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Why Detox Diets Don’t Work

By SeanBissell | January 26, 2008

Hey everyone,

Today I decided to try the Web 2.0 thing so I made a video for you.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

P.S. I’m kind of new to the whole video thing, I’m sure I’ll get better over time :)

Here’s some clarification on the video (below)

Quote:
Detox proponents say the body is under constant assault from toxins such as smog, pesticides, artificial sweeteners, sugar, and alcohol. Without a periodic cleansing, these poisons accumulate in the body and cause headaches, fatigue, and a variety of chronic diseases.

But the science behind the detox theory is deeply flawed, says Peter Pressman, MD, an internal medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The body already has multiple systems in place — including the liver, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract — that do a perfectly good job of eliminating toxins from the body within hours of consumption.

“There’s no evidence at all that any of these approaches augment the body’s own mechanisms,” Pressman tells WebMD.

Source:

Detox Diets: Purging The Myths

Quote:
MYTH #2: “Fasting is a good way to cleanse my body of impurities
and toxins.”

FACT: Actually, fasting can cause a build-up of toxic substances in the body.
Toxins such as ammonia and ketones are released when your body’s fat tissue
or protein stores are used as an energy source when carbohydrate is not available.

Thus, the concentration of toxins in the blood could increase significantly
over a short period of time due to fasting. The best way to control the level of toxins in your body is to consume a wide variety of foods and drink plenty of water. Make sure you include fruits and vegetables and high fibre foods.

Source:

http://students.sfu.ca/health/pdf/de…et%20myths.pdf

My comments:

These toxins (ammonia and ketones) stored in your body are normal and they would still be stored in your body even if you were on a “perfect” diet.

Lots of detox diets simply put you on a really low calorie diet which just crashes your body, makes you release a bunch of “bad stuff” in your system, and also drop a bunch of water weight, glycogen, and muscle.

People think detox diets work because they see the scale weight drop from losing muscle, water, and glycogen.

And they feel bad, so they think they’re flushing toxins.

What they don’t realize is that they feel bad because they are hurting themselves.

And what’s worse is that their metabolism can slow down drastically from these types of diets.

I think it’s unhealthy and unnecessary.

Until next time,

-Sean

Topics: Uncategorized |

2 Responses to “Why Detox Diets Don’t Work”

  1. Lucas Says:
    March 22nd, 2008 at 10:16 pm

    Sean,

    I totally appreciate where you are coming with this from a physical standpoint. What about the mental and motivational standpoint? As you know, I water fasted for 24 days in January and you are right, I felt bad. For the first week. After that I felt phenomenal. My sense of smell was amazing, my energy levels were at 95% and most importantly I had a massive shift about what I was putting into my body, and my eating habits and the eating habits of others especially. It was transforming in a spiritualistic kind of way.

    Not to mention that I lost 22lbs to go along with that. Now, sure you may think that is unhealthy, yet I have not gained any of it back. In fact, I lost 5 more lbs. I was stimulated and motivated in a way that no other diet or program has done for me before, because it was a true, huge paradigm shift.

    Sure, these detox diets might be phony on a physical, measurable level, but I believe that most results come from a shift in perspective and thinking, something the scientific world really doesn’t account for.

    Keep up the good work!

    -Lucas

  2. OnlineMLM Says:
    April 15th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    I’m not sold on detox. There is a whole industry around it, but they need to do a better job of selling before I’ll cleanse my colon.

Comments