What Is a Detox Diet?
The name sounds reassuring — everyone knows that anything toxic is bad for
you. Plus, these diets encourage you to eat natural foods and involve lots of water
and veggies — all stuff you know is good for you. You hear about celebrities
going on detox diets, and people who go into drug or alcohol rehabs are said to be
detoxing. So shouldn't a detox diet be a good bet?
Not really. Like many other fad diets, detox diets can have harmful side effects,
especially for teens.
A toxin is a chemical or poison that is known to have harmful effects on the body.
Toxins can come from food or water, from chemicals used to grow or prepare food, and
even from the air that we breathe. Our bodies process those toxins through organs
like the liver and kidneys and eliminate them in the form of sweat, urine, and feces.
Although detox diet theories have not been proven scientifically, the people who
support them believe that toxins don't always leave our bodies properly during the
elimination of waste. Instead, they think toxins hang around in our digestive, lymph,
and gastrointestinal systems as well as in our skin and hair causing problems like
tiredness, headaches, and nausea.
The basic idea behind detox diets is to temporarily give up certain kinds of foods
that are thought to contain toxins. The idea is to purify and purge the body of all
the "bad" stuff. But the truth is, the human body is designed to purify itself.
Detox diets vary. Most involve some version of a fast: that is, giving up food
for a couple of days and then gradually reintroducing certain foods into the diet.
Many of these diets also encourage people to have colonic irrigation or enemas to
"clean out" the colon. (An enema flushes out the rectum and colon using water.) Others
recommend that you take special teas or supplements to help the "purification" process.
There are lots of claims about what a detox diet can do, from preventing and curing
disease to giving people more energy or focus. Of course, eating a diet lower in fat
and added sugars and higher in fiber
can help many people feel healthier. But people who support detox diets claim that
this is because of the elimination of toxins. There's no scientific proof that these
diets help rid the body of toxins faster or that the elimination of toxins will make
you a healthier, more energetic person.