans involve nothing but drinking liquid throughout the duration, while others include food intake as a snack or meal. Time depends on each type of cleanse—some last for three days while others can last for three weeks.
The Master Cleanse, for example, involves people drinking 6-12 glasses daily of a mixture of lemon juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup, and water. The diet lasts for ten or more days and encourages bowel movement (due to saltwater and herbal laxative tea intake), which helps eliminate new and old waste.
#juicecleanse and the #mastercleanse are a good rest for digestion and help normalize your gut function. Because they are so low in calories, they can cause people to lose weight, which is often a goal of the person undergoing cleansing. Weight loss is excellent, but many toxicants are stored in fat, and when you lose fat, you mobilize those toxicants into the blood, where they can cause damage to the body if the liver and kidneys are detoxifying well enough. These cleanses do not supply the protein, nor necessary vitamins and minerals for the liver and kidneys to detoxify toxins released from the fat stores. They, therefore, can cause more trouble than health benefits. They stir up the pot of toxins and leave them nowhere to go, so they cause damage and oxidative stress.
It has already been discussed how vital protein and fiber intake are when providing aid to the body’s detoxification process. A daily supply of protein is required to build healthy immune cells and regenerate muscle (after a workout).
Consuming only fruit and vegetable-based juices for three days isn’t harmful to a healthy person, but a prolonged duration can cause people to fall sick due to deficient protein. Additionally, a juice cleanse doesn’t contain any fiber, which won’t keep you satisfied for long. Fiber also aids in detoxification, ensuring toxins don’t stay inside the body.
Ionic Foot Baths
These #footbaths claim to pull toxins out of your feet, as illustrated by the water changing color during the therapy. If these worked, I would use them every day, but studies have been done on the water before and after and found no release of #toxicants to cause the water change. In fact, running water through the bath without feet in it will also cause the watercolor to change.
Foot Patches or Stickers
Manufacturers of detox-based foot patches, stickers, and pads claim that these products extract or draw out #toxins from the body while the wearer is sleeping. Additionally, some even claim that the use of these detox products helps treat high blood pressure, headaches, cellulite, diabetes, depression, insomnia, and aid in weight loss.
However, there aren’t any scientific studies that have been published that show whether detox foot pads work or not. Some of the thickest skin on your body is on your feet, so it would be challenging to pull the toxins through all those layers of skin and be effective.
Not Everyone Should Detox. The world is a toxic place, filled with so many pollutants and toxicants that are harmful to health you would think EVERYONE would benefit from a detox. Everyone would benefit from detoxification if done correctly. The one group that should NOT #detoxify is pregnant and lactating women. I repeat: You do not want to detoxify while pregnant and lactating. For women of childbearing age, detoxifying before becoming pregnant can help decrease your baby’s exposure to toxicants and improve their health, if done long enough before conception.
People with a history of eating disorders, kidney failure, liver failure, and advanced cancer would benefit from detoxification. Still, they should do it under the care of a professional well trained in #detoxification and #environmentalmedicine
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